Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that waste is one of the most severe issues of the 21st century. However, unlike most people think, plastic is not the only issue. In fact, it turns out that organic waste is wasting a lot of resources and thus causing a lot of damage to our environment. As such, we want to use this article to ensure you get properly acquainted with the topic. Thus, we’ll first look at some examples of organic waste. Then, we’ll tell you how you can help reduce the amount of organic waste. And finally, you’ll learn how to collect organic waste correctly and thus minimize its negative environmental impact.
Examples of organic waste
When we hear the word “organic”, most of us think of nature and, thus, natural materials. And this is a good guideline. However, the details of what counts as organic waste depend on the method used to collect this kind of waste. For instance, looking at examples of organic waste, food scraps often come to mind. And while there’s no doubt that food scraps are organic, there are some limitations to how we can dispose of them.
So, if your municipal waste collecting services include a separate container for organic waste, you need to make sure to ask them for more details. Not only should they list examples of organic waste that you can collect in those bins, but they will definitely provide you with a detailed list of what things should not be put in the organic waste municipal containers. However, we assure you that no inorganic waste is allowed in municipal bio containers. So, please ensure not to collect your organic waste in plastic bags. Plastic bags in organic waste containers compromise the entire batch.
On the other hand, if we focus on examples of organic waste in composting, there are also some restrictions. For example, open-air composting that uses traditional composting piles is suitable for most organic materials. However, you shouldn’t add meat scraps, bones, dairy products, grease, and cooked food to your traditional composting piles. As you can see, this is quite limiting. However, luckily, there’s another more robust composting method available - bokashi composting.
Examples of organic waste and bokashi composting
When we focus on this fermentation method of dealing with organic waste, the spectrum of examples of organic waste becomes much broader. Thanks to the acidic environment, bokashi composting is able to handle most organic materials. This and the fact that it can be used inside the kitchen makes it the best way to handle food leftovers. As such, bokashi composting bins can handle materials like banana peels, citruses, cooked food, dairy products, eggshells, fruit, meat, onions, seaweed, walnut leaves, and even wool.
However, it still has some limitations. So, you still need to find another way to dispose of liquid waste (water, oil, vinegar, juice, milk, etc.) and larger bones. Though for the latter, you can chop them into smaller pieces, and then bokashi fermentation will be able to handle them. Moreover, you should also avoid disposing of ashes, animal feces, and paper in bokashi bins.
Now that we’ve covered some examples of organic waste, it’s time you learn how to reduce organic waste.
How to reduce organic waste
If you are environmentally conscious, you’ve probably heard of the 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. This is also the order in which we must apply them. As such, our initial concern and focus should be on reducing organic waste, no matter what examples of organic waste you deal with. However, for most households, the majority of organic waste comes from food waste. Hence, the following tips can really make a huge difference:
- Avoid buying huge amounts of groceries, especially food with short shelf life.
- Before throwing any food, think twice if there’s really no way you could use it.
- Use a shopping list and stick to it.
- Make sure to store food and groceries properly.
- Having a weekly menu can introduce a lot of clarity and help you buy the food that you will actually use.
- Make sure to prepare only the food that you will actually eat. Keep in mind that it’s also healthy for us to eat only up until we are 80 % full. Normally, the things that are healthy for the environment are also healthy for humans.
- You can take things to the next level and have a journal where you note what type of food went bad. Then use these notes to adjust your shopping habits.
- If you have some extra food that might go bad, make sure to freeze it and use it on some other occasion.
How to collect organic waste correctly
When discussing the examples of organic waste above, we already pointed out that there are different ways to collect them. In fact, the collection type already dictates what are considered to be good or bad examples of organic waste. Moreover, above, we’ve also mentioned the bokashi composting method, which is the most effective and the most user-friendly way to collect food craps properly. Even if you are disposing of your organic waste in municipal containers, using high-quality bokashi bins enables you to reduce your organic waste volume by 25%.
Furthermore, you can combine your indoor composters with your outdoor composting. After 14 days, your indoor composter will turn your food waste into pre-compost (fermented mass), which you can add to your traditional composter. Of course, you can also dig your fermented mass into the soil. So, all you need to collect your organic waste properly is an airtight and durable indoor composter, such as Bokashi Organko Essential or Bokashi Organko 2.
By collecting your kitchen waste properly, you will also get bokashi composting’s side product - fermentation liquid, also known as bokashi juice. The latter can be used as a natural drain cleaner or diluted in a 1:200 ratio with water to serve as a natural fertilizer for your plants.
If you want to learn more about the bokashi method and how it can help us ensure that food waste stays in the loop, make sure to enroll in the Bokashi Academy.