Compostec

Green Cone © biodigester, another solution!

The problem

It is estimated that in industrialized countries, we create more than ¾ of a tonne of waste per year ... per person! and 50% of the garbage is organic material.

The recycling of solid waste is now part of everyday life for most of us, but what to do with all the food residues that create headaches for our various levels of governments? The astronomical costs of collection and burial of domestic waste, not to mention the scarcity of sites and the environmental problems related to waste disposal are all reasons to find lasting solutions to this problem.

In several European countries, it is now forbidden to add  putrescible waste to the municipal garbage collect. This type of waste is picked separately and sent directly to a composting site. Recognizing that this method is not ideal from both an environmental and economic point of view, another approach is increasingly being promoted : the domestic processing of food waste.

Composting

What better solution than to empower citizens who produce such waste? Obviously, it is impossible for each household to reuse or recycle, within the same household, the amount of solid waste it produces. But it is a different story when we look at biodegradable waste. It becomes perfectly realistic to consider that one day every household could take care of all the organic material it produces on a daily basis.

To do so, home composting is the solution! There are many different techniques for those who want to try. Several municipalities around the world are already promoting the benefits of composting to their citizens. It is inexpensive and so logical from an environmental and social point of view.

So why, despite all the efforts done by public officials, associations, teachers and so on, is it still such a marginal activity? A list of reasons could be found, but the key one is the work involved to properly compost, whether actual or feared: The need to ensure a proper ratio of carbon to nitrogen, to maintain an adequate moisture level and above all, to mix periodically, all create obstacles that discourage many people to get started or to persevere. Also, some people don’t need the final product (black earth) so there is even less motivation to compost.

The alternative

Now the question is: How do we convince the citizens to manage their own food waste? By providing the tools to do so without it being a chore.

 Every household needs to bring the garbage to the street. If instead of bringing all of it to the front street, a portion of the waste is diverted in the opposite direction, to the back yard, no extra effort is required, as long as the next step isn't more complicated than opening a garbage can. This is where a concept like the Green Cone is favored.

From composting, we go to biodigestion.

The first and only domestic biodigester, Green Cone ©, was invented by a Canadian who was seeking a solution to compost in the land of the black bear. In addition to being tested against bears and other animals, the Green Cone happens to "compost" very efficiently, making leftover food "disappear" in an environmentally friendly way. The famous "green cone" has since been adopted by thousands of people throughout the world as an easy way to get rid of food scraps in a clean manner without harming the environment.

The "digestion" of food as a way to ”eliminate” a problem is not the perfect solution. However, it is a convenient, simple and cost effective way of removing tons of garbage bins that lead to economic and environmental costs that we can no longer afford.