Solar Cone at Cool Planet Goods

While visiting the Minnesota Center for Book Arts today, I wandered next door and discovered a store called Cool Planet Goods (1023A Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis).

I checked out a great assortment of CFL and LED lightbulbs (including dimmable bulbs), electric bike conversion kits, and some nifty indoor-outdoor rugs -- made from recycled plastic, but they look like "oriental" carpets (on sale, too!).

But the thing that really caught my attention was the Solar Cone. For those who don't want to go the full nine yards of composting, this offers an easy way to get rid of food waste without putting it in the garbage. You dig a hole somewhere in your yard that has full sun, bury the black basket-like part of the Solar Cone in the ground, and then put the green part on top of it.

The flat top of the green cone is a latchable door. You can put any kind of food waste in it, including meat, dairy, and bones (usually not allowed in compost piles because they attract animals). The heat of the sun on the green plastic causes the food to break down into water and a small amount of other organic residue. You don't have to turn it, and it sounds like you probably don't need to empty it very frequently, if at all.

The Solar Cone folks have an informative website that explains how it all works. According to the site, you can even put a limited amount of pet waste into it.

Cool Planet Goods has installed a Solar Cone behind their store (in a garden strip next to the MCBA parking lot).