Clueless in Cloughjordan

Bruce Darrell set up in Cloughjordan when it was rebranded as an/the EcoVillage. His enterprise was the RED (Research, Education and Development) Gardens Project which is a lot more useful and kinder to the planet than TED and all its TechBros. Here he is calling a halt to one of his long-running community actions.  RED Gardens grows food organically and offers surplus next to an honesty box. 12 years ago, looking for more nutrient input, he put out the word that [local] folk could add their compostable waste to his compost bins . . . and he'd turn it - sieve it - sort it - barrow it - dig it . . . [one year later] . . . harvest it.

I've never met Bruce, but a lot of our home-ed & rice-cakes, Birkenstocks & FloatySkirts pals have passed through the Eco Village, so I daresay I've washed the dishes [at the annual HEN gatherings] for the self same people, or their carefree childer, who can't be humped to keep plastic out of their compost bin. Bruce started believing that he was getting an asset for free, so of course he should add the labour needed to transform the gift into something garden-useful.

Poor bugger is now worn out with fetching uncompostable shite [mostly plastic] out of compost as he turns and sieves it. He's spent years cutting his co-composters some slack. Our small veg-peeling knife turned [lit.] up in the compost the year after Javi left: it must have gotten submerged in the potato peel. But the compost of others is no longer worth the candle. And so, earlier this year he stopped managing this community resource . . . but let everyone know that Compost Manager was available in sits.vac. Of course, nobody else stepped up the the plate, just as nobody else had offered to put in an afternoon compost turning in his garden.

Read the comments attached to the YT: they are an instructive collective confessional of other people's experience with compost, lost sink-plugs and community action. Bruce baulked at putting a DO NOT sign beside the bin because 

• a) he worked as a design-wonk in a previous life and believes signage is only needed because the system is poorly designed 
• b) the people who leave plastic cookie packets in their compost ain't a gonna read no sign 
• c) it seems officious

But I did like his idea [see below] of creating a 'lost&found' board next to the compost intake bin on which were pinned a weird and wonderful selection of what The Community had mistakenly concluded was compostable. See my earlier rant about tea-bags and the difference between bio-degradable [years] and compostable [months].

"Having said that, I was thinking of setting up a big board beside the compost where I could hang all the stupid things that I found in the compost, almost like an art instillation. And label it 'Lost and Found' or 'Is this Yours?' or something like that, to make a joke about it, and so that people can see what does end up in there. I think that would be more interesting, effective and educational, than an instructional sign."