It’s that time of the week when your food waste bin is full and you’re ready to move your leftovers into the green bin. (You are Follow the rules of your community About compost leftoversright?)
But when you open the lid of the barrel, you’re attacked by a swarm of flies — they’re disturbed by your unexpected visit.
These new neighbors, often mosquitos or house flies, are the predictable result of leaving rotting food in boxes, says Gerry Villalobos, environmental expert with the Los Angeles City Department of Sanitation. contain.
“Until now, food waste has been layered among other materials in a black coating. [trash] trash cans, preventing insects from accessing leftovers,” he said.
You can duplicate that class in your green bin — and the Sanitation Department encourages it, as long as you use the right items.
Layer food waste between garden decorations, paper bags, unlined takeout containers, and other food-stick paper products.
For example, the napkin you use to wipe your mouth after eating a messy sandwich is an acceptable dirty paper product. If you have a pizza box that’s greasy on one side, cut it in half: Toss the grease-free half in the trash and use the greasy other half as the lining in your green trash can.
If you don’t do your own gardening, wait until the day the gardeners work on your yard – and when they’re done, throw in your leftovers.
Villalobos also suggests waiting until the night before or the morning before your collection day to put food waste in the green bin. One strategy is to freeze your leftovers until trash day.
Empty or rinse your green bin from time to time—especially if you notice a foul odor or residue. If you don’t, “organic waste will build up on the walls and bottom of the green bin, which can lead to attracting more insects,” he says.
It’s also a good move to make sure your crate is in good condition—a damaged bin or lid is like rolling out an insect welcome rug.
If your trash can is damaged, call the Los Angeles Sanitation customer care center at (800) 773-2489 to have your bin replaced or repaired. (If you are not serviced by LA City Sanitation, contact your waste carrier.) If possible, have your bin’s serial number ready (located on the front of the bin), if possible, Villalobos said.
Other ways to use green waste
You can reduce the amount of food left in the green bin by finding other ways to use it.
Lauren Basha local sustainable and environmental content creator, and her mother, Adrianne Ferree, president of manufacturer centera community production space based in Compton, has been looking to compost or use their leftovers for years.
Ferree started 35 years ago by digging a hole in his garden and putting leftovers in it.
While working for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, she helped pioneer their recycling, composting, and worm farming programs through Education-Based Detention Bureau.
She recently retired and continues this lifestyle with her backyard farm in Rancho Palos Verdes, where she has been growing drought tolerant products like artichokes since 2014.
Ferree said: “I remember telling the kids when they were little that we were going to feed the earth, feed the trees. “So we will always have some small compost, even if we are in an apartment.”
As a homeowner, Ferree made the space to have a composting system in her backyard, and you can too.
She makes a spinner for her leftovers, using old bicycle wheels and chicken wire, which she layers with mulch and leftovers and rotates periodically. Ferree uses the collected organic fertilizer to fertilize her garden.
Her daughter, Bash, recently started sharing vermicompost in her home (earthworm) journey on Instagram and TikTok.
Bash targets her worms in a two-story, 18-by-18-inch crate in her Santa Monica apartment. She mixes her leftovers with brown shredded paper and her worms will do the rest.
Bash and Ferree also suggest the following:
- Think about what you really need at the grocery store to avoid buying too many products. Buy exactly what you need.
- Find a local community garden or composting site (Organic fertilizer LA has several locations in Los Angeles County) to donate your leftovers.
- Search for recipes — on TikTok, Instagram or in Times recipe database — for products that you do not know what to do before the expiration date. For example, on TikTok, Armen Adamjan Recently used watermelon rind in a smoothie. Also on TikTok, Joe Clark’s Gardening With Joe make basil sauce from the tops of beets and carrots.
- Find someone in your area who has animals, such as rabbits, chickens or horses, and ask if you can donate unused leftovers.
- Bash makes a vegetable broth from her leftovers. She freezes the crumbs until ready to pressure cook them in her Instant Pot for 40 minutes. “We eat seasonally so prices can fluctuate. It might taste like corn one week or jalapenos next week,” she says. She added: “I feel like this is probably one of the most comprehensive processes I have to go through every week as I extract every bit of flavor… before composting and then it comes back. planet to hopefully create new crops.”
- Recently, Bash created a home cleaning product out of citrus peels. Live kindlya sustainable lifestyle brand, shared how clean more on TikTok.
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