AirTalk Blog
AirTalk for Wednesday, August 13
Larry Mantle discusses the truce between Georgia and Russia. Plus a plan by Los Angeles to separate food waste in the trash for composting. Then federal receiver Clark Kelso’s efforts to force Sacramento to spend $2.5 billion on prison healthcare. Also, the latest research and treatments in the fight against Alzheimer’s Disease. He will also talk with Mikita Brottman, author of the book, “The Solitary Vice: Against Reading,” in which the she tests the assumption that reading is “good for you.” Is reading truly a valuable way to spend time?
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- August 12, 2008 1:07 PM by Jackie Oclaray
- Comments (12)
- Categories: Arts, Health, Science/Technology, Sports/Recreation
12 Comments
It's not alarming that Russia is operating in Georgia. What do you expect? That after a belligerent Georgian attack on South Ossentia that Russia should just retreat? What would any other country do?
First of all you should report that for years now, the US and Israel have been supplying weapons and support to Georgia. Both countries have hundreds of military "advisors" in Georgia.
Secondly, Condi Rice had met with the Georgian leadership a month or so before this latest incident. Georgia would NOT have attacked Ossentia without US permission.
Third this entire incident is being exploited by the republicans and big media to promote McCain as a leader. Even NPR is falling for it by playing numerous sound bites of McCain scolding Russia - as though somehow he even has that kind of authority - which bring into question as to why he would scold Russia in the first place? McCain (and Bush and the big media) should be scolding Georgia if he were competent enough to know how this latest wave of the crisis began. All of this is being constantly contrasted in the media with Obama being on vacation. Obama issued a statement but it never gets actual airplay on his comments.
This guest is so incredibly inarticulate on this subject I can't believe it. She is a Councilperson???
I already do this with green kitchen waste such as dead lettuce, peels, cobs, pits, etc. Since I buy my produce at the farmer's market or organically, I don't think it's problem. I don't include paper products.
Is it odd that the Russian/Georgian conflict hinges on a total of just six deal points, but it takes two city employees 20 minutes to explain how to put food scraps into the yard waste bin? Which side, Russian or Georgian, can take over King Drew and how soon?
In my experience with composting, meat is a serious contaminant. Has this been emphasized and is there a list of other contaminants?
The foodscrap collection program for LA is a great idea. As part of the trash collection we have a program in San Francisco that distributes small green kitchen bins that are used in the house, and emptied weekly into a larger collection bin that is wheeled to the curb and emptied weekly.
It's amazing to see how much waste this prevents from going into the trash.
My sister has been composting in a kitchen bin for years. it works beautifully and doesn't smell bad unless one includes meat/animal products. She empties the bin once a week.
One of the reasons the discussion may have been so confusing & vagues is that often, recycling & composting programs are implemented in the community before the processing facilities are up and running. The powers that be assume that it will take the community up to 1 year to get used to the new proceedure. i.e. it takes a year for people to stop putting plastic into compost bins & food into recycling bins etc... While the city gets the facilities up & running & works out all the kinks of the new program, pilot bins are often just hauled off to the dump. In the meantime, the community gets used to recycling, or composting correctly so that contamination is minimal by the time the city start really processing the contents of the bins.
I actually had to turn off the radio (for the first time during your show) two minutes into Jan Perry's mumbling. I turned it back on a few minutes later only to hear Bernadette Halverson be more coherent but still not helpful.
Hearing them speak on your fine program was like introducing rotten fish bones into fine green mulch!
So, I nominate Councilwoman Jan Perry for "Most Inarticulate, Ill-informed and Confused Guest of the Year" award.
And "Environmental Engineer" Bernadette Halverson can take the award for worst guest of the day.
a very good sight to go to for info on composting is: http://dpw.lacounty.gov/epd/sg/ or smartgardening.com
it provides very clear info, since the info given by these women was confusing and contradictory. also, through this site you can get info and discounted bins to compost in your own yard.
if you do want to compost organic kitchen scraps either way (through your green bin or in a personal compost bin), it's not complicated, and it does make a positive difference in the amount of waste going into our landfills unecessarily.
i use a pot with a lid and keep it in my fridge. you can place any fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, or tea leaves in this covered pot, and bring them out weekly, just before pickup, to your city provided green bin if you choose to do so. no smell, no rotting. this is particularly easy if you are single or don't produce much waste.
another alternative is to take your fruit and vegetable scraps and blend them in a blender with water. simply pour the blended liquidin your yard over any dirt or plants. if it is finely ground then there is no waste/scraps, no smell, nothing at all to deal with. it's great for the soil, and a quick and easy solution.
if you have a business, or generate a very large amount of organic waste, you can either bring your waste to the sunland composting facility, or you can pay the composting facility in sunland to come pick up directly from your location. it's worth giving them a call to find out what they charge.
paper products are compostable (as long as they are not coated with any plastic/inorganic materials). i know this from home composting, but i am not clear on rules for the green bins. as far as i have ever researched, you never want to include meats or dairy products in composting. again, i am not clear on the rules for the green bins...
anyway, hope this helps.
Re: Composting Table Scraps
I wish that Larry had contacted officials in Berkeley or San Francisco for input on their, already established, programs. I hope the city of L.A. has used them as a resource! A great resource for home composters is the City of Los Angeles Public Works Website, smartgardening.com. LOTS of information AND a schedule of excellent workshops where we can buy home composting bins (and worm bins) at great savings.
One caller mentioned the smell of table scraps kept in the kitchen. If the receptacles given to the test group are the same as those up in northern California, they have a small carbon filter in the lid. I have one sitting on the kitchen floor within sight right now. It's green and not unattractive. It doesn't smell at all, but, lately, in the summer heat, we have had some tiny fruit flies. This is probably our own fault. Because it doesn't smell, we tend to put off taking it outside until it's absolutely full.
We do our own composting in the backyard for our organic vegetable garden. (In fact, I teach composting as part of an elementary school garden program.) On trash pick-up day, our recycle is usually pretty full, but the gray "garbage" bin is virtually empty. About one kitchen-sized trash bag per week.
I do think that separating kitchen scraps, the correct ones, will be quite an adjustment for those who are new to the practice. Especially the lazy and those who don't care about the environment. (Amazingly, these people do exist.)
This program is a step in the right direction, though. I firmly believe that anything that can't be reused, composted, or recycled has no business being produced. Even recycling needs to be looked at sometime soon. It, like the original production of a product, uses energy and causes pollution.
OMG! Larry, you were not the only one who was confused! Do either of those women speaking about the composting program really KNOW anything about it? I immediately went to the sanitation website, and came across MORE confusion. I received a flyer in the mail last week that said I could put "fruit and vegetable" scraps in the green bin, but I don't think my neighborhood is part of the pilot program. I went on the website to try and figure it out, but could not find an answer there (I emailed them, it will take a few days for them to get back to me). I then discovered ANOTHER confusing item. It states that plastic containers put into the BLUE bin should be "rinsed if possible". However, the flyer I received states that they must be "clean with no food residue". So is "rinsing" not enough?
The whole thing sounds like no one really knows what's going on. Hopefully you'll be able to get it straightened out, Larry! And I'll be listening for a follow-up.
thanks for a great show!
chris
What a shame to have 2 speakers who were so clueless! I find composting fun and rewarding. Larry, get a speaker on who has information and enthusiasm for the topic! People who might have been mildly interested in trying it will surely never try after listening to those two women.
Without meat products the waste does NOT stink. Fruit flies are a problem in this heat, but otherwise there isn't a smell if purely vegetable products are collected. Collecting the kitchen waste is a little bit of a pain, but, let's face it, it's one of the few things that we can do as individuals to make a difference. That feels good!
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