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The city of Seattle requires its citizens to recycle food scraps.  Did you know that?  I didn’t know that.

Apparently it’s been very successful thus far, but the massive composting facilities smell nasty.  Surprise, surprise.  One facility, called Cedar Grove, processed 344,000 tons of yard waste and food scraps last year.

Here is one concerned citizens description of the problem.

“There’s a very intense smell that needs to be taken care of,” said Jon Nehring, mayor of Marysville, north of the Everett plant. He and Tulalip Tribal Chairman Mel Sheldon wrote to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn in July asking for help. “The smell is awful. When the temperature starts to rise, it gets worse. It’s a very distinct smell. It’s a nauseous sweet silage smell.”

I don’t know if I have strong opinions on large scale composting issues, but I will tell you that, “a nauseous sweet silage smell” is exactly what a decomposing body smells like.  Sweet, but not fun childhood nostalgia sweet.  Like, rotting licorice popsicle with decomposed peach sprinkles dipped in pickle juice and in left in the August sun.  And once you get a whiff of it it clings to the little hairs inside your nose for days and even a brillo pad kleenex cannot remove the infernal stench.

Composting is a good thing, I just feel for the neighbors, that’s all I’m sayin’.

Link to the New York Times Article

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