by Wonder Worman | Nov 26, 2010 | Red Wiggler World
It’s been so cold in Bend! Last week, our daytime highs were in the 20’s and the night time lows were in the negative single digits. Not only were we blasted with winter temperatures, Mother Nature also granted us 6 inches of snow. The kids enjoyed the snow and weren’t phased by the arctic temperatures. They made a really cute snowman with Carlos and loved pelting each other with snowballs. I’m not to sure how the Red Wigglers felt about this unseasonably cold weather. I’m going to check on them and the Sunchips bag today and will record all of my data for my ongoing experiment. It will be a quick visit because there is a nice layer of snow on the top of the worm bins, and I don’t want to expose them to the outside temperature for too long. That wouldn’t be too nice to blast them with cold air…yuck. Be back in a bit!
by Wonder Worman | Nov 19, 2010 | Less in the Landfill, Out and About
Members of Deschutes Recycling and St.Charles Health Care Center and me! I got to wear a vest, too!!!
Today, I had the coolest opportunity to visit the Deschutes Recycling Compost Facility housed at the Knott Landfill! I loved every single minute of the visit and couldn’t stop the smile from shining the whole, entire time! There’s something so inspiring and motivating to see composting on such a massive level.
This week, I had a meeting with members of St. Charles Health Care Center to talk about their planned community garden and learn more about their pre and post consumer waste which is being collected by Deschutes Recycling. I was fascinated by the composting program and asked if I could tag along on their visit to the composting facility. I had to see it in action. Their set-up is truly amazing.
Brown and Green waste ready to be moved to the next phase of the composting process.
On the composting site, the food waste travels to 4 areas before it is ready to be usable compost for your gardens. (Carlos took amazing video footage and will be edited sometime soon!) This photo shows the compost moving from the 2nd phase to the 3rd phase. This is a mixture of brown and green organic waste. You can see the brown waste on the bottom and the green food waste in the middle and a bit of brown on the top. The drop box also has black tubes inserted to pump in air so aerobic decomposition occurs. This process takes about 30 days and temperatures reach about 130F which kills the pathogens in the compost.
Can you find the white sprout?
Here’s a close up of the compost. They are doing a terrific job keeping it aerated. A sure sign of aerobic decomposition is the smell it gives off while breaking down. This batch has an earthy smell. Good Job Deschutes! This will then move to a windrow to continue decomposing and then move to the screening process to remove any pieces that didn’t compost, such as large pieces of bone.
There are only 2 facilities participating in this food composting program on a commercial level. Soon, Deschutes Recycling will continue to provide this service to many more commercial businesses in Deschutes County. Very cool, very cool indeed!
Happy Wormin’
by Wonder Worman | Nov 18, 2010 | Less in the Landfill, Red Wiggler World
Can you see the bag? Look for the blue spots
Today marks the first week of my SunChips compostable bag experiment. These updates will be brief without any fluff and stuff. My format will be more scientific and less opinionated!
I. Title: The SunChips Compostable Bag Experiment.
II. Purpose: To test the compostability of the SunChips bag. Will it compost in a worm bin in 13 weeks, using the correct amount of browns and greens?
III. Prediction: I believe the bag will break down into usable compost in 21 weeks. (I loved when I was 21! Oh, that summer at college was amazing!). I just picked that number out of my as%, just knowing it will be longer than 13 because SunChips recommends the hot composting method over the cold vermicomposting method. 21 just sounds like a good # and the movie wasn’t too bad either! The book was better!
IV. Materials: Wonder Worman Bin, about 2lbs of Red Wigglers, a bunch of food scraps, a bunch of leaves, some peat moss, some shredded newspaper and about 30 compostable plates. Those plates are still there since July, but they are slowly breaking down. I will be tearing them up before December. I gave those suckers 4 months (16 weeks) to do it themselves. I think they need some of my help. Oh, I almost forgot and ONE SUNCHIPS bag!
V. Procedure: Cover the SunChips bag with the bedding mixture and let is decompose with the help of the various decomposers that inhabit a Wonder Wormin bin. Did you know there are more than Red Wigglers in a bin? That’s saved for another post.
Bag in the bin. The plates are removed for better viewing.
VI. Observations and Data: When the SunChips bag was first put into the bin on 11/10, the bin’s temperature was 60F. On 11/18 the temperature was 58F. When uncovering the bedding and looking at the bag, without taking it out of it’s place, the bag looked as it did at the initial start of the experiment.
It looks like things aren’t happening……… BUT WAIT!!!!
Look there's a rip in the bag!
The bag ripped when I took it out of the bin! This is a sign. The bag is breaking down on some molecular level! I think……I have no idea, but for it to rip when I gently lifted it to take a picture, something must be breaking down within the bag!
VII. Discussion: Anyone want to discuss with me???? more later…
Happy Wormin’
