Win This Compost Tumbler!

Did you know that food scraps make up over 12% of the US waste stream?  According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, amounting to about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year! Yikes!

For starters, it sounds like as a nation we need to be more conscious about the amount of food we purchase and prepare to minimize waste.  And when we do need to toss out food scraps, we can do it in a way to reduce the impact on the environment.

No matter where you live, autumn is a great time of year to start a compost pile. Compost piles break down food scraps (like vegetable peels, bread crusts, and egg shells) into super-rich, super-usable fertilizer for your flower beds and garden.  There are tons of resources out there that cover the composting process inside and out. Basically, to get started you will need 2 types of ingredients:

• Carbon (shredded newspapers, cardboard, and straw)
• Nitrogen (lawn clippings, food scraps, and weeds).

Combine them together and before long you’ll have compost. If you’re feeling lazy you don’t need to do anything else (but wait and wait). You’ll have usable compost by next year even if you never touch the pile again. If you’d like things to move along a little more quickly, you’ll need to turn the pile and add a few drops of water every few weeks. Enclosed compost bins can help keep your pile neat and organized.

Personally, I have a compost tumbler, a self-contained composting unit that you simply spin every few days to mix. I love it because it makes composting neat and easy and even my kids like to give it a spin!  So I’m really excited to be giving one away today!  That’s right, thanks to Clean Air Gardening, one lucky winner will get the Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler delivered to their doorstep, just in time to take care of all of those autumn leaves!

There’s 3 ways to enter:

1. Subscribe to The Green Parent via RSS or Email. If you’re already a subscriber, just leave me a comment below and say so!

2. Join The Green Parents Forum (already a member? leave a comment below!)

3. Spread the word about this contest via Twitter, Stumble, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Leave a comment below each time you do one of these things...each comment equals one entry. The winning comment will be chosen by Random.org. Remember…US residents only.  Contest ends 9/30!

And the winner is….

Here are your random numbers:

13

Timestamp: 2008-10-01 16:32:42 UTC

Congrats Tavia!

Plan Ahead: Before you prepare your next shopping list, take a few minutes to think about your family’s schedule for the week ahead and which foods will work best for your menu. You don’t have to go so far as to assign a meal for each day of the week (although if you’re uber-organized, you probably do this already.) But there is no point in buying a lot of great organic ingredients if everyone will be too busy to eat them. Make a list of the ingredients you’ll need for that week (or day or month…depending upon how frequently you shop) and stick to it.

Pass It On: Got an extra jar of creamed corn or box of mashed potatoes that you’re not likely to use? Pass on any non-perishables (or even unspoiled perishables) to your local food bank so that they can feed someone in need. Check out America’s Second Harvest to find a food bank near you.

Tell It To The Birds: What is it about kids and bread crusts that makes the two so incompatible? Save those discarded bread crusts along with any stale crackers or moldy rolls and bring them along to feed the birds on your next outing in the park.

Turn It Into Dirt: Don’t toss those rotten tomatoes or banana peels in the trash. Turn them in to compost instead. Compost is the ultimate recycler…it turns useless yucky stuff into really valuable yucky stuff. It also reduces waste, saves money, and can help protect your plants from diseases and pests. And it’s not as hard as you might think to get started. Check out this post on starting a compost pile.