Green Bins Near and Far

                                                                                                                                         photograph in the New York Times

When I saw this woman tenderly clutching her kitchen compost bin I got excited. What's the occasion? She turns out to be Leslie Vosshall, a neurobiologist who runs the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University, nicknamed the Smell Lab and lives on the upper West side of New York. At work and at home she celebrates all smells. "Some people divide the world into disgusting or nice," she said, "I think all smells are great."

Like my sister Lucia, Leslie stows her compost in the freezer when the bin is overflowing. Lucia then takes the frozen waste to the country on weekends, to add to her garden compost pile. Her daughter Hannah contributes her family's compost as well. Leslie takes hers to the nearby 79th street greenmarket, at the Museum of Natural History. where they accept residents' compost.

This proud fellow is overseeing the compost collection at the greenmarket on West 97th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam in Manhattan. I attended the market on a Friday morning last September and it was lovely.

At the same 97th Street market I spotted this photographer shooting close-ups of the collected compost, just like me.

I noticed this compost bin in Calabria, Italy during my travels there last September. In the foreground is a tray of figs drying in the hot afternoon sun.

                 On our trip to Australia we saw this recycling bin at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney

             Colorful garden clippings headed for the compost pile at Hanalei Bay Resort on Kauai

  Dropping off waste at the picturesque recycling center near Princeville on the island of Kauai

 Pineapple, papaya, bananas---We must be composting in Hawaii again. This time it's the Puakea Ranch on the Big Island!

                                      Colorful spring veggie parings in my kitchen green bin

   I have never featured a photo of me and my green bin. It's about time, so here we are together in Berkeley on my deck.