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Comment by mint2 | Hacker News Reader

> In LA, for example, the LADWP is test-driving a program where food scraps - vegetables, but also meats and fats - are diverted into green bins

Moved to SF from LA area. Sf does the green bins and it’s actually surprisingly nice to separate the compostable scraps out of the other trash. It keeps the trash bin much cleaner and much less stinky.

If I moved back to an area that didn’t require it, I’d still keep them separate and only re-combine at the curbside bin.

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We have compostable bin pickup twice a week in my hometown in Italy, a ton of things are compostable with industrial composters these days which you could not easily compost at home, also thanks to regulations (e.g. shopping bags, tea bags, some food packaging etc), so the other bins stay pretty empty.

Important to note that, at least in my experience, most of the 'plastic bags' in Italy are the compostable kind. In the UK they're still in the minotrity (I've only seen our version of the Co-Op offer them, for instance).

You might wish to be wary about tea bags, mind - here in the UK our tea producers are still struggling to release bags free of thin heat-pressed polypropylene sealing strips... .

I see entire apartment complexes that don’t have recycling options at all, whatsoever.

I keep my food scraps in a bag in my refrigerator until it's time for curbside pickup. It definitely helps keep the smells and gnats away!

Same here in Portland - we only have trash pickup every other week but the green bin weekly. Works nicely and the trash stays pretty fresh!

I live in the country and I throw whatever the hell I want in my compost and my garden loves it. Next time you get a hyper specific instructions page about what to compost and not, do what I do: chuck it in the compost with everything else organic! :)

Industrial compost is not the same as a garden compost though.

Be wary of rodents if you try to compost things with a high fat content. I hope you have good rat control.

I outsource rat control to the neighborhood foxes and cats.

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