Innovative ways of reusing, reusing, reusing….

My husband’s hobby is composting. Mine is trying to find different ways to reuse. It is so much fun, it should be illegal.

My neighbor reused her shutters to make a raised bed. The woman’s a genius.

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Aww…no more Weet-a-bix?

I was IN LOVE with this cereal. I thought, finally, a zero waste cereal! I don’t have to give up all cereal. The outside box made of cardboard could be recycled, the inside liner could be composted and the actual whole grain biscuits were like Frosted mini-wheats without all the sugar gunk. It was perfect.

I was wrong.

Hair cuts = compost

My husband cuts his own hair and it always goes in the compost. So, I decided to muster up the courage to ask the hairdresser if I could keep mine as well, to a surprising response…

Adding paper to the compost

We branched out from composting food scraps and organic matter. We started adding paper to the compost  about a year ago. My hubby thought if we shredded the heck out of it, it might compost faster. He was right!

Cross-cut shredded paper, almost pulp.

Composting with worms

This easy video from Patti Moreno, The Garden Girl is the simplest video I’ve found so far. The vermi compost she explains here is perfect for those who live in the city or in an apartment and can’t keep a bin or have a huge pile outside, but want their own compost soil. It’s also great for frequent military moves, if you’re only going to be in a place for a few months to a year. This is how to make it:

Related articles

• Organic Waste in Brussels: Composting and other Alternatives (tebiki.be)
• Airport to use worms for compost (upi.com)
• Which Composting Method is Best for You? Infographic Helps You Decide (treehugger.com)
• 8 Ways to Compost and Which One You Should Try (Slideshow) (treehugger.com)
• The Science of Composting (permaculturepower.wordpress.com)
• Composting- the Different Types (reubenshome.wordpress.com)
• 8 Steps to Worm Composting (urbanfig.wordpress.com)

Weeds in the compost?

We’d always read NOT to do this but yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are putting weeds in the compost!

Reusing plastic garbage bags

Last year we transported the homemade compost in my trunk from Norfolk, VA to Yulee, FL in order not to waste what we’d worked so hard to make and in order to use the homemade compost in our new garden.

The compost didn’t smell bad, but it was hot and wet and left a mess in the bags.

The things that didn’t decompose…

We started our compost bin from scratch when we arrived here in August—-immediately, the very month we moved in. By month 5, we had rich, black, ready-to-use compost.

Adding seafood to the compost

We’ve read a lot of things that have told us not to add seafood to the compost, and others that say it’s not a problem.

Potential problems: smelly compost, critters trying to get in.
Our experience so far: not true.

Pizza boxes in the compost!

We always recycled our pizza boxes. Then we heard the recycling center didn’t want them if they had pizza grease on them, so we could only recycle the top half.