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South Korea is composting its way to sustainability
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- neonate 7y agohttps://archive.md/nswgx https://archive.md/nswgx
- wyxuan 7y agoSeems similar to the approach used in palo alto, minus the RFID tech since you can directly put into the recycling bin. I think just having a bin there for you to use works as a reminder to use it as a compost bin, no need for criminality or fines.
- ehnto 7y agoBins and human nature are a surprisingly interesting topic. I would not draw the same conclusion as you did for where I live. Having the bin there would prompt -some- to use it, and they would probably use it wrong. Uncompostables in the compost bin and so on. It always boggles my mind how otherwise intelligent people in my life arrive at our colour coded bins, with clearly marked instructions on the lid, and choose instead to use their trusty intuition to sort the trash.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoWe've had food waste bins in my area (Oxfordshire, UK) for nearly a decade now. As far as I can see it works really well, nearly everybody uses it.
- Arnt 7y agoThat may or may mean that it works. The usage later on may be more or less tolerant of what people actually put in the bins. Here, a lot of people throw food waste in plastic bags in the bins, which works about as well as you think. There are people who spend Monday to Friday fishing around around in the compost by hand, fishing out and emptying the bags. More thoughtful people throw food waste in compostable bags in the bins, but those bags aren't quite compostable enough (the city composts for six weeks, those bags need twelve at the very least) so those bags, too, have to be fished out by hand. It works. I imagine the cost could be lower and those poor people could be employed in less soul-crushing work.
- Firadeoclus 7y agoWhere I live, the guidance is actually that plastic bags are ok (yes, non-biodegradable ones). Given that there is bound to be a certain amount of contamination, including things that are harder to break down than the process allows, I would imagine that mechanical separation is accepted as a required part of the process.
- Arnt 7y agoYes. I'm curious though — do you happen to know the end result of the process? The compost makes earth, which can be used for something. Mechanical separation leaves bits of torn plastic bags, whose number is a function of the amount of plastic in the input and the effiency of the separation. What "something" have they found that tolerates so much plastic that they don't have to push down on the plastic in the input?
- jamil7 7y agoI have a green bin in my kitchen with an airfilter that I line with old newspapers or paperbags from bread or veggies and just dump food scraps directly into that and then into my apartments foodscrap bin. You need to wash the bin out occasionally but works pretty well without needing plastic liners.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoIt's automated, 120 tons of food waste per day. See https://youtu.be/QX5MU_IrNZ4 https://youtu.be/QX5MU_IrNZ4
- rjsw 7y agoI get the feeling that some people put things in the wrong bins deliberately "to annoy the silly greenies".
- ptah 7y agoi'm looking at getting worm composting going for food scraps. being vegan means i can feed all my food scraps to the worms
- adrianN 7y agoAre those worms then edible?
- BiteCode_dev 7y agoI tried it and it has been very disappointing: - the worms are very fragile, so they must no be too cold, too hot, having not enough food or too much of it or they die - it supposed to be able to be inside, with no fly. But having no fly requires a very balanced PH, so if you mess up, you're gonna have a bad time - it's slow. In the summer, I eat so much fresh vegetables and fruits the worms can't keep up. Eventually I gave up. The 2 setup that worked for me were: - I'm in a flat, but the gov have a composting spot for the whole street. Common in Germany, very handy. - I'm in a house with a garden, then I just have a big pile to compost things outside, no worms required. It's simple, no-maintenance, and handle up to 10 people green trash in the summer in the source of France.
- jamil7 7y agoWe're also in germany and we're looking into this, how big is your household? was it too cold in your apartment during winter for them?
- James_Henry 7y agoComposting is great. One thing to note though is that compostable food containers potentially not great because of the PFAS which could get into the water supply and potentially make its way into plants. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190529084838.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190529084838.h...
- 11235813213455 7y agoI eat tons of fruits (currently mandarines) and I don't know if it's a good thing but, instead of throwing the skins in the bin, I cut the skins in smaller pieces, and scatter them in the nature. It seems to degrade quite fast, it loses its bright color quickly at least
- BlameKaneda 7y agoI like that idea, but I work in an office (I'm sure a significant chunk of HN users do as well) and don't know how I'd be able to scatter fruity pieces during my lunch break. There are a few courtyard parks close to where I work, but the cleaning staff might complain that I'm making a mess. And wonder what I'm doing.
- cyxxon 7y agoIn the outdoor hiking community the "leave no trace behind" movement warns to not leave this otherwise obvious biodegradable trash behind. It is usually not native to the area, or too much for nature to absorb, or might contain pesticides, or... it is probably okayish to leave stuff like that behind in areas where there is a lot of human presence, but outside in the real wilderness it is not recommended.
- pcurve 7y agoYes! We do this with pretty much all vegetable, fruits, onion peels, egg shells, etc. Of course some fruits skin don't compost at all. Like watermelon skin, pineapple leaves and skin, but you can definitely cut down on trash.
- asdfman123 7y agoThis headline sounds really dark given the coronavirus outbreak.
- hnarn 7y agoI think that interpretation says more about your own mental state.
- asdfman123 7y agoI'm not arguing with you there.
- durkie 7y agoIf you're interested in learning more about this, the movie Wasted! (one of Anthony Bourdain's last appearances before his death: https://www.wastedfilm.com/ https://www.wastedfilm.com/) has interesting perspectives on handling food waste around the world. The segment on composting in South Korea is really cool, but the one on Japan is really neat: they initially started diverting food waste and using it as hog feed, which was a great way to divert it from the landfill. This then blossomed in to a desire for pigs that had been fed only a certain type of waste, so you can now purchase pork that was mainly fed leftovers from pineapples, or pork that was mainly fed leftovers from sake production, and it's created a whole separate boutique pork industry.