Several years ago, before downsizing, I had a house with a backyard. A few fruit trees, three raised vegetable beds, a giant compost bin. I’d put all my food scraps dutifully into the compost bin, alongside rescued cardboard, tree prunings, and all manner of other organic waste.

I did it without thinking – about the volume of waste or the process.

Moving into our tiny apartment, I knew I’d need to make sacrifices. This small space has one feature that makes it a rare jewel: a very large balcony. In fact, the balcony is as large as our living room. I still needed to balance the needs of others: my child needed space to play, my dog needed somewhere to toilet, my husband needed somewhere to BBQ – and I needed to choose how to use the remaining space for a garden and waste disposal. I knew the compost bin was never going to fit.

Sadly, the apartment complex didn’t qualify for council rubbish collection, so there wasn’t even a green waste bin. I was devasted; what was I going to do with all the organic waste of a family of three?

I now manage a thriving productive garden in my small space. It’s taken some time, but I’ve found some waste workarounds. I’ve had to let go of my vision of ‘perfect’. I don’t find a way for everything to avoid landfill and my solutions have some flaws. However, I’ve adopted a phrase taught to me by a colleague:

If you can’t do everything, do something.

Here are some of my methods for minimising waste in a small space.

• Chop and drop: Kat Lavers, a permaculture urban farmer, taught me this in a workshop. Anything that you prune or remove from your plants, simply cut the pieces small and let them fall below the plant. They’ll become compost over time.
• Stems and leaves are for the trees: This is a version of ‘chop and drop’ for my kitchen. Any food waste that’s non-sticky, non-sugary and non-wet gets chopped small and put straight on the soil in my garden. That’s leaves (old salad mix, I’m looking at you), orange rind (below my citrus trees), banana peel, pumpkin skin and more.
• Cut it small: I have space for one small Bokashi-style compost bucket outside, but it can take a long time to break down. To help it along, I cut all my food waste into the size of a fingertip or smaller. Toilet rolls and brown paper bags also get the chop.
• Make it dog food: Our meat waste is usually not wasted at all; it’s given to our dog as part of her dinner. If we had a dog who ate her veggies, we’d give some more of that waste to her too.
• Use it up: It sounds obvious, but we try our very best to minimise food waste by eating it all. Carrot tops get blanched and frozen for later use in pesto. Old bananas get frozen for later use in banana bread, and often the banana peel goes into the banana bread too! (I love this great recipe by the New York Times – but my advice is to blend the peel rather than chopping). Find ways to use the waste as much as you can
• Cook it and crush it: There’s a permanent ceramic bowl in our oven for eggshells. Any time the oven is turned on, the shells are cooked. Once there’s a few, I crush them and sprinkle them onto the garden. Gone in minutes, contributing nutrients to the soil
• Let it go: Just like Elsa from Frozen, I let it go. The guilt, the frustration – all of it. My 3-year-old is still learning to eat different foods, and often I prepare something, only to have him wave it around, rub it on the table, lick it, or otherwise make it difficult to serve again later. In those moments, I accept that all this wasted food is helping him practice, contributing to a healthy adult. And then I just move on.

If none of these options work for you, you could consider signing up for ShareWaste. ShareWaste is website (or app) that allows you to locate nearby compost sites, worm farms and backyard chickens so that you can donate your waste and support community members. (I recommend freezing your scraps in a bucket until they’re ready to walk down to your neighbour. You won’t want to take them as often as you’ll travel to your own compost, and it cuts down the smell).

Waste disposal in an urban space can look very different to the suburbs or the regions. A little bit of creativity and a lot of patience can mean that you can contribute to a circular waste pattern and get something in return; nourishing your plants, whether they be a single herb or a series of vegetable boxes. And remember: Don’t let yourself get paralysed by the drive for perfection. Just do something.

Written by Endeavour Short Course instructor, Sue Sharpe.

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