Envirocycle - The best urban composter

I recycle, scour my home with non-toxic cleaners, hang-dry my laundry, get my electricity from wind and hydrothermal sources, and drive a hybrid Prius when I don't take mass transit, so the logical next step on my tree-hugging path seemed clear: begin composting our kitchen scraps.

In the past, I'd successfully vermi-composted, but even though I became fond of the little red wrigglers, my husband really hated the worms, and I can't say I loved the fact they took up prime square footage in our one-bedroom apartment (pre-war and city-roomy as it may it be). So when I decided to try the urban composting experiment again, I was determined to find a viable, apartment-friendly option.

When my research turned up the smartly-designed Envirocycle I warmed with self-satisfaction. I'd found, quite simply, the best compact compost tumbler I'd ever seen. I purchased it immediately and within a week had sweet-talked the building's Superintendent into letting me house it in the basement laundry room by an open window near the recycling and garbage.

Meauring 30.5” x 25.5” x 20.25 and weighing in it at only 19 pounds, the diminutive composter packs a powerful punch. Or tea as the case may be.

The Envirocycle creates not only compost from your kitchen and yard scraps (You have a yard? Wow, aren't you a lucky New Yorker!), but through tiny holes in the drum that also serve as air inlets, its base collects the drippings and provides you with good-as-gold compost tea, a concentrated plant fertilizer and soil enhancer. Think super anti-oxidant for the botanical world.

Americans are moving in the right direction. We do recycle more and more each year , but unfortunately our waste continues to increase due to rising consumption and overall population growth.

In nature, food and paper decompose readily and nourish the soil (which then nourishes the plants and animals, filters rainwater and cleans the air). They are, however, the two largest components in landfills, accounting for nearly 50% of all municipal solid waste. There is more food and paper in landfills than diapers, styrofoam, and tires combined. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, food waste is the #1 least recycled material.

According to New York City's Department of Sanitation, organic materials – anything from yard, wood to food waste (not clear to me if this includes the paper I noted above for the national number) – make up 26 % of our total waste stream. That is 2,860 tons per day, and roughly 1 million tons per year of material that New Yorkers alone could compost.

Though I'm now hooked on the Envirocycle,there are other great composting options here in the city. Consider joining your neighborhood's community garden (They always have composting set up), start a vermi-composting bin (I'll write on this in the future, perhaps), or take your scraps weekly to a drop-off center.

I anticipate that soon it will be mandatory for New Yorkers, and all Americans, to recycle organic material as we do packaging and other items, but until then, take the (organic) matter into your own hands and start composting.

Click here to buy an Envirocycle Compost Tumbler & Tea Maker