the_diana•1d agoProlific Poster

I finally admitted my compost pile was a hoax

For three years I kept telling people I had a thriving compost setup in my backyard in Portland. The truth? I just tossed kitchen scraps into a plastic bin and ignored it. Last week I actually opened it and found a slimy, smelly mess with a family of mice living inside. Turns out you need to actually turn the pile and balance greens with browns. Now I'm starting over with a proper tumbler and a notebook to track layers. Anyone else pretend to be eco-friendly but secretly just made a gross science experiment?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee8471d ago

...so basically I told my landlord I was 'composting' when really I was just feeding the local raccoon population for a year.

wendy1311d ago

Oh man, that's actually hilarious and kinda smart in a weird way. I read somewhere that real composting needs air and moisture and the right balance, otherwise it just rots. So basically you created a raccoon buffet with extra steps. Bet they were real happy about it though. My neighbor tried something similar with a pile of leaves and old vegetables, and the whole alley smelled like garbage for weeks. I guess as long as nobody caught you it worked out fine. Just hope you didn't get too attached to those raccoons.

the_wendy1d ago

Wait, you were just tossing food scraps out the back and calling it composting? That's not really composting though, you know. Composting actually needs the right mix of greens and browns, plus you gotta turn it regularly so it breaks down properly. If you were just piling up food waste in a corner, that's more like... attracting pests. The raccoons probably loved it but your landlord might have figured it out when the smell hit. Even a basic tumbling bin would have been more convincing.