Make Green Easy With the Right Tools

I grew up on an old farm in Connecticut, where composting was something we did without pomp or circumstance. After dinner, someone would run out back and hurl the odds and ends into the warm, stinky pile that would decompose into wonderful beds for next year's plantings. Here in San Francisco, composting is serious business. I'd love to say I'm more hip than hippie, but in truth: I'm neither. Like most people, I want to do the right thing, but I don't want to smell rotting kitchen scraps or scrub molded peels out of the bin each week. Lucky for you, we searched high and low, and now I can share the right tools for city composting.

We love the RSVP Endurance Compost Pail; the double charcoal filters keep rotting veggie smells to a bare minimum. We used the pail alone for a while, but when complaints about cleaning out the inside reached fever pitch, we found an elegant solution: biodegradable liners. Corn-based Biobags work well for the soft scraps we toss in the compost pail. However, these liners tear easily, so I'm not sure they'll replace our regular kitchen trash bags. The company also sells bags for dog waste and human waste, if you ever do "pack in/pack out" camping. Frankly? That ain't for me. I'm happy to sit here in my lovely city, baking pies from fruit trees in my yard and turning the pits and peels into the nitrogen-rich compost that gets sent up to wine country. I think we can all say "Cheers!" to that.