Every time she so much as peels a carrot, Denise Oliveira takes the waste and stores it in a bag in her freezer instead of throwing it in the garbage. Her freezer is often so full of scraps that there is no room for actual food, but that's the only way Ms. Oliveira can compost without smelling up her small Manhattan apartment.
Once a week, she lugs the bags to a composting bin at the Union Square Greenmarket. Ms. Oliveira, who learned about composting from her mother in Brazil, started doing it a year ago in observance of Lent. Her brother thinks it's gross, and her friends think she's weird. Even Ms. Oliveira admits that composting in New York City is not for the squeamish. "Sometimes you get to the green market and the bin is already piled up so high that you are placing your scraps on this overflowing mountain," said Ms. Oliveira, a freelance writer.
"It is absolutely disgusting."
Ms. Oliveira is one of a small but growing number of New Yorkers who are finding ways to compost, even with the considerable handicaps of tiny living spaces...Read more at Crain's New York
