The green warrior endures

Perhaps it's not a phase after all. Optimising's own Captain Planet, Daniel, went on green mission a few months ago.

Newcomer, Paul, showing us how it's done.

As we mentioned on our previous blog post, Daniel redecorated the office with coloured recycling bins, delivered sermons on the difference between hard and soft plastic and changed our electricity company to a provider that wasn't so hell-bent on burning coal.

I'll admit, I thought at the time that this trend wouldn't continue, but to our credit, Optimising has climbed another branch on the green tree and even got it's own compost heap. Well, kind of. It's not a massive outdoor compost like I had in mind, but that would be a little ridiculous on our concrete rooftop!

Instead, we're using a technique called ‘Bokashi' to break down our kitchen scraps. Our bokashi bin, which was bought from a local company called Maze, works by fermenting food scraps in an air-tight container that sits on our kitchen bench. Instead of letting the mixture rot outdoors, the process is much more similar to pickling.

We can ferment practically anything we're told, even left-over meat and dairy!

To activate the process and prevent any nasty odours, we spray the contents with the bokashi liquid, which is a special mixture containing micro-organisms lactobacilli, yeast and phototropic microbes. The unit has a tap at the bottom where we can drain the liquid it generates, dilute it, and use it to water a lucky Optimising team member's garden. It takes about two weeks for the cycle to complete, after which you bury the mixture in your veggie garden and allow soil microbes to finish the work.

All that's left to do now is complete the cycle. I vote that whoever enjoys the most nutrients for their veggie patch brings some of the harvest into work! I'd love a vine-ripened tomato in my toasted sandwich...