A cheap compost bin (that's far away)

Tired of seeing all of those kitchen leftovers from preparing meals and snacks get thrown out in the trash or eaten by critters in your makeshift composting bin in the backyard?

Here's your chance to turn those scraps into a rich soil amendment for your garden and house plants. The Cheshire County Conservation District is holding a backyard compost bin sale.

A home compost bin and how-to guide with a combined retail value of $80 can be purchased for only $50. The bin is black, has a 10-year warranty, and is made of 100 percent recycled plastic. It's approximately 33 inches high and 33 inches wide, or large enough for a family of five.

It's estimated 25 percent of the average household's waste consists of yard trimmings and kitchen scraps which can be easily composted.

You don't have to live in Cheshire County to buy a bin, but you will have to come to Walpole to pick it up.

To buy one, contact the Conservation District at 756-2988, ext.116, or e-mail amanda. costello@nh.nacdnet.net for an order form. Keep food and yard clippings out of the local "waste stream" while helping our gardens grow!

Amanda Costello

Stonyfield Farm is partnering with TerraCycle in a pilot program aimed at collecting used yogurt containers and reusing them as YoGro!(tm) planting pots.

TerraCycle will then sell YoGro! to large retailers who currently use black plastic planting pots, millions of which are discarded by consumers every year.

TerraCycle's pilot Yogurt Brigade will include schools, community groups and others collecting 6 oz. and 32 oz. yogurt containers. For every container collected, Stonyfield will donate 2 cents or 5 cents, respectively, to a charitable organization or school of the collector's choice.

In the case of Stonyfield Farm, its yogurt cups are made from Polypropylene Plastic NO. 5. A study by the Center for Sustainable Systems determined that No. 5 was the most environmentally preferable choice of plastics available for Stonyfield Farm yogurt because it allows for the cups to use a minimal amount of plastic. However, since many recycling centers are not equipped to handle No. 5 cups, Stonyfield Farm has teamed with TerraCycle, which currently runs a nationwide recycling program collecting used soda bottles.

Once schools, nonprofits and others are enrolled in the program, TerraCycle will provide pre-paid UPS shipping boxes to consumers, who fill the boxes with clean yogurt containers and return them to TerraCycle at no cost. TerraCycle will then clean the containers and work with inner-city artists to handpaint each container making them into attractive, modern planting pots for sale to retail outlets.

To sign up your school, charity or even your office, visit terracycle.net/brigades.

Jennifer Wilkie