green | born.in.japan

We are apartment dwellers. Urban apartment dwellers doing our very best to live lightly on this earth. Aside from reducing the trash we produce by being cognizant of what we buy, we also try to reduce the amount that hits the bin by composting our food waste.

Composting?

Apartment?

City?

Do these things really go together? Sure they do! If you have a worm bin! While you can buy some fancy systems and set-ups, you really only need a few things to make one of your own.

Materials

2 – 70 quart rubbermaid tubs, one with a lid
Power drill with small and large bits
Bedding
Water
Red Wiggler Worms
Food Scraps

Directions

Buy your two rubbermaid tubs. You’ll only need one of the lids.

Using a larger drill bit, drill bunches of holes through the lid of the tub. There needs to be plenty of circulation.

With the larger bit, again, drill a line of holes about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom of one of the tubs. This will be the bottom tub and will be used to catch any drainage. The holes will help the drainage vent and evaporate, though you will have to empty this bottom tub from time-to-time.

On the second tub, the one without any holes yet, use a small drill bit to cover the bottom of the tub with drainage holes. You’ll want the holes to be big enough to allow moisture to pass without encouraging the worms to escape. I used the smallest bit in our set and made lots of holes.

Nest the two tubs. On the bottom is the drainage tub with the line of holes around the bottom, next is the tub with all the holes on the bottom, then the lid with holes goes on top.

Fill the tub with bedding. You can use shredded newspaper, egg cartons, paper grocery sacks, dried leaves. Stay away from shiny and glossy papers, worms don’t like those!

Moisten the bedding. You don’t want it to be sopping wet, you don’t want it to be dry. Remember, you can always add a little more water later.

Add food scraps to one side of the bin. I feed our worms all the food scraps we’ve collected on a weekly basis, alternating sides. This works for us. You’ll find a system that works for your family. Here’s a nice list of things that worms like and don’t like.

Bury the food scraps with the bedding and add the worms. You can order red wigglers online. I used worms from our other worm bin. With the amount of composting we do we are switching from a one-bin system to a two-bin system. The worms will expand and reproduce to respond to the amount of food waste you give them. Each week that I do a feed, I am always amazed to find that they really have, in fact, eaten our garbage.

Not only is this a really great way to compost in an apartment-setting; it isn’t stinky, honest. It is also a really fun way to let toddlers explore and investigate. Ewan is fascinated when he comes with to feed the worms and loves to check out the happenings. I’m really looking forward to watching him become even more involved as he grows and looking forward to the many conversations we’ll have about how the whole thing works.

A while back, I believe it was through Shivaya Naturals, I heard about a new challenge going on for this new year. It’s called One Small Change. The basic premise of the project is that each month, between now and Earth Day, participants choose one small change they’d like to make in order to be more green.

This is actually a difficult one for me. I already feel that we do so many things. Looking through the list of ideas on the site made that even more obvious.

Recycle (do it), use cloth napkins (yup), try cloth diapering (already there), replace your bulbs with LED or CFL bulbs (one to go), turn off your lights (pretty good about this), use natural cleaning products or make your own (done and done), drive your car less (don’t on a vehicle), buy a hybrid, turn your thermostat down (don’t control our heat), use the sun to warm your home through passive solar heat, bring your own bags to the store (usually, although we frequently reuse the paper sacks for things like wrapping), install a low flow shower head, stop buying bottled water (never started), unplug it (could be better), bring more plants into your home (current count – 0), always print double sided (hubby brings home scrap from work), when getting rid of things consider freecycle, craigslist or ebay (do not throw out as someone else is surely able to get some use out of it), support local farms and try to eat local (meat csa members, eagerly anticipating spring csa season), purchase wind power if it is available in your area, purchase products made with natural materials and that can be reused, purchase recycled paper products, use rags instead of paper towels to clean up messes (got that), use reusable lunch sacks, buy organic (already do), landscape responsibly by reducing the use of water needed (landscaping, what landscaping), donate time and/or money to green efforts, elimate the use of toilet paper by using family cloths (hmmmm….), don’t flush every time (already do, or is it don’t), put a brick or something heavy it he back of your toilet so it uses less water when flushed (our toilet has no tank).

As you can see from my annotations, there are already so many things we do. So many efforts we make to reduce our footprint on this precious earth of ours. So many ways that we go above and beyond, not even because we necessarily think about it, but because it is the way we are.

That being said, there is more to do. There is more that can be done. There is more that will be done.

For starters, this year I would like to reduce the number of disposable plastic ziploc-style bags that we use, and pitch, around here. During the month of January I would like to make a few reusable, washable, bags to use for lunches and snacks (maybe like this or this). Additionally, I would like to make a bigger effort to wash (hate doing this) the plastic bags that we do use.

It is a small change, but that’s the point isn’t it? I’ll let you know how it goes.

born.in.japan

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Make a Worm Bin

One Small Change