Drawing on my Compost Bin with Sakura Decorese Gel Pens

Aside from creating art, composting has been another source of calm for me. It’s been helping with my anxiety from this ongoing pandemic. I’m sure everyone is feeling a sense of heightened anxiety right? Anyway, each little food scrap that I compost feels like a Super Mario jump for coins [cue jump sound effect here]. It feels good to know that I helped redirect food waste from rotting in a landfill (which releases methane, by the way) to creating nutrient-filled soil to grow our food. It’s a super easy habit to implement and I feel like I’m doing something good for our planet. I honestly feel like I’m respecting earth more when I do this. Feels like a win-win!

So the OXO compost bin that I have is cute but anything with a blank surface just makes me want to draw on it. And that’s what I did. It was a calming drawing activity that made me happy.

I used Sakura Decorese gel pens in pastel colors for the surface. I got these pens in Japan for about ¥200 (around $2 USD) each. You can get them for $3.30 here.

Drawing on my Compost Bin with Sakura Decorese Gel Pens

These pens are amazing. They can write on almost any surface and are so easy to control! You can use the pens on paper, plastic, photos, glass, and metal surfaces to be exact. The pens glide so smoothly on the plastic compost bin. I’ve used other paint pens before but they get really messy; I ended up with unwanted paint splatters on both the bin and my hands. These Sakura pens give me cleaner and more predictable lines.

I drew the same flower shape over and over again and used different colors. Drawing continuous patterns help me calm down by the way. The pens create a really cool raised, shiny texture and made my flowers pop! Be sure not to touch the ink for a few minutes to let it dry and set. They dry pretty quickly.

Tada. Here is the final. I really like the cascading flowers look. I originally was going to fill the entire bucket but got sleepy. I think it looks more balanced with some of the white space left alone anyway.

The bucket is now sitting proudly on our kitchen island. We do a lot of food prep on the island and have the compost bin there ready to collect food scraps (e.g., carrot peels, onion skins, the insides of a pepper, bones, etc.). Now composting is even more fun with the added art!

Here’s a small and local Greater Boston store that has the blank bin if you’re interested.

Also, I hope you will consider composting, as it’s such an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. I honestly feel like this is the easiest solution for everyone to implement. And we don’t have to wait for our governments to take action, either.

On a side note, I am SUPER happy with Vermont’s recent mandatory composting law! Starting July 1, 2020, everyone in Vermont is required to stop putting their food scraps in the trash. Woo! I hope other states follow!

Here are some composting benefits:

Enriches soil, helps retain moisture, suppresses plant diseases and pests
Reduces the need for chemical fertilizers
Encourages the production of beneficial bacteria and fungi that break down organic matter to create humus, a rich nutrient-filled material
Reduces methane emissions from landfills (methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide)
Lowers your carbon footprint
Reduces landfill waste
Recycles kitchen and yard waste
Produces less trash at home (I don’t take out the trash as often as I used to anymore)
Helps grow the food we eat
Makes you feel good

Source: epa.gov

I personally use a compost service that picks up my food waste every 2 weeks. If you’re in New England and interested in a reliable service, I highly recommend Bootsrap Compost. You can find more info here.

They are super organized and professional. I had used another composting service called City Compost and they were quite unreliable, unfortunately. They would miss pick-ups and customer service was a nightmare. They are more affordable but cost me so much in headaches and frustration.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply