Loading…
3
Serious question, is it worth pushing my building tenants to compost, or am I just making my own life harder?
I manage a 24 unit building in Sacramento and got tired of watching good food scraps go in the trash, so back in March I put two compost bins in the back alley and told everyone at the monthly meeting. The trash bill dropped about $70 a month because we cut one pickup, which surprised me. But here is the other side: two tenants started fighting over whose turn it was to turn the pile, one bin got contaminated with plastic bags, and I spent three Saturdays fixing it before I got a simple sign made. So now I am stuck between two views. One, this is worth it because the trash savings cover my time and the soil goes to the building's planter boxes. Two, it is not worth it because I am basically running a small farm for free and nobody asked me to. Has anyone here actually kept a shared compost setup going in an apartment building past the six month mark, and what made it stick or fall apart?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_troy3d ago
Wait, you saved 70 bucks a month by cutting one pickup for 24 units? That seems like a huge drop for just one bin. Seriously, my brain can not wrap around that math. I figured a shared compost setup in a building that size would be nothing but headaches with zero payoff. The part about the two tenants fighting over whose turn it was to turn the pile is so on point though. People will turn anything into a turf war. You basically became an unpaid compost manager and got a garbage bill discount as your only thanks. Six months is the danger zone for sure, that is when the novelty wears off and the same three people end up doing all the work.
3