An old/new trend

My latest passion is composting.
Did I hear you groan?
It's part of my resolution to live lightly on the land. If you missed my old posts on related subjects, you can read them here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Crikey, that was a lot. Some of my blogger friends have also been posting thoughts on related topics. Go see Lisa or Jon.
Back to composting. I bought a black compost bin several years ago when the city of Portland was beginning to encourage the habit. To be honest, I haven't used the compost very much yet, because it seems to degrade down so far that I just keep piling the food scraps and yard debris on top. I figure there has to be some killer compost at the bottom of the bin, if I just dared to shovel it out. Maybe next spring.
There was an article in the Oregonian a few weeks ago that raised some points concerning composting that I hadn't thought about.
I was raised on the philosophy that you don't waste food. Very little gets thrown out in my house. Ask my kids! Turns out that this is an environmentally sound ethic. So often, we think about how far food has to be transported, as in "eat local." But throwing food away actually has more impact on the environment than the distance it traveled. The amount of energy that it takes to grow, transport, and cook a chicken, for example, is exacerbated if it then creates methane as waste in a landfill or is put down the garbage disposal. The bottom line: composting is good, but careful planning so as to not waste food is even better. We need to plan our shopping, storage methods, cooking quantities, and be innovative with leftovers. In our society that touts excess in everything, it is a sombre thought that we might have to return to our grandparents' mindset of "Waste not, want not."
Commercial compost bins are quite expensive, but this video tells how to make your own out of an old garbage can. I have one waiting in my vegetable garden for this very purpose. This blogger and this one also give good instructions and tips on the whole process.
Now go.
Compost.
You'll feel so good about yourself.