August 29, 2023 • 55 mins
Have you been marketed the Mill kitchen bin on Instagram and found yourself wondering, "What is this thing? Is it sustainable?" Well, maybe it will be in the future, but right now it's basically a half-drawn horse (which you should look up for a laugh). In this sustainability podcast episode, two marketing writers Kat and Tiff give you the scoop on what's really going on with this "sustainable" startup.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links below are paid links.
What We Mentioned
- The Mill kitchen bin
What We Recommend
- Compost bin by GEOBIN
- ShareWaste
- Wastewell
Sources
- Honestly Modern review of kitchen composters and Mill
- The Slate review
- The EPA on food waste in landfills and Food Recovery Hierarchy
- The USDA on industrial composting facilities
- UCLA study on carbon sequestration
- The City of Tacoma food waste program site
Patreon: patreon.com/greeningupmyact
Instagram: @greeningupmyact
Facebook: Greening Up My Act
Email us with questions: greeningupmyact@gmail.com
YouTube: Greening Up My Act
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
I just wish it was finished. Iwish it was like yeah, just took
the product to market. It's likethose pictures they have where
it's like a drawing of a horseand it starts, you know, it's
like really detailed. And thenat the end, it's just like a
kindergartener drew it becausethey were rushed to finish.
That's what this feels like, youknow, they started this really
detailed idea. And then they hadto sell it and it's like, a
(00:23):
popsicle sticks. Andit kind of makes you wonder
like, how what it's like to workat the company. It's probably
insane.
Hello, hi, Tiffany. How are you?
I'm exhausted.
(00:44):
Oh, not as exhausted as youbecause I don't have a kid.
Yeah, I also have vertigocurrently.
I'm so sorry. Yeah, Ifeel like I'm, and I took the
meds for it. And so they made mevery, very sleepy last night.
It's been, you know, full 12hours and I'm still, like,
drugged.
(01:05):
You know, one of my doctors toldme and this is just, you know,
the conspiracy against women inmedicine that like, they don't
dose those meds. Like, how can a250 pound man get the same
sleeping pill dose as 150 poundwoman?
You know, that makes a lot ofsense. Because they change it
(01:26):
based on toddler size. So yeah,like why?
Why am I why is the adult dose50 milligrams for me and 50
milligrams for a man who's 100pounds more than me or even?
Like, hormonally speaking, somesome drugs stay longer and a
woman system?
Oh, interesting. I believe itbecause I am like,
yeah, that's what that's mydoctor was like, they just
(01:48):
prescribe especially like, youknow, sleeping pills like
Trazodone and which is a mildsedative. But like any other
really heavy hitters. Just, youknow, women wake up eight hours
later and still be there. Andthen they go to work and they're
driving their cars to work. Andit's dangerous. You know, and I
don't have any idea that they'rejust drugged up.
(02:09):
Yeah, I had to ask Joe. Iusually drive Charlie in the
morning and I was like, I can'tthere's no way.
Yeah, so I'm good. I'm glad youdidn't.
I know. I think I'm coming offof it. But
just in time for tonight.
Exactly. To go to sleep. Yeah. Ihope it helps. I hope they
figure out what's Virgos awful?
(02:29):
Yeah. So if I'm, like, slurringmy words, that's why.
Okay, good to know. Well, yeah,you
want to draw, I'm just drugged.
You know,I was gonna say, shall we just
go for a glass of wine? Oh,yeah, that would not help. No.
You're off the sauce for awhile? Well, well, welcome to
greening up my act is where wemostly deal with the other
(02:50):
problems of the world, althoughwe do. We do talk about feminist
issues, like the medical system.
Yep. Right. But in reality,we're devoted well, that in
reality, in this podcast, we aredevoted to the tenets of green
living and how we as individualscan make a difference in climate
(03:11):
change and global warming andpollution, even though we do
believe ultimately is theresponsibility of the
corporations that are causingthe most damage. We can do our
best to support companies thatare mitigating the damage, at
least, and hopefully, reduce oreliminate our own contributions
(03:33):
to these things. So we reviewproducts and services every
week, and then rate them on asystem of one to five granolas
five being crunchy break yourtooth off. While the crunchy is
a regular office. A crunchy isone being soggy because soggy
granola is gross. And we're goodhippies and we like crunchy
granola. And then this is allbased on whether or not they
(03:56):
actually work. So theireffectiveness and efficiency,
their cost because if onlymillionaires can afford to be
green, then we're all going todie and their practicality as
well as their actual eco impact.
So if it's something thatdoesn't actually do the thing it
says it's supposed to do interms of green, you know, eco
(04:18):
friendliness then we call itgreen Hui? Yeah, we throw it we
don't throw it in the trash. Werecycle it or composting. We
throw it out or we upcycle it oryes,
we use it and reduce and don'tbuy it in the beginning.
We don't buy it in the firstplace.
Yeah, and we are two marketingwriters. So we are able to look
(04:40):
through the marketing fluff andthe greenwashing and just see
what the reality is. Becausethese companies love to throw
around big words likecompostable biodegradable,
compostable, natural ecofriendly green
Yeah, We know better. And also,you know, we're big readers. So
(05:04):
we do all this research, so youdon't have to let the nerds do
it. Yes. So what are we nerding?
out about this week?
Okay, so this one I'm superpumped about even in my drug
upstate. So we're talking aboutmil Have you heard of this?
I have not. I'm excited. Ah,okay. So
(05:27):
this is funny because I wasmarketed this product on
Instagram. And I was like, Huh,what is mil? And the target
market? Yes, yes, I know. I'msure that other people have seen
it. But it's basically a homekitchen. They call it a kitchen
(05:47):
bin. But wait, I have seen this.
Okay. Yes. I'm sure. Yes. Soit's sort of like a replacement
for home composting. And I waslike, so I really wanted to talk
about home composting because Iwanted to try it. And I was
like, huh, is this a productthat is worth my money and my
time? So it's really interestingbecause it comes from startup
(06:09):
people. So some people who workfor Google nest crew this.
Really? Yes. And I will sayhonestly, it shows.
Oh, well, okay, so that's kindof like when we talked about
Bridwell. And it was kind of thesame thing where it's like he is
in marketing. So he was a techmarketer. Yes.
(06:32):
I think Radwell did a much.
Well, I don't want to give awaythe spoiler, but Redwall did a
really good job. And I'm notnecessarily sure that this is
the samestatus. All right. Well, I'm
intrigued.
Yeah, so Okay, well, I can justget into my sources chart real
(06:53):
quick. I didn't use a millionlike normal. So this is good. So
I use the mill website.
Obviously. There was a review ofmill from honestly modern they
do oh my gosh, this woman Ithink it's just a woman running
this by herself. But thiswebsite is amazing. I have to
shout it out because she's kindof doing a lot of the stuff
(07:18):
we're trying to do. And she doesa great job with it like she
does all the research behind allthose sorts of things. So got a
shout her out. She reviewedkitchen composters and Bill so I
use a couple of her ratiosas she our new St. Nancy. I
think so.
Second Secretary sorry,American, I think she's
(07:39):
American. I might be making thatup. I don't know. I just like
her name is Jen. St. Jen.
Take Jen.
Honestly modern, okay. Yeah, shedid a really good job. Um, and
then there was a slate review ofthe mill of mill, just a product
review. The EPA talks about foodwaste in landfills. And also
(08:00):
they have a food recoveryhierarchy hierarchy chart that I
used. The USDA talks aboutindustrial composting
facilities. And there's a UCLAstudy on carbon sequestration,
which we'll get into. And also Ilooked into this, this is this
is the part that I'm reallyexcited about. But I looked into
(08:21):
the city of Tacoma, their foodwaste program, really is to come
up partnered with mill. And Iwas like, huh, I want to know
more about what they havewithout mill. So we'll get into
that for sure. All right. Somill, what the heck is it? Yes,
it is. Okay, this is just sofunny to me. It's an in home
(08:48):
electric food bin that you keepit in your kitchen and it
dehydrate your food scraps. Soit's a startup created by Google
nest alums, Harry Tannenbaum andMatt Rogers, okay. It's about
it's, I would say the thing isgigantic. I mean, compared to
(09:09):
what you think of It's big. It'slike a standard trash cans size.
And coming from someone whosekitchen is the size of two
postage stamps. That's way toobig for me, but other people
might be able to fit it. So youthrow in your food scraps, and
presumably you can throw inanything. Food wise, even bones
(09:30):
and cheese and meat and all allthese things. You can't compost
at your house, like outside. Andthen you press a button and it
turns the scraps into dried foodand the bin functions to every
night. Well, you can do it everynight. To D they call it D smell
(09:53):
of phi and dehydrate the food.
Okay, So it's basically it's notadvertised as a composter
though, which is in smart ofthem, because it's not really
compost. But people think of itthat way. So that's, that's the
(10:14):
hard thing is it hooey?
No, I will say that we'regetting to a, I will say it's a
we will findout. And then the cool idea that
they have, which is differentthan other because this product
kind of exists, there's a coupleother options. But you actually
take those food scraps that youmake, and you mail them back to
mill. Oh, such a long pause.
(10:40):
It's like,you've mailed them back.
Okay, mail them back. So, yes,because the plan is to turn it
into chicken food and send it tofarms. And so their plan is to
make this whole thing closedloop, which we talked about
closed loop. Last week, or notlast week, I think when we're
(11:04):
talking about plastics, but it'sbasically how do you describe
it? It's basically so you aren'twasting it's like a concept for
stopping waste. Okay. So yeah,so the idea is to turn it into
chicken food, send it to farms,chickens eat it, and then it
(11:27):
doesn't go into the landfills.
But this is future tense. Sothat is the plan. Okay, we're in
the future.
So are they just like storing itin a warehouse somewhere?
I don't know. But what it sayson their website? I mean, I
(11:47):
think they have to be becauseit's currently operating, you
can sign up, you have to be outand get on a waitlist. So I
don't know how many bins areactually out there. But there
are bins out there. And you cansend your food scraps in. So I
don't know where they're puttingthem right now. But apparently
they don't go bad. I don't know.
Because on the website, it sayscurrently, we're working through
(12:08):
the necessary scientific andregulatory processes to
establish a safe and nutritiouschicken feed ingredient that we
can distribute commercially.
We'll share more on our progresslater this year. So those folks
are building the damn plane asit flies.
I was like, I was like,shouldn't that have been done
(12:29):
before? You started collectingmy dehydrated food scraps, too?
Okay. Yeah. Okay. So that isvery Google sounding. You're
right. That is like, right.
Let's really say heard up. Yeah.
I'm like, hey, maybe they won'tmind if we use all of their data
and likenesses. And, you know,it's like, wait a minute, what
are you doing with my? Like,it's gonna end up at the end or
(12:52):
like, right, I actually didn'tdevelop food scrap this is
Soylent Green? Soylent Green isnot people though. It's people's
food scraps, you know, like,No, exactly. It's gonna be like,
Theranos like, yeah, no drop ofblood can definitely get you all
of the things and then you'relike, just a warehouse. No, no,
these are all speculations. Idon't know what's gonna happen
(13:13):
in the future. And they probablyare really trying but you know,
right now, it's like, they justbuilt this really pretty bin. So
it is pretty he's like thisApple White. You know, like, the
company. It's clean wood grainlid, there's an app of course,
but you know, there.
You can monitor your dehydrationprocess from your office if you
(13:36):
feel from your bed. Oh, honey, Iforgot to dehydrate the chicken
food. Okay. Great. We can do itfrom bed turkeys turning the
lights down to Hey.
Yeah, so I just found that sofascinating. Because from
obviously from Instagram, youwould never know that it's not
actually fully functioning andthe way it's in the way it
(13:59):
implies. Right. So, you know, ifyou look at their FAQ, I found
these things on their FAQ, youoften have to look at the FAQ on
the website. So the final D arethe truth. Yeah.
Like Like, you mail them yours.
They don't even have like, Okay,right. Okay, I'm just wrapping
my head around this.
(14:21):
I know. I know. It takes aminute. Okay, so while you wrap
your head around it, so thereare other similar electronics
that are kitchen composters. Ithink these are don't quote me
on this but I think these arepossibly marketed as actual
composters even though it's notreally a composter but they're
(14:44):
called lomi and the food cyclerthose are the two other ones and
according to our new patronsaint, honestly modern Gen.
We're gonna have to tag or belike they these days All of
these options are limited in theways that you can use the dirt
quote, unquote, because it's nottechnically compost. It's, as
(15:08):
mentioned dehydrated foodscraps. And it sounds like you
create so much like imagine allof the scraps of food that you
throw away, and you're creatingthis Dirt Every Day, whatever,
you create so much that it'shard to use it all. Yeah, well,
yeah. Hence, the middlesubscription. I think that was
sort of the goal. Their goal isto create this subscription
(15:31):
trying to solve for what theheck to do with all of this,
quote, unquote, compost that'screated. It's just unfortunate
that they haven't quite figuredout how to do that yet. But
anyway, we'll come back to that.
So mill, as mentioned, is analternative to home composting,
and I wanted to back up a bitand figure out exactly why home
(15:53):
composting or composting ingeneral is a good thing. Because
to be honest, I didn't know. AndI feel like a lot of people are
probably in the same boat.
Well, it's yeah, it's likerecycling, like we're supposed
to do if we don't know really,how or why or what. Yes,
exactly. So that's 1,000% whereI was where I was, and I found
(16:16):
it. I found some reallyinteresting stuff. So what the
heck is compost to start with?
It is a because honestly, Ididn't even I never use compost
in my garden. Even that I buyfrom a store. I probably should,
but I never have have youmix? Yeah, I've used some. Some
composted? Yeah. Okay, we havesome.
(16:37):
I mean, I think it's very goodfor your soil. But yeah. So
my roommate just takes hiscoffee grounds and puts them on
his tomatoes. Sookay, there's all these magic
tricks you can do like that,that either help or kill. I
don't know. Yeah,I would definitely everything.
But we haven't had a singletomato all summer. But I think
that's five degrees.
But well, yeah, you've beenliving in absolute hell. So
(17:00):
yeah, yeah. My God. And it's notbetter yet, is it?
No, it's 107. Oh,my God. Yeah. My friend lives
there, too. So yeah, yeah, it'sAugust 8. And we're still it's
been, what, three weeks? of 100degrees. For we just, I think
we, a few days ago, we tied therecord for most consecutive days
(17:21):
over 100 in a row. And that wasit was 27 at the time, so we
just hit 28. I think we're at 31days in a row of over 100.
So you're blowing past therecord. And that is, yep. Yeah,
nothing to brag about.
No, not a good record. And wehaven't had rain in two weeks.
So everything's dead. Yeah.
Anyway, I live in hell. I do. Iknow. Everybody's like, ha ha ha
(17:42):
Las Vegas is like the Las Vegaswas prepared for our grid just
shuts down. You know, right.
We're notthat my friend Blair said that.
This, the son wakes up every dayand chooses violence.
That is exactly what it feelslike. Like, I'm so sorry. Yeah.
(18:04):
Yeah, we were at 30 days in arow. Yesterday, so today was 31.
All right. Well,for the love of God. Hopefully
it ends soon. I know. I know.
But I mean, that's why compostis important. I don't know.
(18:24):
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I mean,that's exactly it. Yeah,
question mark.
Yeah. So, alright. So to createa less hellish future. Yes, you
can add compost or regular soilto increase the nutrients rather
than using industrialfertilizers. Okay, so yes, it's
(18:46):
great. It's good for the dirt.
Yeah. And it's created bycombining organic material. So
you're gonna combine foodscraps, wood leaves, grass
clippings, and you let it justsit down, sit there, Mother
Nature takes over. It gets superhot. These worms I think this
was a Nancy's book because I useNancy's book as a reference. Oh,
dad put that here. I might nothave oopsie at it. Yes, I used
(19:08):
clean and green her or notactually, I think was her other
one about gardening, but I'lladd it to the I'll add the link.
And she says that worms justcome like a specific type of
worm comes because they knowthat it's time to eat. And yeah,
coming break it all down foryou. Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
(19:31):
I mean, nature is neat.
It truly is. So yes, so I foundfrom the EPA, the Food Recovery
hierarchy graph that Imentioned. Okay. And it's
basically like an upside downfood pyramid.
(19:52):
Yeah, okay. Um,and they say, alright, so the
interesting thing about this oneWas that composting was pretty
low on the hierarchy. So it wasactually just right above
landfill. So it goes, it startsat source reduction, go figure.
(20:14):
So number one reduce, you can doreduce the volume of surplus
food generated. So you have millcoming in here think like
marketing themselves as ifthey're solving something, but
they're actually like way like112345 steps down on the
pyramid. Instead of solving itway higher at the pyramid, which
(20:40):
would be much more effective.
The second one is feed hungrypeople then feed animals, which,
okay, technically, they'renumber three, if they do figure
it out. The other feedinganimals, right? Yeah. Okay. So
if they do figure it out, then,okay, more power to them. That's
fine. Okay, so that'scomposting, in terms of how
(21:06):
effective it is how helpful,impactful it is. But it does
help. This was the mostinteresting thing. And you might
already know this, but I didn'tknow and I wish I'd known a
couple episodes ago, butcomposting significantly reduces
methane emissions compared tolandfills. And how I did not
fully understand this. Butaccording to the EPA, microbes
(21:30):
that produce methane are notpresent if there's oxygen around
during decomposition.
So it's the turning of the,like, the thing with landfills
(21:53):
is that it just gets pie.
There's no oxygen. Yeah, yeah.
And it just rots like, lower andlower and lower. And so
because it's deprived of oxygen,that's why the methane is
produced in landfills.
Interesting. I didn't know this.
I didn't either. I mean, I'm, Idon't really understand the
biological factors that go intoand chemical that go into
(22:15):
decomposition. So yeah,but that was really interesting,
because I was like, oh, that'swhy because I always hear about
methane. But I'm like, but ifyou know, it's still decomp
decomposing. So what's thedifference in that's the
difference?
It's oxygen? Yeah. Well, thereyou go. We weren't meant to put
things in plastic bags and throwthem in landfills,
(22:35):
and then pile tons of otherthings on top.
Tires out. Yeah.
Yeah, well, yeah. So that wasreally interesting. Another
thing that it might help do,it's not really proven yet is
compost might help sequestercarbon, which just means that it
takes carbon out of the air andputs it back into the soil.
(22:57):
I think, yeah, that I mean, thatmakes sense. Yes,
it does kind of make sense. Ifound a UCLA UCLA study that
says there's not enoughdefinitive research to prove
that this actually happens. Butit's possible.
Yeah, okay. I could see it.
(23:18):
Yeah. And then using compost,helps reduce the need for
chemical fertilizers promoteshigher yield crops, enhances
water retention in the soil,which is really big, especially
if you're not getting very muchrain. Hello. Yeah, it can help
reforestation, in wetlandsrestoration. Instead of becoming
(23:40):
compost mill will become chickenfood, which is a different
outcome, although, theoreticallycould be better than compost if
you know if it actually getsthere. Right. Um, so bit about
food waste. We're going to glossover this guest because that's
my next episode. God Oh, yes,that's true. Okay, so I will
(24:02):
just say, like, food waste. Whenit rot, as mentioned, when it
rots without oxygen, it producesmethane that is 80 times more
powerful of greenhouse gas thancarbon dioxide. So it's not good
to have in the air. And even ifthis is from the EPA, even if
(24:28):
fossil fuel emissions werehalted, like stopped, completely
done so today, current trends inthe food system would prevent
the achievement of our goals forlike, not killing
ourselves, right.
food loss and waste represent 8%of manmade greenhouse gas
(24:52):
emissions. Well, 8%That's a lot. I would say. One
place quoted 11% know what I wasreading Who? But yeah, okay. So
it's but I think 8% is thetypically the number they say,
yeah. Okay.
And then I found one thing thatwas interesting that I found is
that I think this was EPA also,they said that roughly half of
(25:15):
food is wasted during theconsumption stage. So like
households or food services.
Yeah. And the most common wastesare fruits and vegetables and
dairy and eggs. Make sense? Itdoes. The fruits and vegetables
definitely makes sense. I waskind of surprised about the
dairy and the eggs, but maybebecause they go,
(25:37):
they do go. I mean, I think it'slike, I'll get what a quart of
milk or something. And like, Ihave a latte a day. So it's not
like I don't have kids that aredrinking milk all the time. It's
easy for me to have milk go bad.
Yeah, that's why I buy organicmilk. But yeah, last longer.
So okay, so back to mill. Theinteresting thing is that mill
(25:59):
has a lot of these stats on itswebsite, but mill isn't
necessarily a solution to foodwaste. We will get into that in
a minute. Well, we're kind ofalready gotten into it. But
yeah. So back to mil. How easyis it to use? Because I kind of
wanted to examine this as aproduct, right. Apparently, it's
(26:21):
as easy as filling it withwhatever, and pressing the
button, and it works overnight.
Okay, like any just any food,apparently. Even soup. I think
someone threw soup. AndI'm sorry. Can I throw a couple
of water in my dehydrator? Okay.
(26:45):
I found it a little nuts. Butwe'll get into why you if you
don't use Miller, you don't wantto do that later. But
yeah, that's an option. Okay.
Okay.
So, um, does mill work?
Technically? Yes. So the slatereview called it kick ass
kitchen experience. It justsounds so startup B,
(27:12):
or paid marketing? Yeah. Well,that.
I mean, yes. So for the slightreview, they sent her a mail
kitchen bin. And she say, okay,yeah, I mean, I'm not saying
she's biased or anything,because it is very pretty. It is
very easy to use. It's, itfunctions it. You don't smell
your food, apparently. I mean,it like it does what it says
(27:34):
it's supposed to do. So does itwork overall? No, not yet.
Because the system isn't figuredout yet.
Like it might work at yourhouse, but it's not going to
like it's not going to chickens.
Yes. It's not being composted?
Yeah.
And it's interesting, because itstill needs FDA approval. And as
(27:54):
of April 2023, it looks likethey hadn't gotten it yet. So
unless something's changed inthe meantime, I don't think they
have it yet. So the wholeproduct seems to focus more on
the tech side of things, thenthe closed loop system, which to
be honest, I'm not really thatsurprised about but it is a
(28:15):
little disappointing.
On it feels kind of wish likely,you know? Yes, it's just another
way for Americans to get trashout of sight out of mind. Right?
And it costs money all boilsdown to that. So it's not free.
Okay. So even if they close theloop, I'm still not convinced to
the product would be worth it.
But mostly because we can't, youknow, recycle our way out of
(28:39):
this problem. Like you said,now, we can't wait to go our way
out. So yeah. Okay, so how muchdoes it cost? It is? Do you want
to hazard a guess? Because Idon't think it's not like
insane, but I'm just curiouswhat you would guess
is it as much as like, we weretalking about Redwall is like
(29:02):
this? Well, Netflix went up. Soit's $16 a month? Is it like a
it's more than that?
25 A little more, really is 30bucks, 33 per month,
but that's when you payannually. So it's more than
that. It's cheaper. Yes. So it'sthat's 396 per year.
(29:23):
Holy crap. Yes. Okay, it's 4545.
Okay, so it's $33 per month whenyou pay annually, which is the
cheaper option, and then you getthe free bin delivery. If you
pay monthly, it's 45 per month,and then you also have to pay a
$75 bin delivery. And you musthave the membership. So you
(29:44):
can't just buy the bin. You haveto send the foods or at least
you don't have to send them butyou have to pay to send them the
food scraps back so you might aswell okay. So it's a little bit
ridiculous. In my opinion,Because how much would you say
Red Bull was in 1614 1414? Okay,yeah, well, I'm that's it. They
(30:06):
don't take food though, butyeah,
well, sure. Okay. Yeah. Well,we'll get into a little bit more
of like, yeah. Why this is alittle absurd. Okay, this is
kind of the crazy part. Theslate review says that mill
could save you on the cost ofyour garbage if your city or
(30:27):
your location charges based onhow much you throw out. And
okay, the review says thatTacoma the review uses Tacoma as
their example. And I found outthat Tacoma and mill did a
little partnership. Some citieslike to do that. And
interesting. Yeah, so they doTacoma, I think does charge
(30:51):
based on how much how, how manybags of garbage you have. But
according to Tacomas websitelike their city's website, it
says, quote, to come up providesfood and yard waste service at
no extra cost as part of yourmonthly garbage bill. Customers
(31:14):
can request up to 290 gallonbrown food and yard waste bins
at no extra cost. A third foodand yard waste bin can be
requested for an additional $3 amonth.
Okay, well, so what the hell?
Yeah,I was so confused. I'm like, why
would anybody pay $45 a month?
(31:36):
If they get it forfree? Right? Well,
yeah, I mean, I get it if you'rein a place that doesn't do
composting at all, like no snowcollection. Okay, that makes
sense. And even then, that'sthat's half the I feel like
there's gotta be other programsin your city. Like some farm is
(31:56):
gotta be willing to take youknow?
Yes. And actually, honestly,modern suggested that sort of
thing. Like you could even ifthere's nothing you can ask a
farm if they want your foodscraps for their chickens
because they might.
Yeah, or for their compost heap.
Yeah, yeah. And why are yourneighbors Oh,
(32:17):
we'll get into this. Well, yeah.
When I hit bunny rabbits,because bunny waste is
completely compostable andactually really, really good.
Oh, wow. I had no idea we Yeah,people would ask for the bunny
waste. Sofascinating. Yeah. Meanwhile,
like dog poop is the absoluteworst. So
you cannot use dog poop. Youcan't put it in your bed. You
(32:39):
can't you do not want it in yourgarden. It is too full of
bacteria. Yeah,frickin dogs. Why do we have
dogs as pets? I'm going throughwith my dog right now. So
I'm like my news. I just heardhim juggle this collar outside
my door. Socute. So yeah, no, my dogs cute
too. She just paid me.
(32:59):
I get you. I hear I hear you.
So, okay, so there's all thatand I was so confused. I'm still
confused about the Tacoma thing.
It feels pretty misleading. Buthey, that's just my take. Yes,
so is mill actually ecofriendly? Honestly modern. My
(33:20):
new favorite hero sweet angelthey sweet age. She says quote
for the majority of people inelectric kitchen composter is a
waste of money. More greenwashedthan green and is not the best
way to compost at home. GreenHui. Okay, not to mention there
are more emissions created andpackaging mailing in your food
(33:42):
scraps in a subscription box.
I was gonna say like, how dothey like how to get past that?
You know,because that's the thing with
red. Well, they've read well,partners with
local write London, notcompanies, and they pick it up
from your door. They do aneighbor, one neighbor, you
(34:03):
know, it's to your wholeneighborhood and in one day, so
they're not like, I mean, it, Iget it. And they're using
reusable bags, so you get like apaper bag. And then point that
out last time. You're not likepackaging it up. If they give
you a canvas bag, that they thenwash and reuse, you know, oh,
cool. So,yeah, I think this one I'm not I
(34:23):
don't know if I wrote this downanywhere, but I think it comes
in one of those like recyclableplastic bags. Sure. Which of you
listen to our plastic recyclingepisode, you know, is
Greenaway Oh, yes, yes. Greenessence of radio. Yeah. Wow.
Okay. Soyes. Yeah, so the EPA says like
(34:44):
is the EPA if the EPA couldreview mill they would say
something to the to the sent ofenvironmental impact savings.
Basically, lowering yourenvironmental impact can only be
achieved through prevention orsource reduction of food loss
(35:09):
and waste. Recycling of foodwaste cannot achieve these
benefits since a substantialfraction of the impacts occurred
during the primary production ofthe Okay,
yes, we need dole to quit overproducing food. And we need
people and grocery stores quitthrowing it away. Yes. Yeah,
(35:32):
absolutely. The bin also useselectricity.
Right? Did we mentioned I wasgonna say yeah.
(35:52):
Does it doesn't come with itsown Tesla battery. It's not like
solar powered or when powered.
It's straight out of your coalpower plant in West Virginia,
wherever, youknow, and mill on its website
says that it's about the sameamount of energy per day as an
energy efficient dishwasher. Butas mentioned before, it depends
on what's what you're scrapping,because so soup for us to take
long,take longer and take a lot more
(36:15):
energy.
It's really like the idea ofthrowing your chicken noodle
soup andcrazy. Yeah. I don't know, man.
A lot of people just really wantit to
do just get out of sight out ofmind.
I don't blame him, right. Likeevery wish composting. Mm hmm,
exactly. So I'm calling thisgreen hui for sure. Mill claims
(36:42):
that they are partnering withUSPS to ship food grounds
because they're already visitingalmost okay. This is the other
thing. USPS is already visitingalmost every house every day.
Yeah. And since middlehouseholds will on average send
just one box of food grounds.
Every few weeks, USPS vehicleswill have the capacity to manage
the load.
(37:05):
Let's just give the USPS onemore job to do because you know
they're not underfunded orunderstaffed or overworked. Hey,
could you pick up our foodtrash? Yeah. Well, yeah, literal
box of trash.
Right? Well, okay, at least itdoesn't smell but yeah,
I guess I mean, but still, it'ssimply could you imagine like, I
(37:26):
don't know, it's kind of a slapin the face to it's like, I just
had all this food. I justcouldn't eat it. So I put it in
my dehydrator, then put it in abox, and I'm shipping it off to
be eaten by chickens. Can youtake care of that for me, Sam?
Like, it just feels sodisconnected from
I bought too much organic kalefrom the farmers market. You
(37:48):
just couldn't read all of it?
Which Hey, so do I mean I dothat? Yeah.
I do it too. But like, I alsopay 36 $45 a month to have to
have it like, so I don't haveto. So I can keep doing this and
notworry about it. Yeah, I mean,
that's exactly what it is.
They're also kind of sayinglike, their main point about the
(38:10):
USPS thing is that they'realready coming to every house.
So the emissions don't reallycount. Right? I'm like, Okay, I
guess. Yeah, they don't come tomy house every day. That's for
dangerwhile they drive out. I mean,
they do my own neighborhood. Soif I have family come to my
house, but yeah, it's like,they're not picking. I don't
know. I that would be, it'd benice if they would say and we're
(38:32):
gonna subsidize USPS becauseAmazon already does that they
use the USPS, you know, and it'slike, oh, because Jeff Bezos can
afford to, like pay drivers forit, right? No, you're right.
You're totally right about that.
Like, yeah, that's already putit on our stress federal
infrastructure. Right. Andmaybe if this Yeah, if it takes
off, it could create more, a lotmore.
(38:56):
Right. And it's not like they'regonna get more federal funding.
So I that bothers me. Yeah, Iget that. It does make sense. It
sounds cute. But it's like, areyou contributing to the USPS? Or
just like, I think that's onething I like about red. Well,
they're not like and then wehave the overall US postal
worker pick up your trashlike Exactly. And that's
actually honestly modern madethat exact point that we should
(39:18):
be shipping. If we're going tobe doing this. We should be
shipping it to local farms. Yes,like read well, yes. They
figured it out. You can figureit out, too.
Yeah, do a little legwork. Itdoes sound very sorry to be yes.
Like do we solve this problem?
No, you didn't. Yeah, we'resaving the world. Oh, wait.
(39:39):
Not at all. Yeah, okay. I'm kindof angry.
I know. I know. I was a littlebit too. I found it really
interesting. Okay, so the oneother problem is that slate this
the person the reviewer forSlate obviously really liked
this product but Okay, theysaid, You don't have to use it
(40:03):
forever. Try it for a few monthsget in the habit of doing
something with food besideschucking it in the trash, which
is exactly what you're doing.
But that's fine, then switch towhatever strategy works best in
your region and for your life.
And the problem is that you haveto ship this huge bin back to
them. That's so insane to me. Soyou get this bin shipped to you.
(40:27):
And they do take the bins back.
So they are at least claimingresponsibility for the lifecycle
of the bins. But they don't yet.
It sounds like they don't yethave a plan for what to do with
the bins. That the used bins.
I'm sure they could find it. Ithink it says that they're
(40:47):
developing plans for workingwith nonprofits or something
like they could find somethingto do with them. And you could
probably sell it cheaper beenfor whatever for a reduced
subscription price, whatever.
But it's it's big. And it'sshipping. Packaging. It's all
the things so try for a couplemonths ship it the whole thing
(41:09):
back to that like what? Yeah,yeah. So I think it would 1,000%
encourage people to throw foodaway rather than actively trying
to reduce their food waste.
Yeah. So my rating is dented.
And here comes the, the granolarating everyone.
(41:35):
Yeah, so TLDR slash granolarating section. We rate as we
mentioned, rate, everything.
It's either soggy, sticky,Chewy, crunchy, or break your
tooth off. You want it to be ascrunchy as possible. This one
I'm going to say sticky, whichis the number two. So two out of
five. Okay, so soggy, not soggy,which maybe you could argue with
(41:58):
me. But there's not a localsolution. So it requires a lot
of shipping and packaging. It'snot a closed loop yet. It's
truly because it's not a closedloop yet. It makes you want to
make it soggy, but it solves theproblem at the bottom of the
pyramid rather than the top. Andit fails to encourage people to
reduce their food waste and infact might do the opposite.
(42:22):
Okay. Yeah, I agree with you. Ithink it's similar to my I had a
similar rating to fast fashionthread love. Yeah. Yeah. Or
throw it out. Yeah. Throw it up.
Yeah, yes. Yeah. Like, it justmaybe it's a green bandaid, you
know, yeah. It's like,a band aid. Yeah, it's, it's
(42:43):
like a just kind of covers upthe problem rather than actually
solving it.
Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely.
That's a bummer. But I just havelike, this is such a San
Francisco, you know, such aGoogle nest thing to do.
(43:04):
Usually like Google, I thinkthey have innovative products
and stuff that's under Yeah,it's just like, well, actually,
like my nest. Yeah, I love nest.
But these people aren't. And Ithink they do have like a I
don't I'm not sure this is true.
But I think they have like aboard of, you know, people who
are actually experts in foodwaste, okay.
Whatever. We, I just wish it wasfinished. I wish it was like you
(43:26):
just took the product to market.
It's like those pictures theyhave where it's like, a drawing
of a horse and it starts, youknow, it's like really detailed.
And then at the end, it's justlike a kindergartener drew it
because they were rushed tofinish this with the seals,
like, you know, they startedthis really detailed idea. And
then they had to sell it, andit's like, popsicle sticks. And
(43:48):
it kind of makes you wonder,like, how, what it's like to
work at the company. It'sprobably I mean, saying,
you know, what, maybe, and maybethis is kind of a pilot. I mean,
how many do they say how manypeople they have? They didn't
say that I could find or howmany cities? I mean, it's and
yeah, I mean, that's one thing.
It's any, you could do it fromMontana as easily as you could
(44:09):
do it from? Yeah, New York.
Right. That's nice.
Right? Yeah, it's um, theydidn't say but and there is like
a waitlist. I have no idea howlong the waitlist is, though. So
okay, well, but they do say thatthey're sending more out all the
time. So they're definitely outthere.
(44:30):
I mean, it again, makes us asAmericans feel better about how
much shit we waste.
So I wanted to look into otheroptions for home compost. Oh,
yeah. Because it's like, what dowe do instead of this? Pretty
but dumb product.
Maybe the wave of the future andthen the city will start
(44:52):
offering it in a couple months.
Probably. Yeah. So one reallycool thing I found It was a
local option that sort of like Imentioned, like we were saying,
like find local compostingoptions. There's this website
called Share waste, okay? Andit's a website where you can
(45:14):
search for local home compostersor chicken owners and you can
and they basically sign up tobecome a host. And you can also
sign up to become a host. Andyou can bring your food scraps
there. So they volunteer toaccept other people's food
scraps. And I looked and therewere several in my area, at
(45:35):
least probably 10. Okay, wow. Sothat was pretty cool. So it's
like your, your neighbor, if youdon't even know them, they might
be willing to take your yourfood scraps for their compost
bin, sothat's cool. Yeah. And I feel
like that's like a really localsolution. Yes.
(45:57):
I love it. And also, I feel likeit would create more community
because you meet your neighborslike
the Buy Nothing group. Yeah,yes. Yeah, exactly. Compost.
Yeah, I love that. Throw nothingout.
Yeah. Throw no food scrap, nofood scrap left on dehydrated.
No food scrap left, whatis their next the next
(46:22):
iteration, that's definitelygoing to be the name.
In a lot of places like New inmy area, they do do this
curbside compost pickup, but I'mnot my house is just outside of
the pickup area, which you alsoyou have compost pickup.
(46:43):
I do it because I live in themagical city of Austin. Yes.
It but if your governmentdoesn't offer it like, you don't
have that option. You can checkfor a local pickup company. I
think this is a private companyin Pennsylvania and Delaware.
There's one called waste well,and they do basically exactly
that. And you pay, I don't know,some amount of money. It's I
(47:06):
don't remember it beingexorbitant. But I looked that up
in my area. And I see fivecompanies that actually went for
that. Yeah. So that's an option.
Yeah. Um,again, the carbon footprint
concerns me somewhat. But again,if they're just doing one, one
car per neighborhood, it'sprobably better than you 40
People trucking it out to afarmers, right?
(47:29):
Yeah. Well, and that's my nextnext option is you take it to
your drop off site, which is anoption for me. We have a
facility that will actuallyprocess this stuff. And there
are apparently 4700 facilitiesin the United States according
to the USDA. Oh, the nice thingis that you can bring bio
(47:55):
plastics a lot of the time. Sothat's like
your the compostable forks, yes,your plant
based boxes and stuff like that.
And mine also accepts meat andbones. They accept pizza boxes,
wooden chopsticks, paper towelsthat don't have chemicals or
cleaning products. And lots ofcool things like that.
(48:19):
So that was like so that's cool.
Yeah, I just looked up. Yeah,my, like an Austin and I didn't
know that I could recyclechicken bones and they are not
recycled, but compost cones andpizza boxes. So yeah, that's
news to me. Yeah, that'sreally cool. And those things
aren't super disgusting. So youget I feel like you could pretty
easily take them without itbeing like super gross in your
(48:41):
car. Yeah.
Or tissues, you know? Yeah. It'snot soup. It's on a bucket of
soup.
five gallon bucket just sloshingsoup.
Like soiled five day old suit.
Yeah.
Imagine handing it to them.
They're like,really excited. I've talked to
dehydrate it.
(49:05):
So I really need to start doingthis. I want to start doing it.
But the other thing I starteddoing, which was really fun, and
I'm slightly obsessed with it isI just set up finally my home
compost system. Because if youhave space in a little yard or
space in I have a big yard toobig. I'm not bragging. I hate
(49:27):
it. But how dare you? It's wellit's like just yard. There's the
lady before us cut down all thetrees and it's still want to cry
about it. So yeah, we're tryingto help it but anyway. Yeah,
there's a lot of differentoptions. Mine was really easy to
(49:48):
set up. It's from Geo Ben. Wecan link it and it was 3599 on
Amazon. I actually didn't buyit. My county provide it there's
like a, it's at the library.
It's a Master Gardeners program,but they give them away for
free. So look into that, becauseyou might be able to find one
for free. And it is rudimentaryat best, but it's totally
(50:13):
functional. So like, it's itmatters. Yeah, it's basically
just like a little skillet.
Well, it's not little, it'spretty big, but it's like a
cylinder that you can actuallychoose the size. So that's kind
of nice. But you just, it'sbasically a little round cage
for your compost, and it's openon top. It took about 10 minutes
(50:36):
to set it up. So I really so farlike it. I've already thrown in
like some lettuce, some cornhusks, some berries that went
bad I've thrown in. And thentons of leaves and stuff, but it
was really fun because I waslike, I weeded my garden. And I
was like, oh, throw those in.
Because apparently you can throwweeds and it's fine.
(51:00):
Yeah, we do grass clippings heretoo. And weeds. Yeah.
Yeah. And Nancy birtwhistle hassome advice. Yeah, she and her
in her gardening book. She hassome advice on composting. And
it's basically this is the verynot meat and potatoes version
(51:21):
is. That's not the rightanalogy. Anyway. It's like very
basic version, but it's like youhave to separate she calls it
dry from wet and a lot of placescall it green from Brown. But
that she found that a littleconfusing. And so do I because
(51:42):
it's like your something mightactually be brown. But actually.
Yeah, I mean, yeah. So yeah, heridea is like, if it's fresh,
like a fresh plant or something,or I don't know, she separately
separates it based on like dry.
So dry is like your paper, yourcardboard your sticks, your wood
chips, that type of thingleaves.
(52:08):
Dilute WC Yeah, brown again. Butyeah, not always. But yeah.
And yeah, and then you justcreate layers. So I'm going at
it, like really haphazard, I'mnot being particular about it.
So we'll see where it goes.
Oh, excited. But yeah, that'sthe I learned that again,
because bunny rabbits we used alike the litter that I would use
(52:30):
was like made out of oldnewspapers. So that's the dry
and then they pee on to that,which makes it wet. And then
their poop is wet. And then theyhave hay which is dry. So it's
like the perfect compostable.
Whoa, Bunny litters the perfectcompostable material.
That's amazing. Yeah. Charlieloves bunnies. Maybe we should
get one.
Wait till she's old enough totake care of it. I will talk you
(52:55):
out of getting a bunny. Yeah, Iagree. I love them. But not for
little children for sure.
Yeah. Well, and not for a dogthat kills bunnies.
Well, I don't know my dog. Youhad a separate indoor from
outdoor. Oh, weird. My used Idon't think would well he grew
up with them. Yeah. Okay, thathelps. So he used to protect,
like, if another dog came over,he'd get between the new dogs
(53:18):
and my bunnies. Those are mybunnies. Oh, I never left them
alone together. But yeah. Butwell, that's okay. Yeah. Don't
Yeah, composting is.
Yeah, so there are there arereasons so home composting gets
a break your teeth off? JustYes. Composting in general.
Great. But the mill been not sogreat. Work needs work.
(53:45):
Finished the horse drawing.
Yeah, so that's, that's all Ihave.
Well, that was great. Thank youfor that. I feel I do feel so I
did the research for next week,which I can talk about. Now.
Next week, we're gonna betalking about food waste, and
the ugly food movement. And itthese dovetail very nicely
(54:08):
because part of food waste isjust how much junk not junk how
much food Americans throw away.
So yes. You can't talk aboutfood waste without talking about
compost. Right. So yeah,exactly. That but Amma you know,
I just can't help but laugh athow what a cute marketing effort
the middle is and I know howunfortunate it is that it's not
(54:33):
quite fully fleshed, I guess.
Yes.
I just I can just pictureemployees sitting at their desk
like we have to launch thistomorrow.
While some Yeah, so venturecapitalists is like yes, I got a
product it's like thoroughness.
Right yeah. Like yeah, yeah,just takes a drop of blood. I
(54:53):
mean, the the can dehydrate soupYep.
Yep, yep. All right, well, well,thank you for listening. And
yeah, definitely leave us areview if you haven't yet
because that is very helpful.
And it's so fun The more peopleYeah, so just scroll down
(55:14):
wherever you're listening andjust hit that five star button.
Yeah, give us five. Breakertwo's off. Yeah.
I have nothing. Okay. All right.
Well, didn't try to think ofanything, but I got another good
feel better. Yes. Thank you.
(55:35):
I hope I made it, man. Yeah, youdidn't. You didn't slur your
words to not too many. Awesome.
All right. Okay.
I just wish it was finished. Iwish it was like yeah, just took
the product to market. It's likethose pictures they have where
it's like a drawing of a horseand it starts, you know, it's
like really detailed. And thenat the end, it's just like a
kindergartener drew it becausethey were rushed to finish.
That's what this feels like, youknow, they started this really
detailed idea. And then they hadto sell it and it's like, a
(00:23):
popsicle sticks. Andit kind of makes you wonder
like, how what it's like to workat the company. It's probably
insane.
Hello, hi, Tiffany. How are you?
I'm exhausted.
(00:44):
Oh, not as exhausted as youbecause I don't have a kid.
Yeah, I also have vertigocurrently.
I'm so sorry. Yeah, Ifeel like I'm, and I took the
meds for it. And so they made mevery, very sleepy last night.
It's been, you know, full 12hours and I'm still, like,
drugged.
(01:05):
You know, one of my doctors toldme and this is just, you know,
the conspiracy against women inmedicine that like, they don't
dose those meds. Like, how can a250 pound man get the same
sleeping pill dose as 150 poundwoman?
You know, that makes a lot ofsense. Because they change it
(01:26):
based on toddler size. So yeah,like why?
Why am I why is the adult dose50 milligrams for me and 50
milligrams for a man who's 100pounds more than me or even?
Like, hormonally speaking, somesome drugs stay longer and a
woman system?
Oh, interesting. I believe itbecause I am like,
yeah, that's what that's mydoctor was like, they just
(01:48):
prescribe especially like, youknow, sleeping pills like
Trazodone and which is a mildsedative. But like any other
really heavy hitters. Just, youknow, women wake up eight hours
later and still be there. Andthen they go to work and they're
driving their cars to work. Andit's dangerous. You know, and I
don't have any idea that they'rejust drugged up.
(02:09):
Yeah, I had to ask Joe. Iusually drive Charlie in the
morning and I was like, I can'tthere's no way.
Yeah, so I'm good. I'm glad youdidn't.
I know. I think I'm coming offof it. But
just in time for tonight.
Exactly. To go to sleep. Yeah. Ihope it helps. I hope they
figure out what's Virgos awful?
(02:29):
Yeah. So if I'm, like, slurringmy words, that's why.
Okay, good to know. Well, yeah,you
want to draw, I'm just drugged.
You know,I was gonna say, shall we just
go for a glass of wine? Oh,yeah, that would not help. No.
You're off the sauce for awhile? Well, well, welcome to
greening up my act is where wemostly deal with the other
(02:50):
problems of the world, althoughwe do. We do talk about feminist
issues, like the medical system.
Yep. Right. But in reality,we're devoted well, that in
reality, in this podcast, we aredevoted to the tenets of green
living and how we as individualscan make a difference in climate
(03:11):
change and global warming andpollution, even though we do
believe ultimately is theresponsibility of the
corporations that are causingthe most damage. We can do our
best to support companies thatare mitigating the damage, at
least, and hopefully, reduce oreliminate our own contributions
(03:33):
to these things. So we reviewproducts and services every
week, and then rate them on asystem of one to five granolas
five being crunchy break yourtooth off. While the crunchy is
a regular office. A crunchy isone being soggy because soggy
granola is gross. And we're goodhippies and we like crunchy
granola. And then this is allbased on whether or not they
(03:56):
actually work. So theireffectiveness and efficiency,
their cost because if onlymillionaires can afford to be
green, then we're all going todie and their practicality as
well as their actual eco impact.
So if it's something thatdoesn't actually do the thing it
says it's supposed to do interms of green, you know, eco
(04:18):
friendliness then we call itgreen Hui? Yeah, we throw it we
don't throw it in the trash. Werecycle it or composting. We
throw it out or we upcycle it oryes,
we use it and reduce and don'tbuy it in the beginning.
We don't buy it in the firstplace.
Yeah, and we are two marketingwriters. So we are able to look
(04:40):
through the marketing fluff andthe greenwashing and just see
what the reality is. Becausethese companies love to throw
around big words likecompostable biodegradable,
compostable, natural ecofriendly green
Yeah, We know better. And also,you know, we're big readers. So
(05:04):
we do all this research, so youdon't have to let the nerds do
it. Yes. So what are we nerding?
out about this week?
Okay, so this one I'm superpumped about even in my drug
upstate. So we're talking aboutmil Have you heard of this?
I have not. I'm excited. Ah,okay. So
(05:27):
this is funny because I wasmarketed this product on
Instagram. And I was like, Huh,what is mil? And the target
market? Yes, yes, I know. I'msure that other people have seen
it. But it's basically a homekitchen. They call it a kitchen
(05:47):
bin. But wait, I have seen this.
Okay. Yes. I'm sure. Yes. Soit's sort of like a replacement
for home composting. And I waslike, so I really wanted to talk
about home composting because Iwanted to try it. And I was
like, huh, is this a productthat is worth my money and my
time? So it's really interestingbecause it comes from startup
(06:09):
people. So some people who workfor Google nest crew this.
Really? Yes. And I will sayhonestly, it shows.
Oh, well, okay, so that's kindof like when we talked about
Bridwell. And it was kind of thesame thing where it's like he is
in marketing. So he was a techmarketer. Yes.
(06:32):
I think Radwell did a much.
Well, I don't want to give awaythe spoiler, but Redwall did a
really good job. And I'm notnecessarily sure that this is
the samestatus. All right. Well, I'm
intrigued.
Yeah, so Okay, well, I can justget into my sources chart real
(06:53):
quick. I didn't use a millionlike normal. So this is good. So
I use the mill website.
Obviously. There was a review ofmill from honestly modern they
do oh my gosh, this woman Ithink it's just a woman running
this by herself. But thiswebsite is amazing. I have to
shout it out because she's kindof doing a lot of the stuff
(07:18):
we're trying to do. And she doesa great job with it like she
does all the research behind allthose sorts of things. So got a
shout her out. She reviewedkitchen composters and Bill so I
use a couple of her ratiosas she our new St. Nancy. I
think so.
Second Secretary sorry,American, I think she's
(07:39):
American. I might be making thatup. I don't know. I just like
her name is Jen. St. Jen.
Take Jen.
Honestly modern, okay. Yeah, shedid a really good job. Um, and
then there was a slate review ofthe mill of mill, just a product
review. The EPA talks about foodwaste in landfills. And also
(08:00):
they have a food recoveryhierarchy hierarchy chart that I
used. The USDA talks aboutindustrial composting
facilities. And there's a UCLAstudy on carbon sequestration,
which we'll get into. And also Ilooked into this, this is this
is the part that I'm reallyexcited about. But I looked into
(08:21):
the city of Tacoma, their foodwaste program, really is to come
up partnered with mill. And Iwas like, huh, I want to know
more about what they havewithout mill. So we'll get into
that for sure. All right. Somill, what the heck is it? Yes,
it is. Okay, this is just sofunny to me. It's an in home
(08:48):
electric food bin that you keepit in your kitchen and it
dehydrate your food scraps. Soit's a startup created by Google
nest alums, Harry Tannenbaum andMatt Rogers, okay. It's about
it's, I would say the thing isgigantic. I mean, compared to
(09:09):
what you think of It's big. It'slike a standard trash cans size.
And coming from someone whosekitchen is the size of two
postage stamps. That's way toobig for me, but other people
might be able to fit it. So youthrow in your food scraps, and
presumably you can throw inanything. Food wise, even bones
(09:30):
and cheese and meat and all allthese things. You can't compost
at your house, like outside. Andthen you press a button and it
turns the scraps into dried foodand the bin functions to every
night. Well, you can do it everynight. To D they call it D smell
(09:53):
of phi and dehydrate the food.
Okay, So it's basically it's notadvertised as a composter
though, which is in smart ofthem, because it's not really
compost. But people think of itthat way. So that's, that's the
(10:14):
hard thing is it hooey?
No, I will say that we'regetting to a, I will say it's a
we will findout. And then the cool idea that
they have, which is differentthan other because this product
kind of exists, there's a coupleother options. But you actually
take those food scraps that youmake, and you mail them back to
mill. Oh, such a long pause.
(10:40):
It's like,you've mailed them back.
Okay, mail them back. So, yes,because the plan is to turn it
into chicken food and send it tofarms. And so their plan is to
make this whole thing closedloop, which we talked about
closed loop. Last week, or notlast week, I think when we're
(11:04):
talking about plastics, but it'sbasically how do you describe
it? It's basically so you aren'twasting it's like a concept for
stopping waste. Okay. So yeah,so the idea is to turn it into
chicken food, send it to farms,chickens eat it, and then it
(11:27):
doesn't go into the landfills.
But this is future tense. Sothat is the plan. Okay, we're in
the future.
So are they just like storing itin a warehouse somewhere?
I don't know. But what it sayson their website? I mean, I
(11:47):
think they have to be becauseit's currently operating, you
can sign up, you have to be outand get on a waitlist. So I
don't know how many bins areactually out there. But there
are bins out there. And you cansend your food scraps in. So I
don't know where they're puttingthem right now. But apparently
they don't go bad. I don't know.
Because on the website, it sayscurrently, we're working through
(12:08):
the necessary scientific andregulatory processes to
establish a safe and nutritiouschicken feed ingredient that we
can distribute commercially.
We'll share more on our progresslater this year. So those folks
are building the damn plane asit flies.
I was like, I was like,shouldn't that have been done
(12:29):
before? You started collectingmy dehydrated food scraps, too?
Okay. Yeah. Okay. So that isvery Google sounding. You're
right. That is like, right.
Let's really say heard up. Yeah.
I'm like, hey, maybe they won'tmind if we use all of their data
and likenesses. And, you know,it's like, wait a minute, what
are you doing with my? Like,it's gonna end up at the end or
(12:52):
like, right, I actually didn'tdevelop food scrap this is
Soylent Green? Soylent Green isnot people though. It's people's
food scraps, you know, like,No, exactly. It's gonna be like,
Theranos like, yeah, no drop ofblood can definitely get you all
of the things and then you'relike, just a warehouse. No, no,
these are all speculations. Idon't know what's gonna happen
(13:13):
in the future. And they probablyare really trying but you know,
right now, it's like, they justbuilt this really pretty bin. So
it is pretty he's like thisApple White. You know, like, the
company. It's clean wood grainlid, there's an app of course,
but you know, there.
You can monitor your dehydrationprocess from your office if you
(13:36):
feel from your bed. Oh, honey, Iforgot to dehydrate the chicken
food. Okay. Great. We can do itfrom bed turkeys turning the
lights down to Hey.
Yeah, so I just found that sofascinating. Because from
obviously from Instagram, youwould never know that it's not
actually fully functioning andthe way it's in the way it
(13:59):
implies. Right. So, you know, ifyou look at their FAQ, I found
these things on their FAQ, youoften have to look at the FAQ on
the website. So the final D arethe truth. Yeah.
Like Like, you mail them yours.
They don't even have like, Okay,right. Okay, I'm just wrapping
my head around this.
(14:21):
I know. I know. It takes aminute. Okay, so while you wrap
your head around it, so thereare other similar electronics
that are kitchen composters. Ithink these are don't quote me
on this but I think these arepossibly marketed as actual
composters even though it's notreally a composter but they're
(14:44):
called lomi and the food cyclerthose are the two other ones and
according to our new patronsaint, honestly modern Gen.
We're gonna have to tag or belike they these days All of
these options are limited in theways that you can use the dirt
quote, unquote, because it's nottechnically compost. It's, as
(15:08):
mentioned dehydrated foodscraps. And it sounds like you
create so much like imagine allof the scraps of food that you
throw away, and you're creatingthis Dirt Every Day, whatever,
you create so much that it'shard to use it all. Yeah, well,
yeah. Hence, the middlesubscription. I think that was
sort of the goal. Their goal isto create this subscription
(15:31):
trying to solve for what theheck to do with all of this,
quote, unquote, compost that'screated. It's just unfortunate
that they haven't quite figuredout how to do that yet. But
anyway, we'll come back to that.
So mill, as mentioned, is analternative to home composting,
and I wanted to back up a bitand figure out exactly why home
(15:53):
composting or composting ingeneral is a good thing. Because
to be honest, I didn't know. AndI feel like a lot of people are
probably in the same boat.
Well, it's yeah, it's likerecycling, like we're supposed
to do if we don't know really,how or why or what. Yes,
exactly. So that's 1,000% whereI was where I was, and I found
(16:16):
it. I found some reallyinteresting stuff. So what the
heck is compost to start with?
It is a because honestly, Ididn't even I never use compost
in my garden. Even that I buyfrom a store. I probably should,
but I never have have youmix? Yeah, I've used some. Some
composted? Yeah. Okay, we havesome.
(16:37):
I mean, I think it's very goodfor your soil. But yeah. So
my roommate just takes hiscoffee grounds and puts them on
his tomatoes. Sookay, there's all these magic
tricks you can do like that,that either help or kill. I
don't know. Yeah,I would definitely everything.
But we haven't had a singletomato all summer. But I think
that's five degrees.
But well, yeah, you've beenliving in absolute hell. So
(17:00):
yeah, yeah. My God. And it's notbetter yet, is it?
No, it's 107. Oh,my God. Yeah. My friend lives
there, too. So yeah, yeah, it'sAugust 8. And we're still it's
been, what, three weeks? of 100degrees. For we just, I think
we, a few days ago, we tied therecord for most consecutive days
(17:21):
over 100 in a row. And that wasit was 27 at the time, so we
just hit 28. I think we're at 31days in a row of over 100.
So you're blowing past therecord. And that is, yep. Yeah,
nothing to brag about.
No, not a good record. And wehaven't had rain in two weeks.
So everything's dead. Yeah.
Anyway, I live in hell. I do. Iknow. Everybody's like, ha ha ha
(17:42):
Las Vegas is like the Las Vegaswas prepared for our grid just
shuts down. You know, right.
We're notthat my friend Blair said that.
This, the son wakes up every dayand chooses violence.
That is exactly what it feelslike. Like, I'm so sorry. Yeah.
(18:04):
Yeah, we were at 30 days in arow. Yesterday, so today was 31.
All right. Well,for the love of God. Hopefully
it ends soon. I know. I know.
But I mean, that's why compostis important. I don't know.
(18:24):
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I mean,that's exactly it. Yeah,
question mark.
Yeah. So, alright. So to createa less hellish future. Yes, you
can add compost or regular soilto increase the nutrients rather
than using industrialfertilizers. Okay, so yes, it's
(18:46):
great. It's good for the dirt.
Yeah. And it's created bycombining organic material. So
you're gonna combine foodscraps, wood leaves, grass
clippings, and you let it justsit down, sit there, Mother
Nature takes over. It gets superhot. These worms I think this
was a Nancy's book because I useNancy's book as a reference. Oh,
dad put that here. I might nothave oopsie at it. Yes, I used
(19:08):
clean and green her or notactually, I think was her other
one about gardening, but I'lladd it to the I'll add the link.
And she says that worms justcome like a specific type of
worm comes because they knowthat it's time to eat. And yeah,
coming break it all down foryou. Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
(19:31):
I mean, nature is neat.
It truly is. So yes, so I foundfrom the EPA, the Food Recovery
hierarchy graph that Imentioned. Okay. And it's
basically like an upside downfood pyramid.
(19:52):
Yeah, okay. Um,and they say, alright, so the
interesting thing about this oneWas that composting was pretty
low on the hierarchy. So it wasactually just right above
landfill. So it goes, it startsat source reduction, go figure.
(20:14):
So number one reduce, you can doreduce the volume of surplus
food generated. So you have millcoming in here think like
marketing themselves as ifthey're solving something, but
they're actually like way like112345 steps down on the
pyramid. Instead of solving itway higher at the pyramid, which
(20:40):
would be much more effective.
The second one is feed hungrypeople then feed animals, which,
okay, technically, they'renumber three, if they do figure
it out. The other feedinganimals, right? Yeah. Okay. So
if they do figure it out, then,okay, more power to them. That's
fine. Okay, so that'scomposting, in terms of how
(21:06):
effective it is how helpful,impactful it is. But it does
help. This was the mostinteresting thing. And you might
already know this, but I didn'tknow and I wish I'd known a
couple episodes ago, butcomposting significantly reduces
methane emissions compared tolandfills. And how I did not
fully understand this. Butaccording to the EPA, microbes
(21:30):
that produce methane are notpresent if there's oxygen around
during decomposition.
So it's the turning of the,like, the thing with landfills
(21:53):
is that it just gets pie.
There's no oxygen. Yeah, yeah.
And it just rots like, lower andlower and lower. And so
because it's deprived of oxygen,that's why the methane is
produced in landfills.
Interesting. I didn't know this.
I didn't either. I mean, I'm, Idon't really understand the
biological factors that go intoand chemical that go into
(22:15):
decomposition. So yeah,but that was really interesting,
because I was like, oh, that'swhy because I always hear about
methane. But I'm like, but ifyou know, it's still decomp
decomposing. So what's thedifference in that's the
difference?
It's oxygen? Yeah. Well, thereyou go. We weren't meant to put
things in plastic bags and throwthem in landfills,
(22:35):
and then pile tons of otherthings on top.
Tires out. Yeah.
Yeah, well, yeah. So that wasreally interesting. Another
thing that it might help do,it's not really proven yet is
compost might help sequestercarbon, which just means that it
takes carbon out of the air andputs it back into the soil.
(22:57):
I think, yeah, that I mean, thatmakes sense. Yes,
it does kind of make sense. Ifound a UCLA UCLA study that
says there's not enoughdefinitive research to prove
that this actually happens. Butit's possible.
Yeah, okay. I could see it.
(23:18):
Yeah. And then using compost,helps reduce the need for
chemical fertilizers promoteshigher yield crops, enhances
water retention in the soil,which is really big, especially
if you're not getting very muchrain. Hello. Yeah, it can help
reforestation, in wetlandsrestoration. Instead of becoming
(23:40):
compost mill will become chickenfood, which is a different
outcome, although, theoreticallycould be better than compost if
you know if it actually getsthere. Right. Um, so bit about
food waste. We're going to glossover this guest because that's
my next episode. God Oh, yes,that's true. Okay, so I will
(24:02):
just say, like, food waste. Whenit rot, as mentioned, when it
rots without oxygen, it producesmethane that is 80 times more
powerful of greenhouse gas thancarbon dioxide. So it's not good
to have in the air. And even ifthis is from the EPA, even if
(24:28):
fossil fuel emissions werehalted, like stopped, completely
done so today, current trends inthe food system would prevent
the achievement of our goals forlike, not killing
ourselves, right.
food loss and waste represent 8%of manmade greenhouse gas
(24:52):
emissions. Well, 8%That's a lot. I would say. One
place quoted 11% know what I wasreading Who? But yeah, okay. So
it's but I think 8% is thetypically the number they say,
yeah. Okay.
And then I found one thing thatwas interesting that I found is
that I think this was EPA also,they said that roughly half of
(25:15):
food is wasted during theconsumption stage. So like
households or food services.
Yeah. And the most common wastesare fruits and vegetables and
dairy and eggs. Make sense? Itdoes. The fruits and vegetables
definitely makes sense. I waskind of surprised about the
dairy and the eggs, but maybebecause they go,
(25:37):
they do go. I mean, I think it'slike, I'll get what a quart of
milk or something. And like, Ihave a latte a day. So it's not
like I don't have kids that aredrinking milk all the time. It's
easy for me to have milk go bad.
Yeah, that's why I buy organicmilk. But yeah, last longer.
So okay, so back to mill. Theinteresting thing is that mill
(25:59):
has a lot of these stats on itswebsite, but mill isn't
necessarily a solution to foodwaste. We will get into that in
a minute. Well, we're kind ofalready gotten into it. But
yeah. So back to mil. How easyis it to use? Because I kind of
wanted to examine this as aproduct, right. Apparently, it's
(26:21):
as easy as filling it withwhatever, and pressing the
button, and it works overnight.
Okay, like any just any food,apparently. Even soup. I think
someone threw soup. AndI'm sorry. Can I throw a couple
of water in my dehydrator? Okay.
(26:45):
I found it a little nuts. Butwe'll get into why you if you
don't use Miller, you don't wantto do that later. But
yeah, that's an option. Okay.
Okay.
So, um, does mill work?
Technically? Yes. So the slatereview called it kick ass
kitchen experience. It justsounds so startup B,
(27:12):
or paid marketing? Yeah. Well,that.
I mean, yes. So for the slightreview, they sent her a mail
kitchen bin. And she say, okay,yeah, I mean, I'm not saying
she's biased or anything,because it is very pretty. It is
very easy to use. It's, itfunctions it. You don't smell
your food, apparently. I mean,it like it does what it says
(27:34):
it's supposed to do. So does itwork overall? No, not yet.
Because the system isn't figuredout yet.
Like it might work at yourhouse, but it's not going to
like it's not going to chickens.
Yes. It's not being composted?
Yeah.
And it's interesting, because itstill needs FDA approval. And as
(27:54):
of April 2023, it looks likethey hadn't gotten it yet. So
unless something's changed inthe meantime, I don't think they
have it yet. So the wholeproduct seems to focus more on
the tech side of things, thenthe closed loop system, which to
be honest, I'm not really thatsurprised about but it is a
(28:15):
little disappointing.
On it feels kind of wish likely,you know? Yes, it's just another
way for Americans to get trashout of sight out of mind. Right?
And it costs money all boilsdown to that. So it's not free.
Okay. So even if they close theloop, I'm still not convinced to
the product would be worth it.
But mostly because we can't, youknow, recycle our way out of
(28:39):
this problem. Like you said,now, we can't wait to go our way
out. So yeah. Okay, so how muchdoes it cost? It is? Do you want
to hazard a guess? Because Idon't think it's not like
insane, but I'm just curiouswhat you would guess
is it as much as like, we weretalking about Redwall is like
(29:02):
this? Well, Netflix went up. Soit's $16 a month? Is it like a
it's more than that?
25 A little more, really is 30bucks, 33 per month,
but that's when you payannually. So it's more than
that. It's cheaper. Yes. So it'sthat's 396 per year.
(29:23):
Holy crap. Yes. Okay, it's 4545.
Okay, so it's $33 per month whenyou pay annually, which is the
cheaper option, and then you getthe free bin delivery. If you
pay monthly, it's 45 per month,and then you also have to pay a
$75 bin delivery. And you musthave the membership. So you
(29:44):
can't just buy the bin. You haveto send the foods or at least
you don't have to send them butyou have to pay to send them the
food scraps back so you might aswell okay. So it's a little bit
ridiculous. In my opinion,Because how much would you say
Red Bull was in 1614 1414? Okay,yeah, well, I'm that's it. They
(30:06):
don't take food though, butyeah,
well, sure. Okay. Yeah. Well,we'll get into a little bit more
of like, yeah. Why this is alittle absurd. Okay, this is
kind of the crazy part. Theslate review says that mill
could save you on the cost ofyour garbage if your city or
(30:27):
your location charges based onhow much you throw out. And
okay, the review says thatTacoma the review uses Tacoma as
their example. And I found outthat Tacoma and mill did a
little partnership. Some citieslike to do that. And
interesting. Yeah, so they doTacoma, I think does charge
(30:51):
based on how much how, how manybags of garbage you have. But
according to Tacomas websitelike their city's website, it
says, quote, to come up providesfood and yard waste service at
no extra cost as part of yourmonthly garbage bill. Customers
(31:14):
can request up to 290 gallonbrown food and yard waste bins
at no extra cost. A third foodand yard waste bin can be
requested for an additional $3 amonth.
Okay, well, so what the hell?
Yeah,I was so confused. I'm like, why
would anybody pay $45 a month?
(31:36):
If they get it forfree? Right? Well,
yeah, I mean, I get it if you'rein a place that doesn't do
composting at all, like no snowcollection. Okay, that makes
sense. And even then, that'sthat's half the I feel like
there's gotta be other programsin your city. Like some farm is
(31:56):
gotta be willing to take youknow?
Yes. And actually, honestly,modern suggested that sort of
thing. Like you could even ifthere's nothing you can ask a
farm if they want your foodscraps for their chickens
because they might.
Yeah, or for their compost heap.
Yeah, yeah. And why are yourneighbors Oh,
(32:17):
we'll get into this. Well, yeah.
When I hit bunny rabbits,because bunny waste is
completely compostable andactually really, really good.
Oh, wow. I had no idea we Yeah,people would ask for the bunny
waste. Sofascinating. Yeah. Meanwhile,
like dog poop is the absoluteworst. So
you cannot use dog poop. Youcan't put it in your bed. You
(32:39):
can't you do not want it in yourgarden. It is too full of
bacteria. Yeah,frickin dogs. Why do we have
dogs as pets? I'm going throughwith my dog right now. So
I'm like my news. I just heardhim juggle this collar outside
my door. Socute. So yeah, no, my dogs cute
too. She just paid me.
(32:59):
I get you. I hear I hear you.
So, okay, so there's all thatand I was so confused. I'm still
confused about the Tacoma thing.
It feels pretty misleading. Buthey, that's just my take. Yes,
so is mill actually ecofriendly? Honestly modern. My
(33:20):
new favorite hero sweet angelthey sweet age. She says quote
for the majority of people inelectric kitchen composter is a
waste of money. More greenwashedthan green and is not the best
way to compost at home. GreenHui. Okay, not to mention there
are more emissions created andpackaging mailing in your food
(33:42):
scraps in a subscription box.
I was gonna say like, how dothey like how to get past that?
You know,because that's the thing with
red. Well, they've read well,partners with
local write London, notcompanies, and they pick it up
from your door. They do aneighbor, one neighbor, you
(34:03):
know, it's to your wholeneighborhood and in one day, so
they're not like, I mean, it, Iget it. And they're using
reusable bags, so you get like apaper bag. And then point that
out last time. You're not likepackaging it up. If they give
you a canvas bag, that they thenwash and reuse, you know, oh,
cool. So,yeah, I think this one I'm not I
(34:23):
don't know if I wrote this downanywhere, but I think it comes
in one of those like recyclableplastic bags. Sure. Which of you
listen to our plastic recyclingepisode, you know, is
Greenaway Oh, yes, yes. Greenessence of radio. Yeah. Wow.
Okay. Soyes. Yeah, so the EPA says like
(34:44):
is the EPA if the EPA couldreview mill they would say
something to the to the sent ofenvironmental impact savings.
Basically, lowering yourenvironmental impact can only be
achieved through prevention orsource reduction of food loss
(35:09):
and waste. Recycling of foodwaste cannot achieve these
benefits since a substantialfraction of the impacts occurred
during the primary production ofthe Okay,
yes, we need dole to quit overproducing food. And we need
people and grocery stores quitthrowing it away. Yes. Yeah,
(35:32):
absolutely. The bin also useselectricity.
Right? Did we mentioned I wasgonna say yeah.
(35:52):
Does it doesn't come with itsown Tesla battery. It's not like
solar powered or when powered.
It's straight out of your coalpower plant in West Virginia,
wherever, youknow, and mill on its website
says that it's about the sameamount of energy per day as an
energy efficient dishwasher. Butas mentioned before, it depends
on what's what you're scrapping,because so soup for us to take
long,take longer and take a lot more
(36:15):
energy.
It's really like the idea ofthrowing your chicken noodle
soup andcrazy. Yeah. I don't know, man.
A lot of people just really wantit to
do just get out of sight out ofmind.
I don't blame him, right. Likeevery wish composting. Mm hmm,
exactly. So I'm calling thisgreen hui for sure. Mill claims
(36:42):
that they are partnering withUSPS to ship food grounds
because they're already visitingalmost okay. This is the other
thing. USPS is already visitingalmost every house every day.
Yeah. And since middlehouseholds will on average send
just one box of food grounds.
Every few weeks, USPS vehicleswill have the capacity to manage
the load.
(37:05):
Let's just give the USPS onemore job to do because you know
they're not underfunded orunderstaffed or overworked. Hey,
could you pick up our foodtrash? Yeah. Well, yeah, literal
box of trash.
Right? Well, okay, at least itdoesn't smell but yeah,
I guess I mean, but still, it'ssimply could you imagine like, I
(37:26):
don't know, it's kind of a slapin the face to it's like, I just
had all this food. I justcouldn't eat it. So I put it in
my dehydrator, then put it in abox, and I'm shipping it off to
be eaten by chickens. Can youtake care of that for me, Sam?
Like, it just feels sodisconnected from
I bought too much organic kalefrom the farmers market. You
(37:48):
just couldn't read all of it?
Which Hey, so do I mean I dothat? Yeah.
I do it too. But like, I alsopay 36 $45 a month to have to
have it like, so I don't haveto. So I can keep doing this and
notworry about it. Yeah, I mean,
that's exactly what it is.
They're also kind of sayinglike, their main point about the
(38:10):
USPS thing is that they'realready coming to every house.
So the emissions don't reallycount. Right? I'm like, Okay, I
guess. Yeah, they don't come tomy house every day. That's for
dangerwhile they drive out. I mean,
they do my own neighborhood. Soif I have family come to my
house, but yeah, it's like,they're not picking. I don't
know. I that would be, it'd benice if they would say and we're
(38:32):
gonna subsidize USPS becauseAmazon already does that they
use the USPS, you know, and it'slike, oh, because Jeff Bezos can
afford to, like pay drivers forit, right? No, you're right.
You're totally right about that.
Like, yeah, that's already putit on our stress federal
infrastructure. Right. Andmaybe if this Yeah, if it takes
off, it could create more, a lotmore.
(38:56):
Right. And it's not like they'regonna get more federal funding.
So I that bothers me. Yeah, Iget that. It does make sense. It
sounds cute. But it's like, areyou contributing to the USPS? Or
just like, I think that's onething I like about red. Well,
they're not like and then wehave the overall US postal
worker pick up your trashlike Exactly. And that's
actually honestly modern madethat exact point that we should
(39:18):
be shipping. If we're going tobe doing this. We should be
shipping it to local farms. Yes,like read well, yes. They
figured it out. You can figureit out, too.
Yeah, do a little legwork. Itdoes sound very sorry to be yes.
Like do we solve this problem?
No, you didn't. Yeah, we'resaving the world. Oh, wait.
(39:39):
Not at all. Yeah, okay. I'm kindof angry.
I know. I know. I was a littlebit too. I found it really
interesting. Okay, so the oneother problem is that slate this
the person the reviewer forSlate obviously really liked
this product but Okay, theysaid, You don't have to use it
(40:03):
forever. Try it for a few monthsget in the habit of doing
something with food besideschucking it in the trash, which
is exactly what you're doing.
But that's fine, then switch towhatever strategy works best in
your region and for your life.
And the problem is that you haveto ship this huge bin back to
them. That's so insane to me. Soyou get this bin shipped to you.
(40:27):
And they do take the bins back.
So they are at least claimingresponsibility for the lifecycle
of the bins. But they don't yet.
It sounds like they don't yethave a plan for what to do with
the bins. That the used bins.
I'm sure they could find it. Ithink it says that they're
(40:47):
developing plans for workingwith nonprofits or something
like they could find somethingto do with them. And you could
probably sell it cheaper beenfor whatever for a reduced
subscription price, whatever.
But it's it's big. And it'sshipping. Packaging. It's all
the things so try for a couplemonths ship it the whole thing
(41:09):
back to that like what? Yeah,yeah. So I think it would 1,000%
encourage people to throw foodaway rather than actively trying
to reduce their food waste.
Yeah. So my rating is dented.
And here comes the, the granolarating everyone.
(41:35):
Yeah, so TLDR slash granolarating section. We rate as we
mentioned, rate, everything.
It's either soggy, sticky,Chewy, crunchy, or break your
tooth off. You want it to be ascrunchy as possible. This one
I'm going to say sticky, whichis the number two. So two out of
five. Okay, so soggy, not soggy,which maybe you could argue with
(41:58):
me. But there's not a localsolution. So it requires a lot
of shipping and packaging. It'snot a closed loop yet. It's
truly because it's not a closedloop yet. It makes you want to
make it soggy, but it solves theproblem at the bottom of the
pyramid rather than the top. Andit fails to encourage people to
reduce their food waste and infact might do the opposite.
(42:22):
Okay. Yeah, I agree with you. Ithink it's similar to my I had a
similar rating to fast fashionthread love. Yeah. Yeah. Or
throw it out. Yeah. Throw it up.
Yeah, yes. Yeah. Like, it justmaybe it's a green bandaid, you
know, yeah. It's like,a band aid. Yeah, it's, it's
(42:43):
like a just kind of covers upthe problem rather than actually
solving it.
Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely.
That's a bummer. But I just havelike, this is such a San
Francisco, you know, such aGoogle nest thing to do.
(43:04):
Usually like Google, I thinkthey have innovative products
and stuff that's under Yeah,it's just like, well, actually,
like my nest. Yeah, I love nest.
But these people aren't. And Ithink they do have like a I
don't I'm not sure this is true.
But I think they have like aboard of, you know, people who
are actually experts in foodwaste, okay.
Whatever. We, I just wish it wasfinished. I wish it was like you
(43:26):
just took the product to market.
It's like those pictures theyhave where it's like, a drawing
of a horse and it starts, youknow, it's like really detailed.
And then at the end, it's justlike a kindergartener drew it
because they were rushed tofinish this with the seals,
like, you know, they startedthis really detailed idea. And
then they had to sell it, andit's like, popsicle sticks. And
(43:48):
it kind of makes you wonder,like, how, what it's like to
work at the company. It'sprobably I mean, saying,
you know, what, maybe, and maybethis is kind of a pilot. I mean,
how many do they say how manypeople they have? They didn't
say that I could find or howmany cities? I mean, it's and
yeah, I mean, that's one thing.
It's any, you could do it fromMontana as easily as you could
(44:09):
do it from? Yeah, New York.
Right. That's nice.
Right? Yeah, it's um, theydidn't say but and there is like
a waitlist. I have no idea howlong the waitlist is, though. So
okay, well, but they do say thatthey're sending more out all the
time. So they're definitely outthere.
(44:30):
I mean, it again, makes us asAmericans feel better about how
much shit we waste.
So I wanted to look into otheroptions for home compost. Oh,
yeah. Because it's like, what dowe do instead of this? Pretty
but dumb product.
Maybe the wave of the future andthen the city will start
(44:52):
offering it in a couple months.
Probably. Yeah. So one reallycool thing I found It was a
local option that sort of like Imentioned, like we were saying,
like find local compostingoptions. There's this website
called Share waste, okay? Andit's a website where you can
(45:14):
search for local home compostersor chicken owners and you can
and they basically sign up tobecome a host. And you can also
sign up to become a host. Andyou can bring your food scraps
there. So they volunteer toaccept other people's food
scraps. And I looked and therewere several in my area, at
(45:35):
least probably 10. Okay, wow. Sothat was pretty cool. So it's
like your, your neighbor, if youdon't even know them, they might
be willing to take your yourfood scraps for their compost
bin, sothat's cool. Yeah. And I feel
like that's like a really localsolution. Yes.
(45:57):
I love it. And also, I feel likeit would create more community
because you meet your neighborslike
the Buy Nothing group. Yeah,yes. Yeah, exactly. Compost.
Yeah, I love that. Throw nothingout.
Yeah. Throw no food scrap, nofood scrap left on dehydrated.
No food scrap left, whatis their next the next
(46:22):
iteration, that's definitelygoing to be the name.
In a lot of places like New inmy area, they do do this
curbside compost pickup, but I'mnot my house is just outside of
the pickup area, which you alsoyou have compost pickup.
(46:43):
I do it because I live in themagical city of Austin. Yes.
It but if your governmentdoesn't offer it like, you don't
have that option. You can checkfor a local pickup company. I
think this is a private companyin Pennsylvania and Delaware.
There's one called waste well,and they do basically exactly
that. And you pay, I don't know,some amount of money. It's I
(47:06):
don't remember it beingexorbitant. But I looked that up
in my area. And I see fivecompanies that actually went for
that. Yeah. So that's an option.
Yeah. Um,again, the carbon footprint
concerns me somewhat. But again,if they're just doing one, one
car per neighborhood, it'sprobably better than you 40
People trucking it out to afarmers, right?
(47:29):
Yeah. Well, and that's my nextnext option is you take it to
your drop off site, which is anoption for me. We have a
facility that will actuallyprocess this stuff. And there
are apparently 4700 facilitiesin the United States according
to the USDA. Oh, the nice thingis that you can bring bio
(47:55):
plastics a lot of the time. Sothat's like
your the compostable forks, yes,your plant
based boxes and stuff like that.
And mine also accepts meat andbones. They accept pizza boxes,
wooden chopsticks, paper towelsthat don't have chemicals or
cleaning products. And lots ofcool things like that.
(48:19):
So that was like so that's cool.
Yeah, I just looked up. Yeah,my, like an Austin and I didn't
know that I could recyclechicken bones and they are not
recycled, but compost cones andpizza boxes. So yeah, that's
news to me. Yeah, that'sreally cool. And those things
aren't super disgusting. So youget I feel like you could pretty
easily take them without itbeing like super gross in your
(48:41):
car. Yeah.
Or tissues, you know? Yeah. It'snot soup. It's on a bucket of
soup.
five gallon bucket just sloshingsoup.
Like soiled five day old suit.
Yeah.
Imagine handing it to them.
They're like,really excited. I've talked to
dehydrate it.
(49:05):
So I really need to start doingthis. I want to start doing it.
But the other thing I starteddoing, which was really fun, and
I'm slightly obsessed with it isI just set up finally my home
compost system. Because if youhave space in a little yard or
space in I have a big yard toobig. I'm not bragging. I hate
(49:27):
it. But how dare you? It's wellit's like just yard. There's the
lady before us cut down all thetrees and it's still want to cry
about it. So yeah, we're tryingto help it but anyway. Yeah,
there's a lot of differentoptions. Mine was really easy to
(49:48):
set up. It's from Geo Ben. Wecan link it and it was 3599 on
Amazon. I actually didn't buyit. My county provide it there's
like a, it's at the library.
It's a Master Gardeners program,but they give them away for
free. So look into that, becauseyou might be able to find one
for free. And it is rudimentaryat best, but it's totally
(50:13):
functional. So like, it's itmatters. Yeah, it's basically
just like a little skillet.
Well, it's not little, it'spretty big, but it's like a
cylinder that you can actuallychoose the size. So that's kind
of nice. But you just, it'sbasically a little round cage
for your compost, and it's openon top. It took about 10 minutes
(50:36):
to set it up. So I really so farlike it. I've already thrown in
like some lettuce, some cornhusks, some berries that went
bad I've thrown in. And thentons of leaves and stuff, but it
was really fun because I waslike, I weeded my garden. And I
was like, oh, throw those in.
Because apparently you can throwweeds and it's fine.
(51:00):
Yeah, we do grass clippings heretoo. And weeds. Yeah.
Yeah. And Nancy birtwhistle hassome advice. Yeah, she and her
in her gardening book. She hassome advice on composting. And
it's basically this is the verynot meat and potatoes version
(51:21):
is. That's not the rightanalogy. Anyway. It's like very
basic version, but it's like youhave to separate she calls it
dry from wet and a lot of placescall it green from Brown. But
that she found that a littleconfusing. And so do I because
(51:42):
it's like your something mightactually be brown. But actually.
Yeah, I mean, yeah. So yeah, heridea is like, if it's fresh,
like a fresh plant or something,or I don't know, she separately
separates it based on like dry.
So dry is like your paper, yourcardboard your sticks, your wood
chips, that type of thingleaves.
(52:08):
Dilute WC Yeah, brown again. Butyeah, not always. But yeah.
And yeah, and then you justcreate layers. So I'm going at
it, like really haphazard, I'mnot being particular about it.
So we'll see where it goes.
Oh, excited. But yeah, that'sthe I learned that again,
because bunny rabbits we used alike the litter that I would use
(52:30):
was like made out of oldnewspapers. So that's the dry
and then they pee on to that,which makes it wet. And then
their poop is wet. And then theyhave hay which is dry. So it's
like the perfect compostable.
Whoa, Bunny litters the perfectcompostable material.
That's amazing. Yeah. Charlieloves bunnies. Maybe we should
get one.
Wait till she's old enough totake care of it. I will talk you
(52:55):
out of getting a bunny. Yeah, Iagree. I love them. But not for
little children for sure.
Yeah. Well, and not for a dogthat kills bunnies.
Well, I don't know my dog. Youhad a separate indoor from
outdoor. Oh, weird. My used Idon't think would well he grew
up with them. Yeah. Okay, thathelps. So he used to protect,
like, if another dog came over,he'd get between the new dogs
(53:18):
and my bunnies. Those are mybunnies. Oh, I never left them
alone together. But yeah. Butwell, that's okay. Yeah. Don't
Yeah, composting is.
Yeah, so there are there arereasons so home composting gets
a break your teeth off? JustYes. Composting in general.
Great. But the mill been not sogreat. Work needs work.
(53:45):
Finished the horse drawing.
Yeah, so that's, that's all Ihave.
Well, that was great. Thank youfor that. I feel I do feel so I
did the research for next week,which I can talk about. Now.
Next week, we're gonna betalking about food waste, and
the ugly food movement. And itthese dovetail very nicely
(54:08):
because part of food waste isjust how much junk not junk how
much food Americans throw away.
So yes. You can't talk aboutfood waste without talking about
compost. Right. So yeah,exactly. That but Amma you know,
I just can't help but laugh athow what a cute marketing effort
the middle is and I know howunfortunate it is that it's not
(54:33):
quite fully fleshed, I guess.
Yes.
I just I can just pictureemployees sitting at their desk
like we have to launch thistomorrow.
While some Yeah, so venturecapitalists is like yes, I got a
product it's like thoroughness.
Right yeah. Like yeah, yeah,just takes a drop of blood. I
(54:53):
mean, the the can dehydrate soupYep.
Yep, yep. All right, well, well,thank you for listening. And
yeah, definitely leave us areview if you haven't yet
because that is very helpful.
And it's so fun The more peopleYeah, so just scroll down
(55:14):
wherever you're listening andjust hit that five star button.
Yeah, give us five. Breakertwo's off. Yeah.
I have nothing. Okay. All right.
Well, didn't try to think ofanything, but I got another good
feel better. Yes. Thank you.
(55:35):
I hope I made it, man. Yeah, youdidn't. You didn't slur your
words to not too many. Awesome.
All right. Okay.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!