Despite my relatively short hair and deep love of showering, I’m a bit of a hippie. I reuse as much as I can. I recycle as much as I can. I prioritize buying used, rather than new, to prevent the impact of the new item’s manufacturing.

However, since the move to Detroit, I haven’t had a compost bin. I’d had one, off and on, for the last 13 years or so. When I moved to the apartment in Detroit, though, there wasn’t the opportunity to put one out back. And every time I threw out coffee grounds or banana peels or potato peels, it felt wrong to put them in the trash.

Then I bought the house. I spent that first winter without one, and still feeling wrong about it. So, when spring came, I got a line on some available used pallets out by the street in an industrial zone, and I put them into the back of the Prius wagon. Some power tool usage later, and I had an assembled compost bin, complete with a gap on the bottom for turning the compost once it got going. And it HAS been going. Kitchen scraps (no meat or bone), yard waste, and occasional grass clippings have all gone in, and have done the decomposing goodness.

I’m quite happy to have a compost bin again. It feels like another step back toward living my ideals, and that feels good.