Composting chicken run

[aart]

I figure this whole China thing is a opportunity to right some wrongs and get back to doing things the right away.

It boils down to economics.....recycling materials costs too much.

 

[gtaus]

Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be worried but....better safe than sorry and I put my faith in the recycling man!

I agree that sometimes we worry too much. Especially when it comes to using compost and/or kitchen scraps for our birds. If I see mold, I throw it into the compost bin in the garden. Maybe it would not be bad for the chickens and maybe they would not eat it if it was bad for them. I read that chickens are not smart enough to know the difference. So I play it safe too, I guess.

I used to try to follow the 3 R's; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Recently I'm adding a 4th R; Repurpose. Recycling is not a sure thing. When I lived in Minneapolis years ago, we had to separate everything in different containers. We thought we were doing a good thing. But the Star-Tribune followed those recycling trucks that picked up all those recycle bins, and discovered that they just went out to the dump/landfill and threw everything in there like trash anyway. I suspect that happens more than they would like us to know.

So, I now practice Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle (which probably ends up as trash in the landfill). My chickens have helped me compost material like paper and light cardboard that I used to send to the recycle bin. Now I'm turning all that into composted soil. Likewise with most of our kitchen scraps which we now feed to our chickens instead of throwing it into a plastic garbage bag to be hauled out to the landfill. Instead of taking garbage out to the landfill on a weekly basis, we usually can go 3-4 weeks before a garbage run.

Perhaps just as good, I now go to our country landfill with my small trailer and fill it up with wood chips that would otherwise just be treated as bio garbage. I use those woodchips in my coop, the chicken run, and as mulch in my garden and my wife's flower beds. The chickens are turning those wood chips into compost gold.

 

[gtaus]

It boils down to economics.... recycling materials costs too much.

Unfortunately, I agree. This is why I think our products should be packaged in containers that could be bio composted, instead of pretending to sell the product to a third world country to "recycle" the material. From what I understand, most of that "recycle" material is just thrown into their third world landfills as garbage instead of in our back yard. Makes us feel good by separating all those materials for the recycle bins, and if you don't think more about it and follow the material, you think you are doing a good thing for the environment.

 

[Sequel]

Unfortunately, I agree. This is why I think our products should be packaged in containers that could be bio composted, instead of pretending to sell the product to a third world country to "recycle" the material. From what I understand, most of that "recycle" material is just thrown into their third world landfills as garbage instead of in our back yard. Makes us feel good by separating all those materials for the recycle bins, and if you don't think more about it and follow the material, you think you are doing a good thing for the environment.

And with all the crud floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I've wondered how much of it even makes it to a dump.

 

[aart]

This is why I think our products should be packaged in containers that could be bio composted

That would be great.... if they could hold up to handling, transporting, and storing.

 

[gtaus]

And with all the crud floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I've wondered how much of it even makes it to a dump.

Yeah, I don't want to hijack the OP's thread, but here's a YouTube link to the trailer of "A Plastic Ocean" documentary. I just watched the full documentary a few days ago and it has made me feel all the more convinced that we need to do more to protect the world we live on. Even if it's just composting in the chicken run, it's still a start.

 

[Sequel]

That would be great.... if they could hold up to handling, transporting, and storing.

I don’t know if you or @gtaus are old enough to remember the soda pop trucks carrying full bottles to the stores and emptied ones back but I sure do! They made the most enchanting sound clanking around. Or so I thought haha! Refillable could be huge, so much of that stuff is plastic bottles. Even the meat trays were paperboard, with little cotton pads to soak up the meat juice. Plastic toys were in a bin, not encased in more plastic than the product itself. My apologies to the OP but I think it’s great to have a thread that inspires so much further discussion.

 

[aart]

Yeah, I don't want to hijack the OP's thread

That ship has sailed!

I don’t know if you or @gtaus are old enough to remember the soda pop trucks carrying full bottles to the stores and emptied ones back but I sure do!

Yep, well they still do that, but 95% plastic bottles....
...what about glass milk bottles, that were delivered to the house?!

 

[Sequel]

That ship has sailed!

Yep, well they still do that, but 95% plastic bottles....
...what about glass milk bottles, that were delivered to the house?!

I remember that too! I buy milk in glass bottles now, have a heck of a time remembering to bring them back! CRS!

 

[gtaus]

I don’t know if you or @gtaus are old enough to remember the soda pop trucks carrying full bottles to the stores and emptied ones back but I sure do!

Not only do I remember glass soda bottles, but I also remember the dairy man delivering fresh milk (in glass bottles), cottage cheese, etc... to the neighborhood twice a week at my grandmother's house.

I believe we need to rethink the way we live our lives with so many one-time-use disposable products, especially plastics which will continue to pollute the environment with no end in sight. It sounds like Germany is way ahead of us in the reduction of plastics used in their country. But, in general, I think the Germans are decades ahead of us on the Green Revolution bandwagon. I'm just happy to see a thread on composting with chickens pop up and read the comments by others.