00:00So you put chemical fertilizers, I know, there's a June bug, just like, oh, here, we'll just keep moving.
00:07We'll just keep walking. Oh, he left, he's scared now. Yeah. I'm Nicole Dwaran, and I'm here with
00:12Refinery29, and I'm trying out living sustainably for one week. I've always been very aware of the
00:18environment and how we need to change our habits. Growing up, my mom was very much into listening
00:24to Al Gore and making my friends and I, as 12-year-olds, watch The Inconvenient Truth.
00:30But doing further research as an adult, I found out that there's so many other ways I can reduce
00:34my carbon footprint. Day one, I went to the beach and picked up trash there, and then I properly
00:40recycled it. During my research, I found some easy recycling rules to follow provided by waste
00:47management. Make sure you are only recycling clean bottles, cans, paper, and cardboard. Don't include
00:53loose plastic bags, and take your recycling out of plastic garbage bags.
01:00I'm curious about composting, since I heard that it's beneficial for the environment,
01:05but now I'm going to meet with experts to find out how it works and why it's so great.
01:10Hi. Nice to meet you both. Nice to meet you. I'm Monique. I'm Jamie. So we're at Cottonwood
01:16Urban Farm. This is where we process all our compost. LA Compost, we have a close partnership with
01:23us, and they're the ones that do all the physical turning and everything. And then Cottonwood
01:27Urban Farm hosts the space, which is awesome. So I'm going to give you a little tour. Let's
01:32do it.
01:33Here we have our sifting station. People tend to forget to take stuff off like produce
01:38stickers, rubber bands, that kind of stuff. And so we sift to get out contaminants. After
01:45sifting, we'll take that and put it in here. And there, it's just, you can see it's teeming
01:51with worms. They're so cute. And that is going to give you a whole ton of nutrients for your
01:56soil. You have two other types of composting systems here that we get to show you. This
02:00next system is called a windrow system. And what you do is you turn it. And every time you
02:06turn it, it aerates that bacteria. It gives them water, moisture, air, and then they can,
02:12you know, eat it all up. And then we're going to take you down to this three-bin system right
02:16over
02:17here. The three-bin system is great for community sites, like a community garden. You have the
02:24solar power, so there's no electricity needed. And what this does, it's very similar to your windrow
02:30in that it's going to blow air through the piles. It's turning the piles without you having to do
02:35anything once an hour. And then that's going to break it down over time. And then the rest of the
02:40farm is this beautiful orchard. So Cottonwood Urban Farm is built on a vacant lot in the valley.
02:47Elliot, the farm owner, kind of took it over. And really what he's hoping to create here is an
02:52education center. So kids can come here. They can connect with nature. They can learn about gardening.
02:58They can learn about composting. And so he has all these partnerships with elementary schools in the
03:03area to teach them about this. How can someone get started with Compostable LA? Go to our website
03:09and sign up for a subscription. So we're a subscription-based service, which is really easy.
03:14Really, it all depends on how much waste are you producing? What is your income? Maybe you can't
03:19afford weekly service and that's okay. One of the best quotes I've actually heard about sustainability is
03:24that sustainability is not a hippie thing. It is a survival thing. After visiting with Jamie and Monique,
03:31I developed a stronger relationship with my waste, which sounds kind of funny. Now I'm more mindful
03:38about the food that I'm using and the food that I'm wasting. And now all of my food waste is
03:43going
03:43to be put to good use. Day three, I planted some basil in my garden. I use the soil from
03:49Compostable LA for my basil.
03:53I'm expanding my herb garden to reduce my carbon footprint by using less gas to travel to and from
03:59the store and not having to ship my food for miles away.
04:06Day four, once my bin was empty from the soil that they gave me, I started using it as my
04:12compost bin.
04:13It's really rewarding to know that my scraps are going to provide fertilizer for the next plants that
04:19are growing in the garden. On the last day, I went to a farmer's market to pick up my veggies
04:25and
04:25produce for the week. Cottonwood Urban Farm actually sells their produce at the farmer's market. So I
04:31think something that I'm going to do more looking forward is going to farmer's markets and creating
04:36a relationship with my produce. Not only are you supporting local businesses and people around you
04:42in your community, but you're also reducing your carbon waste because you're not getting products
04:48from far away. You're getting products that are right next door. Living sustainably was a lot easier
04:53than I expected. By making slight changes to my week, I was able to be way more mindful of the
04:59things
05:00that I was doing and how I was impacting the community around me. I love what Monique quoted the other
05:05day,
05:06which is that sustainability isn't a hippie thing. It's a survival thing. Sustainability can mean a lot of
05:12things. So I hope that this inspired you to take some action. Let me know what challenge you want
05:17to see next in the comments below. Thank you for watching Refinery29. To watch more videos,
05:26click here. And to subscribe, click here.
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