Fill compost bins with 'Harvest Stew'

Here's a recipe for "Harvest Stew" using the season's leftovers: Gather all apple cores, potato peels, mushy Jack O'Lanterns, dead mums, coffee grinds, green bean snippings, dried out corn stalks, hay bales, and leaves. Place in compost bin. Add water. Toss for 30 seconds. Leave in compost bin until spring. Yield: dark soil terrific for enriching gardens and lawns.

If anyone is in need of a compost bin to complete the recipe, they are in luck. Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation will sell compost bins on Rhode Island Recycles Day, Saturday, Nov. 17, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Central Landfill on Shun Pike in Johnston. The special sale price is $25 (a 50- percent discount off the regular price of $50) while supplies last. Limit two bins per person, no rain checks.

The bins are easy to assemble and will fit in any vehicle. They hold 12 cubic feet of material and help keep the compost pile neat, protect it from animals, and speed decomposition.

Since leaf and yard waste is the second largest component of waste at the Central Landfill, composting is a great way to reduce the amount land-filled.

"Composting transforms food and yard waste into a usable product," said Mike O'Connell, executive director of RIRRC. "You will create less waste, and the bonus is that you will no longer have to pay for expensive pesticides and fertilizers."

Rhode Island Recycles Day is a local celebration of America Recycles Day, a national effort to encourage Americans to recycle more. On Nov. 17, RIRRC will also offer large-volume paper shredding and will collect household hazardous waste, computers, cell phones, and televisions. All are free except for a $5 fee for recycling televisions, due to their cathode ray tubes.

For additional information on the bin sale, composting, and the Rhode Island Recycles Day event, go to www.rirrc.org or call 942- 1430, ext. 775.

Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation is the quasi-state environmental agency dedicated to providing the public with environmentally sound programs and facilities to manage waste. The agency helps fund and promote the state's recycling program, and owns and operates the Materials Recycling Facility and Central Landfill in Johnston.