Composting gets lift from ancient 'bokashi' ways

[kristopher]

How to compost food waste without the odor...

Composting gets lift from ancient 'bokashi' ways
By JAY LINDSAY
AP

MIDDLETON, Massachusetts — On a plot lost among the expanse of tightly trimmed fairways and greens, weeks-old food is buried under a tarp and mulch and left to decompose.

This country club in Massachusetts isn't taking an unsanitary shortcut with its trash. It's trying "bokashi," an obscure composting method it says will help it return 4 tons of food waste each year to Mother Nature.

Bokashi is based on an ancient Japanese practice that ferments food waste by covering it with a mix of microorganisms that suppress its smell and eventually produce soil. Bokashi is not widely used in the United States, but its practitioners think it should be because of the amount of food wasted in the U.S.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. generated more than 34 million tons of food waste in 2010, accounting for 14 percent of all the solid waste that reached landfills or incinerators.

Advocates say the key advantage of bokashi...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120703f3.html#.T_NbGo58vdk

[freshwest]

1. Hum, only heard of it for apartment composting systems. My city has composting so we give it to them

[rhett o rick]

2. I am a home composter.

I have very good luck with the following recipe. 1/3 brown and 2/3 green. Brown is usually leaves and green is food waste and grass clippings. Keep moist and turn often. Try to keep loose to allow oxygen to get in. Use a container that will keep rats out because they will burrow for the food waste. I get a great soil in about 6 months.

[XemaSab]

3. One of my oldest and dearest friends

goes by the screen name "bokashi."

She's a missionary in Cambodia now, with a focus on clean water.