This handy trick or treat bucket showed up on my doorstep last week. Sustainable candy sacks! How thoughtful.
J/K, J/K. You guys remember what this is about, right? We begin Portland-wide compost pick up for houses (though not larger apartment complexes—y’all are left out for now) on October 31st. You can check your new trash pick up schedule here. The rules for what you can compost are so hilariously simple that we made a website about it.
Anyway. I’m excited about this! It’s a smart switch and I think the city shelling out a bit to deliver a bucket to our doors will boost participation. Up until this point I’ve been keeping my compost in the freezer, clearing it out every month, which scared guests. I’ve already heard of a couple people creatively altering their buckets, turning the lid into the mouth of a certain disliked political figure. Anyone have any good ideas for how to bedazzle the shit out of this thing? In the meantime, poll!
I’m really not looking forward to only having my garbage picked up every other week. This will not end well.
The snap closure on the lid seemed to not work at first, but we’re getting along fine now. Still wondering how this one’s gonna go come fruit fly season.
I live in a fourplex and they gave us four of ’em– well, five actually, they left an extra one on our deck– so I guess it’s not just for houses. Although neither of them had particularly great snaps on ’em.
My snap closure is having problems too. Any advice on shutting that thing tight? As you can probably imagine my compost stew is not exactly aromatic.
I noticed that the containers are recyclable. I think I know exactly where I’m putting mine.
@WSH: You didn’t expect the city-provided bucket to actually function, did you? Buy a 5-gallon bucket with an airtight lid. And check your cynicism fuse, I think it may have burnt out.
Humpy: to snap it shut, you have to put the lid in place and then push straight down on the end of the tongue-like thing.
Mirk: your thumbs-up, thumbs down website is wrong. You can throw non-food things like paper towels, napkins, tea bags, coffee filters in there, too.
http://portlandsunshine.blogspot.com/2011/10/compost-bins.html
I have been using mine for a lunch bucket.
Thank you for the website now I know that rats, cats, and dead bodies go into the green compost can.
Where do I put the street trash and homeless stuff left when the cops drag them off ?
Where do I put the dog and people shit I find on my front yard ?
I have a fourplex, and we didn’t get any. Yet, at least.
I’m in a house (albeit a rental house) and I didn’t get one yet! Are they supposed to have all been delivered by now? WHINE.
As a longtime kitchen composter, I suggest you guy a bucket with a carbon filter and use the bucket the city gave you for something else. Your olfactory system will thank you for it come July.
You get what you vote for! Just wait until your buckets become bio hazards.
Andy From Beaverton as usual with the “Not to painfully overstate it, but…” comment!
We’ve been excited about this since it was announced. Our household could already get away with garbage pickup once a month anyway.
I have a dog who eats my leftovers. Better that than collect maggots, ugh.
That’s great for you, but most households are made up of more than just a cat and a beard.
@Rich Bach, put it in the fridge in the summer when fruit flies are about.
There’s a Portlandia sketch right there….The Anal-Retentive Garbageman.
We compost our veggie scraps, so there’s going to be five garbage sorts for us – trash, glass and deposit bottles/cans (put them out so the bums can pick them out of the yellow bin), recyclables, yard debris, and the beige bucket for eggshells, coffee filters, tea bags (compostable, but those three don’t break down well), meat, fat, and bone scraps, and presents the cats leave us (anything animal-based goes into the freezer in a bag, then dumped into the beige bin, then into the green bin.
@Rosy – shit and human leavings go in a public trashcan; cat presents go in the freezer, then into the green compost bin on trash day (dead birds, mice, and rats are meat scraps, right?0
I am pretty excited about it—-but don’t know if I will use my brown bucket from the city. I have an old laundry detergent 3 gallon bucket (with a lid) that has worked great for our compost for 6 years.
Can’t wait for garbage to go to every other week! If our family of five can do it, surely you wusses can figure it out.
Haven’t received one and won’t use it if I do. Composting is disgusting!
What were these PLASTIC buckets made from? Recyclable plastic bags that are now banned?
I don’t and will not separate anything anymore. All goes into a paper bag mixed together and into the recycling containers.