The staked bag has changed very little, if at all. It has been lying on the ground in fairly hot, dry Arizona conditions. It has been in the 90s, no rain, etc. As you can see, even a compostable bag might last a very, very long time as "litter." The bag has been staked out for three weeks now.
A new edition to my compost experiments is a cup my daughter brought to me from Quiznos. Quiznos is trying to hop on the "Green" band wagon. I have to give them some credit for that, though I doubt very, very few will ever end up in a composting system. I know of at least one, however. We'll see how long it lasts. I do wonder what type of coating has been used to make the cup hold liquid better than plain paper would. It's probably not wax, since that would make composting problematic. I haven't done any research into this but it is probably sprayed with a plant-based coating of some sort.
We have two bags going in the bin. The original bag has been cooking for eleven weeks now. Like I said, the first several weeks were not under optimal conditions. The last few weeks have been under better composting conditions, but probably not commercial quality, very controlled conditions. I knew from the beginning that the estimated fourteen weeks would be unrealistic in my back yard. I think the second bag will break down more quickly because it was started in the tumbling composter as opposed to my "holding bin" composter. But we'll see.
I've attached a short video that compares the two bags by sound as well as feel. Not a lot of difference, but it is there.
For what it's worth, this is where we're at with what has become a new hobby of sorts--composting things that claim to be compostable. We'll see what happens when I come across some compostable plastic table ware. I'm not going to go out and buy some just to see what happens, but if I see some being used, I'll try to grab some.
Until next week, get that dirt cooking!
