Oh my gosh I got a food scrap on  the lens look this was on the lens  

hey everyone welcome back to my youtube channel if  you haven't yet subscribed to my channel that is  

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button down below to let me know that you want  to see more videos from me and give this video  

a thumbs up if you're excited to learn about  composting and also to let me know that you want  

to see more videos like this one thank you so much  to Logitech for sponsoring today's video a little  

bit later in the video I'm going to show you my  MX anywhere 3 wireless computer mouse that I love  

and now let's get into composting I shared on my  Instagram a little bit about how I collect my food  

scraps in my New York City apartment and it was  very clear to me that there were a lot of people  

out there that were interested in this topic and  wanted to learn how to do it themselves if you're  

not following me on Instagram already head over to  at luciebfink for some more regular daily updates  

about my life in New York City I share a lot of  behind the scenes about what we're growing and  

what we're doing here in our two-bedroom apartment  in New York so I'd love to see you over on  

Instagram I really want to preface this video by  letting you know that I am not a composting expert  

contrary to what many people might think I'm  actually not 100% zero waste or 100% sustainable  

I love learning more about sustainability I love  incorporating many sustainable practices into my  

life overall my goal is to become a more conscious  consumer and to make small swaps that are actually  

no pun intended sustainable for my long-term life  in other words I'm still learning and I'm still  

growing I'm not perfect at this but I really  am trying if you are looking for a composting  

expert you may want to stop this video and head  over to another video but what you will get from  

this video is just a regular person who has done  a ton of her own research and who's really trying  

to implement small changes and if you identify  with that this could be great for you so first  

and foremost what is compost compost is organic  material that has been decomposed by being exposed  

to air and water and it creates a nutrient-rich  soil-like product that can then be used for things  

like farming gardening and all kinds of growing  when you compost your food scraps you're basically  

taking that waste and turning it into a valuable  resource that can then be used to create more good  

and grow more things I've always loved science and  chemistry I think the whole process of how food  

decomposes and how compost is created and works  is really cool but people are not just composting  

because they think the scientific process is  cool they're doing it because it's actually a  

very important thing for us to be doing for the  environment and now Michael is crossing over the  

screen this is what happens when you shoot in the  kitchen whenever we throw organic materials like  

food waste into the trash it goes off to the  landfill and a byproduct of that decomposition  

process in the landfill leads to methane emissions  in the air methane is a greenhouse gas that  

contributes to climate change and landfills in  general have contributed to loads of environmental  

and health issues plus not even to mention there's  the whole carbon footprint that comes along with  

actually hauling that waste to the landfill in the  first place so overall throwing your food waste  

in the trash is just not the move so the two main  ways a person can compost would either be through  

backyard composting or commercial composting in  backyard composting you are collecting your own  

food scraps to create your own compost and then  you actually oversee the composting process and  

get to use that compost for personal reasons like  growing and gardening and in commercial composting  

you're just collecting all of your food scraps and  all the compostable items and then bringing them  

to a third-party facility that is going to compost  for you and this commercial composting is what I  

do in New York City so I'm not backyard composting  I'm not actually creating my own compost  

I am purely collecting my food scraps to bring it  to a third-party location that will turn it into  

compost so I am commercially composting composting  commercially composting in a commercial way  

creating a compost commercial in this video I'm  not going to go too much into backyard composting  

because as I mentioned I don't currently do it  and there is a whole process associated with  

it that I don't necessarily know much about it  involves getting a bin getting a bunch of organic  

materials together in some cases you actually need  to get worms and you can do vermicomposting but  

essentially you're collecting a bin of organic  material that will then work to decompose your  

food scraps right there in the bin I definitely  plan on doing backyard composting at some point  

in my future ideally when I have a house and a  lot more outdoor space and then I'm gonna make  

my own compost and use it in my own garden but  right now I'm just sharing the simplest of the  

simple how I go about collecting my food scraps in  my New York City apartment and then drop them off  

at a third-party site that will take my food  scraps and bring them to a commercial composting  

facility I do believe that most cities have a  place where individuals can drop off their food  

scraps to be turned into compost just try looking  at your local farmer's market or doing a quick  

google search I'm sharing a link down below that I  found from litterless that is a resource compiling  

a list of composting services available in every  state I don't know the ins and outs of composting  

all across the country but it's worth mentioning  that collections at various food scrap donation  

sites have been suspended recently because of  COVID-19. so before you gather up your food  

scraps and go to the farmers market near you check  and make sure that they are in fact collecting  

food scraps thankfully in Manhattan the Union  Square Green Market is still open for food scrap  

collections so that's where I'm going so here's  how I do it a couple of years ago after a stop at  

Whole Foods I got those Whole Foods paper bags I  took a double bag so a bag inside a bag and I cut  

the top off so that it fit into my freezer let me  get it I've been using this double bag combination  

for about a year now so it is starting to rip I  actually will probably need to create a new one  

very soon but this is what the bag looks like  and it's very important to note that I don't just  

carry it like this to the farmer's market if I did  that I could really risk breaking it on the street  

and spilling this food everywhere so instead I  put these double bags inside of a third tote bag  

which I carry on my shoulder and I carry it down  in that bag first of all here's what it looks  

like and as you can see inside it is just filled  with now frozen food scraps and honestly it smells  

like fruit but it doesn't have a bad smell at all  because we really just put fruits and veggies in  

here and they freeze immediately and that's great  what's currently in my food scrap collection bin  

all right let's see we made a couple of juices  today so we have a lot of those juice scraps a lot  

of kale, ginger, lemon, grounds I also have this  giant skin oh gosh it's all connected there's also  

the giant skin of a butternut squash that I ate  last night for dinner there are a lot of peelings  

from the outsides of fruits from the juice celery  one way to help make sure you don't have way too  

many food scraps is if you shop for your produce  at the farmer's market often they will offer to  

take those leaves off the top of things like  carrots for you and yeah just lots of colors  

lots of smells but I'm gonna be honest this smells  really fresh and good it honestly smells to me  

like I'm standing inside of a juice generation and  it's just food scraps so that's cool so why the  

freezer I was taught that collecting food scraps  in the freezer helps to prevent any bad smell when  

the food starts to rot after all you're collecting  food scraps this is organic natural material  

very quickly after this is exposed to the air it  is going to start breaking down and smelling and  

rotting it's just like smelling the inside of a  garbage after you've dumped food in it the night  

before I've never tried collecting my food scraps  outside of the freezer because the freezer seems  

to work really well for me but I have seen some  really cute composting bins on people's counters  

I think as long as the bin is airtight it's fine  to keep it out of the freezer but keeping it in  

the freezer does really help prevent the smell and  to prevent bugs and as I've learned over time when  

you're doing it in the freezer you actually can do  it in an open bag like this some people even just  

put a big metal bowl in their freezer and it can  be exposed because the freezer does really stop  

the smell and the next question that everyone  wants to know is what can I and what can't I  

compost various commercial composting facilities  accept different things so you might want to  

do a search beforehand just to make sure that  everything you're throwing in the food scrap bin  

is acceptable but I'll cover the things that  are generally accepted and the things that are  

generally not accepted things that are acceptable  include coffee grounds and filters tea bags  

cut flowers and house plants fruit and vegetable  scraps any other non-greasy food scraps like pasta  

bread or cereal but not the dairy if you are  pouring milk in your cereal eggshells nuts  

potting soil and brown paper products things that  are often not accepted at compost sites include  

meat fish animal bones dairy pet waste greasy food  scraps and then some random things like receipts  

coconuts plastics of any kind rubber bands  twist ties plants that are infested with bugs  

charcoal and more I do a ton of research  about this topic regularly and I'm always  

learning new things like apparently  you should not compost avocado pits  

because they can start to sprout another thing to  note because this one always trips me up is before  

putting any fruit or veggie scraps in there make  sure the sticker is peeled off if you're finding  

yourself really interested in this topic I would  highly recommend looking into articles sharing  

some interesting things that you can compost that  you did not know were compostable I've definitely  

learned a ton of fun facts from articles like that  things like toilet paper rolls your own human hair  

nail clippings as long as you weren't wearing any  polish cardboard cereal or pasta boxes wine corks  

your old bamboo toothbrush handle and so much more  so as you might be able to tell I have done a ton  

of research on this topic and that is basically  step one for me whenever I start any new YouTube  

video I go in hard on the research sometimes I'm  sitting in front of the computer scrolling away  

for hours and for anyone out there who is also on  their computer regularly I wanted to share the new  

wireless mouse that I've been using from Logitech  I'm one of those people who likes to move around a  

lot as I work so sometimes I'm sitting at my desk  like a normal person I sit on the couch I sit at  

the kitchen table I often stand right here in the  kitchen and I use this windowsill as a standing  

desk sometimes I'm lying in bed and doing work  I'm really all over the place with my laptop  

I really love mixing it up and changing up my  work scenery you will rarely find me posted up in  

my office all day without moving and this mouse is  specifically meant to work well when used anywhere  

so even tracking on glass or on a couch it works  perfectly it's a very modern shape I chose the  

pale gray color but they also have graphite and  rose it has silicone side grips which make it  

really comfortable in my hand it uses usbc quick  charging and it stays powered up to 70 days on  

a full charge which is amazing for me since I  really don't like it with my tech gadgets die  

quickly on me so if you're looking for a really  comfortable really lightweight wireless mouse to  

use definitely check out this one from Logitech  I also love using it for video editing anyone who  

edits their videos will tell you how difficult  it is to use Adobe Premiere on your laptop with  

the trackpad yes you can get used to it and get  fast over time but i'm so used to sitting at an  

actual computer using a mouse so when I have  this wireless mouse with me it's almost like  

I've created a little edit suite no matter where  I'm sitting or standing so check out the link down  

below if you want to try one for yourself and let  me know if you also love sitting at your computer  

and doing loads of research for hours when it  comes to composting I know there's so much more  

that I can learn and I really think that once I  start backyard composting myself I will learn so  

much just through the process of doing so stay  tuned if you still follow me in maybe two three  

years time I will share my backyard composting  tips then but I know how many of you out there  

are interested in taking small steps today to  become more sustainable and healthy environment  

and collecting your food scraps at home for  composting is a tiny thing you can do to start  

helping right now if you are a composting expert  or even if you just have more info about this that  

I did not cover please comment below and share  your tips and wherever you live if there is an  

incredible food scrap drop-off site that you think  everyone needs to know about share details about  

it below so that anyone in your area can easily  find it thank you so much for coming back to my  

YouTube channel be sure to follow me on instagram  @luciebfink for more behind the scenes of our  

life in New York City I share a lot of our daily  life in this kitchen and in our apartment we're  

currently growing some things in the aerogarden  back there which is what you're seeing all lit  

up and we also just installed a new shelf garden  that's gonna grow lettuce tomatoes and lots of  

veggies click on the thumbs up button down below  if you like this video and I'll see you next time

bye

you