Ending and Beginning

M works in an institutional kitchen. That kitchen makes an effort to do the right thing by composting the voluminous vegetable wastes they produce and growing some of their own food.

However, M told me today that that effort is run by volunteers, and stops in the Winter. So for 5 months or so, all their vegetable scraps go to the landfill. What a waste!

I don’t blame them, and I’m not passing judgment. I know that composting in the Winter is difficult and time-consuming. I made some additions to the compost pile today, and what with the temperature being in the low 20s (°F), and cleaning out the buckets afterwards, and just moving through the deep snow, it was no fun. And if I feel so strongly about it, why don’t I volunteer to do it?

But still, that just goes to show you the shallowness of the effort to recycle and create a sustainable food system, even at an institution that, in general, cares about environmental and social issues. If it mattered enough to the higher-ups at that institution, composting would happen all year round.

This entry was posted on 20 December 2009 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Composting, Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.