Recently my city (which happily provides a green recycle bin for food and green waste) changed the rules and told us to stop putting green waste in plastic bags. Just dump it in the bin! They ordained. And while this definitely spares the planet with fewer plastic bags used, the problem is that it also leaves us with the problem of gross compost bins.
Which is undoubtedly far more environmental, but now we’ve got maggots. Maggots are actually great because they break down the waste in the pile, allowing it to decompose even faster than normal. However, aside from reminding me of my own mortality every time I take out the veggie rinds, it’s also a nasty shock to have a swarm of flies smack me across the face.
If you’re more tolerant than I am, you can periodically clean out your bin as we suggested in our last blog post (See “Stinky Bins“) with baking soda and bleach. Or, if you want to avoid having these critters worming through your compost pile, you can do one of several things:
1. add about one cup of lime to the compost
2. add enough brown material to the pile to cover the nitrogen food sources by several inches (brown material includes leaves, dry grass, shredded paper or other organic brown material)
3. add citrus fruit waste (which apparently the maggots don’t like).
PopUP CleanUP cares about the health and safety of our planet. Composting is one of the important things we can do to reduce landfill waste and recycle nitrogen into the soil for growing.
If you have a short term rental or real estate listing that needs cleaning, PopUP CleanUP offers eco-friendly solutions and first class craftsmanship. If your garbage and compost bins need cleaning, you can ask about add-ons as well.
