Have you ever thought about what one weeks of food scraps looks like? Chances are you haven’t given it much thought. Unless you live in Seattle, where compost is lunch time conversation. I’m a gardener and so I know all about compost, but until I moved to Seattle, I wasn’t well versed in the intricate details of food decay. Or why it even mattered that we recycle our food rather than tossing it into the garbage with the rest of the things we fail to recycle.
In Seattle, it is normal for families to have a compost tub next to the garbage can and the recycling tub. Yep, we do all three. And the awesome thing about is the trash truck picks it all up from your curb without any effort from you. No need to load up last weeks pizza, broccoli and banana peels into a bag in the back of the car where you might forget about it until the smell of rotten food and the colony of unclassified bacteria sprout up and drag it to the nearest recycling spot to rid yourself of the guilt of wasting food while patting yourself on the back for doing a good deed. Setting it out on the curb is much better, and soooooo Seattle!
So, what does a year’s worth of food look like for the average family? Why it looks just like this: (brace yourself, it’s not pretty!)
Just for fun, lets get an up close and personal look because …, well, why not?