Remeber the native americans taught the pilgrims about burying fish and planting on top of them. It again may not be practical far all but almost anything including fish can be used in this manner. Just go a little deeper if smell or critters digging it up are a concern. Many years ago I lived in Hawaii and worked at an ethnobotanical garden. Our neighbor were in the dried fish business and hauled thousands of pounds of guts and scap leftover from the process to the landfill. This wasted their time and gas and valuable plant food. I talked them and my boss into letting me dig a hole. 20 feet by 30 feet and 4 foot deep. I dropped frozen boxes of fish scrap into the hole once a week and layered it with any grass and carbon based materials we had available to us. I did have to bring in additional material to keep up with the flow of fish scraps. I did use a plastic top to keep critters and smells to a minimum. I went back last year and found they still use my original method. Literally producing thousands of pounds of compost a year for this 15 acre garden and keep all those valuable fish scraps from the landfill. They are still known for growing some of the best sweet potatoes and taro of anyone on the island. Sorry this is off-topic but I want any and all to open their minds to all the material that we throw away that needs to stay right on our property. I let very little go to the landfill. Use it or lose it. It is our choice. Be creative and look for goodies in your neighborhood that is going to waste and see if you can put it to use. Lasagne or trench or any other way. It is all good for us and the aina (land). Aloha from Texas

Eat more vegetables! :D I have asked grocery stores for trimmings from their produce department but their policies vary and some will not share. One winter we collected coffee grounds from a local coffee shop at the rate of several large totes a week. We have driven around in the fall prior to large garbage pick up when people have bags of leaves at the curb and gotten many bags that way. I pick up horse manure from my pasture and have also gotten a trailer load of barn cleanings from a local riding stable. Unfortunately a local composting business now gets it. You might check if Asplundh does brush clearing in your area as there is a possibility of getting a truck load of freshly mulched small trees. Depending on where you live it could be less expensive for them to deliver a truck load than to take it to the landfill. For small amounts of kitchen trimmings I recommend trench composting as it feeds the worms who multiply and produce a lot of castings. Much more beneficial than spending time composting when one is not able to find enough to compost.

Whoever says disposals are bad for septic systems does not know what they are talking about. Garage disposals in our area are pretty much a standard feature in all homes, both urban and rural. I grew up with one and my dad has never had a septic issues in 40 years of living there. We do clean the plates off to prevent as much as possible from going into our septic but overall food does not hurt septics as long as you are not piling everything you can down them. Its actually helpful having some food. You want a lot of bacteria in your septic which eats away both human and food waste. Food can help create bacteria in the system. You do not want to put a lot of bleach and other chemicals down the drain which will kill of bacteria. You would not want to do that anyways even if your are not on septic. Anything that bacteria does not degrade in the septic will settle to the bottom of the tank. Thats why ever couple of years you have your septic pumped anyways. As far as getting items out of it, there have been very few times I have ever had to reach down into the disposal. I got my hands dirty more often by cleaning out the traps of the drains that did not have disposals. I visted homes that did not have disposals and when I helped clean up after large meals, I know I would never want to live without a garbage disposal.

Hi, Sayde. It eally seems you've pretty much made your own argument for not having one. We're on a septic system and don't have one. The only reason I could think of for wanting it was to grind the little stuff that didn't go in the composter, but that's more theory than anything else. We just don't miss it. Plus, more importantly, that's very valuable, close-in space under the sink that should be rescued from its back-alley/chemical dump status and outfitted for more valuable storage--the way the rest of the kitchen is. My assemblage of noxious chemicals goes on shelves in the cleaning/broom closet. Do you really want to give up space that could be used for drawers or other pull-outs to store your big stock pots/salad spinner/plastic storage containers/colanders/flower vases/??? for a noisy contraption you don't want and seldom use?