Environmentally Friendly Kitchen Compost Bags

Time for another com'post'. 

Get it... com 'post', because it's a blog post. And it's about compost....com 'post' ing. HA. Good thing I think I'm so funny :) 

Alright, onward to the topic. 

So we've been on this composting kick at our house. We had a plan for outside, but bringing the composting inside was a whole different topic. 

Part of the point of us composting is to reduce garbage in the form of food scraps. That means we need to either purchase or make a small indoor compost bin that's attractive enough to sit on the kitchen counter, or small enough to move from the counter to under the sink. Inside would go all of our potato peels, chopped carrot ends, banana peels..etc. That was the easy part.

The harder part was deciding what kind of bags to use. Do we purchase small garbage bags? Or maybe even use the old plastic grocery bags that we save after shopping?

What if we just leave it empty of a bag and throw the scraps directly into the bin? In that scenario, the scraps would sit in the bin for a couple of days because, let's be honest, who has time to empty it every day? So day three of your food scraps melding together in the kitchen bin rolls around and you finally decide to take it outside to your compost tumbler. When you empty the small container, you notice it's gotten nasty in there. 

Now what? Now you have to scrub out the gunk, clean it with hot soapy water, then let it dry before you're able to use it again.

That program wasn't appealing to me and my poor husband would probably be the one left cleaning the bin every couple of days.

So I started researching compostable bags. I wanted to find something that would biodegrade fast, and also that wouldn't harm our compost pile by containing any toxins. After quite a bit of research, this is what I came up with;

       
Below are some of the reasons that I chose to go with BioBag.

1. They are 100% biodegradable & 100% compostable. 
2. Made from non-GMO starches, vegetable oils and cellulose. 
3. The majority of the bags are made in the USA. One of their main production plants is located in California.  
4. High Water Vapor Transmission Rate (WVTR), which means, in Allison terms, less mold, fungus and stink because the bag can breathe.
5. USDA Certified biobased product. 
6. ASTM D6400 Certified, meaning it passed the test for it's ability to decompose in ideal composting conditions. Also, that the product will not have adverse impacts on the ability of the compost to support plant growth, which is a very important factor here. 

The bags will completely disintegrate in the compost pile without releasing any toxins, and the decomposed matter that's left in the compost will not hinder any plant growth, which is very important to us because we'll be using it for our vegetable garden.

The size is also perfect, they're 3 gallon bags, which just right for a small container that can be moved from under the sink onto the counter when it's being used.

They don't just manufacture kitchen compost bags, here are just a few of the other products they offer;

• Pet Waste Bags - perfect for taking to the dog parks or on walks around the city.
• Lawn, Leaf & Garden Waste Bags - to bag up your clippings for the compost pile. 
• Sandwich Bags
• Kitchen Cling Wrap - like the other products, made with zero plasticizers.
• Produce Bags - great for bagging produce at the farmer's market. 

                                        


As always, I purchased mine through Amazon. In addition to doing my own research, I love being able to see the reviews from real people before I make the purchase. Because all products are compostable, they need to be stored in a cool, dry area and used within one year.

Have you tried these before? If not, what do you use for your compostable bags?

*PS.
In case you missed it, check here for a 'how-to' on composting and check out our DIY compost bin.

Wedding Week: Extended Cut

Thank you for letting my share our wedding with you :) I hope you enjoyed this past week's posts, and thank you for all of your sweet and funny comments. It was fun to be able to go back and write everything down and sort of re-live it all, this time in a little bit slower motion.  Here is a picture overload, in case you missed anything...

Wedding Week: The Ceremony

The ceremony was a little tough for me.

It made me want to puke thinking of walking down the aisle with everyone staring at me. Traditionally, a girl's dad is suppose to walk her down the aisle, but my dad and I haven't spoken in over seven years. I've heard of untraditional weddings where the bride and groom walk down the aisle together, but that was too untraditional for us. Another thought was to have my sister walk me down the aisle, but that was weird too.

Then came the ceremony itself. We aren't terribly religious people, so it wasn't going to be a religious ceremony. There's the option for unity candles, sand or other creative things, but that seemed like too much. And what happens when the candles are gone or you break the jar full of sand? Sad!

The sweet gentleman that married us is a good friend of my grandmas and a retired judge and when I spoke with him, he told me he'd say anything we'd like.

Turns out, there are traditionall nine parts of to a wedding cermony, so, after lots of online research and lots of thought, we put together this ceremony that we felt fit us pretty well. We both agreed upon a very simple ceremony. So here it is, for your viewing pleasure :)

Wedding Week: Spa, Set up & Rehearsal

We were fortunate enough to have access to our venue the day before the wedding in order to decorate and set everything up. We're also fortunate to have an amazing family and my best friend who flew in from North Dakota (don't'cha know!) to help us!

My sister stayed with me Thursday night and we woke up to a cold, rainy Friday morning. She had booked us a mani-pedi and since my best friend flew in the night before, my mom picked all of us up and we we went to our appointment. I was a salon virgin and for those of you who have never been, it was amazing. I have the most horribly ticklish feet and had trouble sitting through this gal massaging and cleaning my feet, but man did it feel good.

Afterwards, we grabbed a late breakfast before heading back to the house. We were met at the door by these three cuties...

They had the truck all loaded and ready to head over to the barn to set up. My sister and Amanda ran to the tanner while I rounded up a few more odds and ends, then we headed over to the wedding venue. 

Forewarning- these pictures were taken with my phone so they are all mostly blurry and quite poor quality, please forgive me!

Wedding Week: Paper Duty

I looked all over the internet searching 'farm wedding invitations', but I had a hard time finding exactly what I was looking for. They were either too colorful or too modern, had a giant tractor, ear of corn or some other obnoxiously obvious farm subject on the front. Not what I was going for.

It was quite a hunt to pick out invitations, but in the end we found something that was completely us.