To compost or not to compost?

After years of procrastination, we have arrived at our answer

To compost or not to compost? This question would occassionally resurface in our conversations for a few years now.

First, we wondered if compost would attract cocroaches.

Then we were worried that compost could attract mice and rats.

After that we were sure that compost would make our garden stink.

All these dillemas were not stopping us from feeling guilty and apologetic towards Mother Earth every time we were throwing food scraps into the rubbish bin.

In the meantime our friends started composting like mad. Composting developed to be one of the most popular subjects of converstions at all birthday parties we attended.

Party converstions were evolving towards more advanced subjects such as worm farms, fertilizing gardens with manure, and so on. We were listening quietly.

One day we gave in to peer pressure (not really, we just regained common sense).

We decided to go composting.

Being responsible citizens, or at least that's how we like to think about ourselves, we felt we shouldn't buy any new compost bin but recycle something into it. We spent another six months looking for a suitable container.

One sunny Saturday, being in a rather foul mood, I requested: "We're buying a new compost bin NOW!"

An hour later, an elegant 400 litre bin made its way to a corner of our garden.

This was four months ago.

The bin is still half-empty despite a few mountains of garden waste having been packed into it a few times already on top of all food scraps, paper tissues, paper serviettes, and paper kitchen towels. It's hard to imagine how much stuff a compost bin will actually recycle.

Our general waste has almost disappeared. We used to throw at least one bag of it every day, now it's one bag per week.

Also, now we don't feel guilty when we throw away food scraps. Everyone is happy.

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