Food Waste; Disposal, Trash, Backyard Composting or Feeding Worms

Ever give much thought to your food scraps? All those potato peelings, bits of onion or excess from a head of cabbage? Most people just scrape the food off into the trash can or flip the switch and the disposal grinds it all up. Now is the first time in nearly 20 years that I’ve had a garbage disposal, all my post-parents places have lacked a disposal. With the exception of six months living in an 8th floor studio apartment on Lindell, I’ve had a yard for these past two decades. And in having a yard, I managed to compost nearly all my food waste — be that scraps from preparing a meal to the usual table scraps.

Now I am back in an urban setting in a multi-family building lacking a yard to compost in. Composting is great, allowing earth’s worms to come up and help out the process of breaking down matter. So what do you do in a situation where you lack the yard and earth worms? Well, you bring the worms into the home for a process known as vermicomposting. But before I get into looking at the process I plan to undertake, let’s look at the environmental implications to more conventional disposal methods — the garbage disposal to grind and send it all to the sewage treatment plant and just dumping it in the garbage for shipment off to a land fill.

The disposal is about as convenient as they come, using it to rid ourselves of meal prep scraps as well as those un-eaten bits post-dinner. Dump, turn on the water and flip the switch. Like magic it is gone. Ever think about where it goes?

The ground-up waste does NOT go back to nature’s water supply to be gobbled up by fish and other life forms. It must first pass through the sewage-treatment plant (or your septic system). This not only increases the load on our already overburdened sewage-treatment facilities, the process also removes any food value the waste might have had further down the line. (source: Grinning Planet)

So food that might help out your own garden is flushed into the sewer system, our very old and fragile sewer system, that MSD is spending Billions (yes, Billions with a B) to upgrade. MSD covers all of the city and the bulk of St. Louis County. Other parts of our 16-county region are covered under other sewer systems or are on septic. While I couldn’t find what to flush and not flush on MSD’s website I did see in other cities them asking that you not use your disposal, that food waste be placed in the trash. Which brings us to land fills.

Have you seen the massive pile of trash over in Illinois? In the news lately has been the proposed trash transfer center in South County that the Fred Weber company wants to build. Fred Weber wants to take their old quarry site to bring in trash trucks so the trash can be collected and then loaded onto larger trucks for removal. Neighbors are understandably upset. However, I wonder how many of those that are so upset bother to recycle their trash? Or to look for items with reduced packaging? Their objections would have more impact if they didn’t help contribute to the problem of trash collection and removal to a landfill.

Oh yeah, the landfill. I’ve read that responsible landfills are supposed to allow food waste to decompose but I can’t imagine how — locked up tight in the hefty bag with all the other garbage it doesn’t get any air. The reality is that what we throw away stays in a landfill basically forever. Where, we don’t exactly know. Sadly, most really don’t care.

The only green alternative for food waste is backyard composting. Layer by layer you are slowly building a wonderful fertilizer to use in your vegetable or flower garden. But say you are like me, now lacking a yard, you are not out of luck. Why? Worms can be house broken. In a well-prepared plastic or wood container in the home they can eat through your garbage — it is what they do.

Today I purchased a $5 container at Family Dollar, I’ve shredded up old paper used to pack dishes and I’m ready to start drilling holes for air circulation (proper air circulation eliminates odor you might get otherwise). I’m not going to attempt to explain the ins and outs of vermicomposting to you — I’ll leave that to the experts. Here is a fun “how to” video with a master composter:

[Note: embedded video seemed to only work well on the Mac so I have deleted it. Use the link provided to watch the video.]

This video can be found here. Barb can also be seen in two Freshtopia videos located here and here. You can get more information on vermicomposting at Wiki. The Fed’s even support the idea with their own page on the EPA website! I’ll keep you posted on the progress and any issues I may encounter along the way.

Next time you toss out the core of that organic apple that you bought at Whole Foods, after driving there in your Prius hybrid, think about how green your lifestyle really is and if you can go further.

UPDATE 11/29/07 @ 8:20pm — Ryanne and Jay managed to kill their worms after five months.  Check out updates here and here.  I’ve yet to start my bin yet but I am very close — still researching just the right container.

Expensive Streetscape Falls Short of Having Good ADA Compliance

Since moving downtown I’ve been doing more walking and one of those streets, as you might expect, is Washington Ave — our main focus for the rebirth of downtown.  It started a number of years ago with a complete new streetscape — new paving, curbs and sidewalks.  From Tucker to 18th Street is was completely rebuild for a hefty sum ($17 million or so).  While I think they went overboard with the design, I believe a new streetscape project by the city was necessary to spur private investment in the area.

That said, I’ve noticed some interesting design decisions.  OK, make that some really bad design decisions.  For example, the curb ramps at 16th & Washington Ave:

Probably looks fine?  Look closer.

Anyone using a wheelchair, such as my neighbor two doors down, or to anyone pushing a baby stroller, this is really messed up.  One side of 16th has you aligned with the flow of pedestrians while the other side uses a corner ramp.  The corner ramp in the foreground serves the dual purpose of crossing Washington Avenue as this point — one of the very few places where someone in a chair can cross.

Seen from the other direction, looking Westbound, you can see how someone has to jog and angle to continue straight along Washington Ave.  Several solutions would have been worth considering here.

First, the corner ramp could have continued further to the South so that a person rolling along Washington Ave could continue straight without having to veer out toward traffic.  Second, the ramp crossing Washington Ave could have been positioned in a number of other nearby spots so that the ramps crossing 16th St could have been aligned.  Simple really, all it takes is an eye for details and functionality.

Despite all the money spent on fancy paving and custom light fixtures, little details like this were overlooked.  Do not assume, that because professionals were involved, that the design is always good.  Clearly, more time could have been spent getting these details right.

Can I Borrow Some Vanilla?

So here I am starting on making a couple of pumpkin pies, thinking I had everything I need. Organic canned pumpkin? Check. Ground ginger? Bought it today. Pie shells? Yes, got those at Local Harvest Grocery last week. Tofu? Yes, it takes the place of milk and eggs — except for the honey used to sweeten the pies they are totally vegan. Moving on, Vanilla? Damn, knew I’d forget something!

It is starting to rain and I really don’t feel like running to the store. Nor do I feel like running to my old place where I know that I have some real vanilla (not that vanilla-flavored stuff). Ah, no problem. I call my friends down the hall — I know they’ll have vanilla. In less than five minutes I had called them, used a couple of teaspoons of the wonderful liquid and was back in business. Thanks Jerry & Diane!

The pies are baking and boy the place smells great. Hmmm, reminds me of the smell from the wonderful pumpkin empanadas I get every year from one of those bakeries on Cherokee. I may just have to run out in the morning to grab a few before my friends show up at my place for our annual vegetarian thanksgiving feast.

So, I am thankful to all my friends.  Those that I know and see everyday, those of you who live out of town and those of you who I know only through my website.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thoughts on Miami Beach from My Recent Visit, Pt. 1

Recently I was in Miami Beach for the annual Rail~Volution Conference.  I was on a panel talking about —- yes, blogging.  Although many hours were spent in the hotel conference area I did manage to walk around and see quite a bit of Miami Beach.  This post is my first go around with some of the many images I took.  I plan to do a second post on Miami Beach as well as posts on Miami and West Palm Beach.

Enjoy…

Ocean Drive is very beautiful, the old Art Deco hotels are stunning individually and even more so as a collection. At right is the Winterhaven where I stayed during the conference.

Over on their Washington Ave, just a few blocks from the beach, bikes and scooters filled the official on-street parking spaces and the available bike racks.

Scooters were quite popular with several scooter rental places such as the one above.

I’ve never really been a fan of the beach but it was nice to sit out there for a while and take in the power of that much water.

They are serious about not blocking this intersection, “Up to $500 in fines, up to 12 points.” The 3-way intersection has a fancy hotel on the 4th side, the hotel where the conference was held.

Above, and here is part of the hotel. Very auto centric. I do like that along the street front they have retail shops with the covered drive hidden behind there — nice touch. Coming from the south pedestrians had a few ways to enter the hotel without walking through the auto drive but if you were to arrive from the other side you pretty much had to walk up the driveway.

Throughout much of the area they used the Pay-N-Display system. Keep in mind that many of the visitors are tourists so it is likely someone may be using these for the first time. Unlike the ones tested here in St. Louis, these accept dollar bills. The Pay-N-Display system allows them to park more cars than with our one size fits all spaces —- and the look & feel is basically the same.

Scooter/Motorcycle parking is distributed throughout the Miami Beach area. While the cars have Pay-N-Display the two wheel vehicles get meters as you can’t very well display a receipt on a motorcycle.

It was windy while I was there, luckily the hurricane passed us by. This park is between the deco hotels and the beach (far left).

Another view of the Winterhaven. I didn’t have a front room but if I twisted my head a bit I could see the ocean from my room.

The Winterhaven has a nice roof-top deck toward the back of the building, interesting views can be had.

And this is a typical alley in Miami Beach, located behind the hotel.

While having lunch one day I spotted, among all the people, a guy on a skateboard waiting for the green light so he could go.

Espanola Way is an interesting little narrow street lined with restaurants and shops.  On the weekend evenings they close the street to cars as pedestrians take over the place.

Lunchtime diners enjoy the many sidewalk cafes that line Espanola Way.  The scale along the street was very intimate and pleasant.

Lincoln Blvd, is quite different.  This 5-6 block long pedestrian mall is looking a bit tired and dated by day.

However, on the saturday night I was there a few blocks were packed with people and much of the landscape was consumed by restaurant tables and chairs.  It was so packed with alfresco diners you had to look at the style of the tables and chairs to know who was dining where.  Musicians were playing at various points along the mall.  Local stores, such as a great bookstore, and big name chains, such as the Apple Store, were all packed with shoppers.  However, it was a special weekend and without the various forms of entertainment along the strip I don’t think it would be as successful.

Convention goers taking a break from talking transit to checking out the ocean view from the 2nd floor of the hotel.  It rained frequently but after a short time it was over and the sun was back out.

Is St. Louis The 2nd Most Dangerous City?

Are we really the nation’s 2nd most dangerous city? In a word, maybe. This year St. Louis dropped from the #1 spot to the #2 slot, behind Detroit, as the most dangerous city in America according to a controversial study. So is it true?

As with any collection of numbers, it really depends upon how you put them together. What do you weigh more heavily? What do you include, what do you exclude? There really is no single right way to analyze the FBI crime data. However, according to the FBI and local officials there are a number of wrong ways to do it.

Do I feel unsafe in the city? No. Are there places where I might feel unsafe at 1am, you bet! But there are likely places I’d feel unsafe in the safest city? Absolutely.

To those of us that actually live and work inside the city we know the truth — the city is really a safe place unless you are dealing drugs or happen to live in an area where drugs & gangs constitute the main form of commerce. So, if you are white the city is pretty safe and if you happen to be poor and black you likely live in a very unsafe area. Our suburbanites are likely thinking in their McMansion’s miles from town, “I knew the city wasn’t safe after all.”

One of the common claims against the methodology of the report is that it looks at cities and not metropolitan areas. Unlike St. Louis, many older cities in the country were able to expand their city limits without changing the state constitution. True enough, but it would likely be true that defining Metropolitan regions might prove a challenge. Should St. Louis’ full 16-county region be examined instead of simply the City of St. Louis? Does every police force keep required FBI records or does that only fall to bigger cities?

Frankly if the citizens of our community don’t like the fact that St. Louis is tiny in geography we need to do something about it. Let’s take a big and necessary step and make the city and county one entity. And I don’t mean have the city join the other ninety some municipalities in the county — I mean make the city and county ONE government entity. Other regions have done just that, gotten over decades of incremental growth and small fifdoms. I can hear the objectors now, “…that is never going to happen in St. Louis.” Fine, stop bitching about the size of the city when cities, not regions, are compared.

Of course when cities are compared and we come out on top or near the top you don’t hear any complaining then. Our best water ranking, for example, is based on cities and not an aggregate of the region’s water. How would our water have compared if it was mixed with water from the balance of the region? And when regions are compared we often take credit in the city, not pointing out that we’d never be at or near the top on our own.

What is really sad is that nobody seems to be upset about being #1 in STDs. Where is the RCGA on this one? Relocate your business to St. Louis — if your employees don’t get shot they might get gonorrhea. OK, back to the crime stats.
From the San Jose Mercury News:

This year, the report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people. Its conclusions were based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.

OK, so we know what the factors are: per-capita rates for six levels of crime. Again, some people use the false notion that looking at St. Louis as a city (which we are) is unfair because we’ve been unable to grow. So I pulled up some basic data on the top 10 of the list just to see if we can spot a trend.

The numbers are all over the board. Detroit, for example, is twice the geographic area of St. Louis and has a greater population density than us. St. Louis has 13% of our region’s population while the totals range from 1% up to 53%. Oakland California, across the bay from San Francisco, is very close to our same size, has greater density but has a much smaller percentage of the region’s total population. I should note here that Wiki uses total area within a city limits to calculate their density, whereas I listed their land area and excluded the amount of water so if you do the math it doesn’t work out.

So what does all this tell us? First, you can use data to tell any story you want — just a matter of how you arrange the numbers for others. But what I see from the above is that the top 10 list includes a variety of city types — central cities like St. Louis as well as areas like Camden NJ across the river from Philly. All Camden needs to do is lose another 4,319 people and they’ll fall below the 75K minimum threshold for this report.

But what do these cities have in common that I’ve not shown on the chart? Race and poverty. Without checking in each city, I think it is fair to say that whites do not constitute a majority population in any of the ten. This is not to say that if white were a majority the crime rate would be less, as that is certainly not necessarily true. What this does illustrate is a likely “spatial mismatch” between residents and employment — jobs are not in the places where people live.

We already know that affluent whites don’t turn to gangs to survive on the mean cul-de-sac streets of the gated subdivision. For that matter, neither do affluent blacks or anyone else. However, for those on the lower rungs of the region’s economic ladder, sometimes crime may seem the only viable option for a better life.

For me, while this report might have flaws, I think our city fathers should not have spent time trying to get the report shelved rather than published. Instead, we need to take a hard serious look at our city and how wealth and jobs are not shared. The data is based on a per-capita basis so increasing our total population will drop us in the rankings provided our number of crimes remain unchanged. Of course, dropping the total numbers of these crimes must also be a goal.

And while I appreciate the fact that Walgreens and Family Dollar are willing to open suburban-ish stores in some of our poorer neighborhoods to take back the profits to their corporate cities (suburban Chicago and Charlotte NC, respectively), I don’t think turning the city into a generic suburb is the right solution. We are not going to grow the city by making the city look just like everywhere else in our region. We must be urban and act like a city should act. Instead of dinky little houses at the intersection of Natural Bridge and West Florissant we should have 3-5 story structures that scale back into the neighborhoods. Ditto throughout the region.

At a minimum we need to accommodate those of us that chose to get around by means other than the private automobile. This can be a simple as actually planning a sidewalk to connect the public sidewalk to the front door of businesses. I know, simple concept but overlooked in our city and throughout the region. Maybe our market is ready for new commercial mixed-use buildings but we certainly have pedestrians and transit users that need to be accommodated as we expect them to walk to these retailers. Our residents also use bicycles so ensuring they have a place to park and lock their bikes. Over time we can incrementally get more and more urban in our building form, as the market permits. The market, you see, is not a fixed thing. Tastes and shopping patterns shift. Development patterns in the city and region seem etched in stone, never budging.

Something must give or we will continue to have a stagnant population with high per-capita crime rates.