Q&A: Composting for Christmas

Your eco-questions answered:

Question: The Militant here. Since you seem to be the Eco-Maven of SoCal, wonder if you can answer this question:

The Militant's mama has recently gotten into composting for her garden; she seems to be fond of using used banana peels. Anyway, the Militant would like to get her a nice compost container for a Christmas gift, where can one be bought locally and how much do they cost? Thanks, MA

Answer: Since the Militant's an Angeleno, my recommendation's that you take advantage of the  L.A. Bureau of Sanitation's bin sales. City residents can choose from 3 different composters, all sold at a cut rate  -- the most expensive being $45.

And lucky you -- there's one more city bin sale event happening before Christmas; lace up your combat boots and get thee to the Griffith Park Composting Education Facility on Dec. 14, between 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Have proof of L.A. residency in hand. This way, you can be both thoughtful and economical (aka cheap).

The $20 Earth Machine Composter model (above) is the one that seems to be most popular, judging from what I've seen in people's backyards. But make sure you get some specifics from your mama about what she wants before you go. How does she feel about wriggly worms, for example? Wormies creep some out; other people love them as little pets.

Plus, for all we know, your mama might even want to do indoor composting -- in which case none of these composters will be appropriate and you'll need to ask me for new -- and more expensive -- recommendations.

On the off chance that your mama's composting interest is a brand new one and even she doesn't know what kind of composter she wants, you might take her to a free home composting workshop, which happens on the fourth Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. at the Griffith Park Composting Education Facility (check the schedule before you go; sometimes they get canceled). Bins are sold at the workshops, so maybe you could take the class with her and buy her the bin she chooses, making composting a good mama-Militant son activity, perhaps.

Kudos to the Militant's mama for giving her banana peels new life.

Got a question? Ask me: greenlagirl@gmail.com.

Photo by Ashour Rehana via Flickr

Comments

[Adam Rakunas]

Most of the compost fans I know recommend keeping banana peels out of the pile. They hold on to pesticide residue, which is the last thing you want to introduce to your compost.

[Siel]

Hopefully the militant's mama buys organic --

[militant angeleno]

Adam: See? This is the reason why most people are reluctant to go green. So-called experts pressure people to "Do it perfectly by the letter or it's not worth doing " and for many people just starting out and having the inkling of a desire to try, they get turned off to it because it's too much trouble. Mama's garden looks just fine, and there are probably other worse impurities going into the soil that are out of her control. Of course the Militant does not have any absolute scientific proof of that, but neither did you. Shouldn't this be a learning process for all?

[Siel]

I'm not sure that Adam's comment was a critique, Militant.... Maybe he was just trying to be helpful, knowing your mama's a newbie to composting?

[Adam Rakunas]

Sorry I didn't respond earlier, as I've spent the past week crushing the composting hopes and dreams of the impure of pile. Siel wins the Interpretation Award (and a cookie), and our referring-to-himself-in-the-third-person friend wins a trip to a eco-friendly day spa to unwind his tightly wound ass. I hope your mother's garden continues to thrive, but I'd go with the experience of people who've been composting for thirty years who've told me that banana and citrus peels from non-organic fruit contain pesticides that will continue to accumulate in the compost. Jebus.