It’s Earth Day 2015 and I have a confession to make: I have compost confusion. The other night, I found myself staring at a chicken bone. I was about to put it in the garbage can, but I remembered that it might belong in the compost bin. One recent Spring morning, after making some scrambled eggs, I found myself at the sink with the eggshells in a bowl wondering if I should put them down the disposal as usual or if they too belong in the compost bin.

And then there’s the mystery of the milk carton. For years, I have been emptying the carton, rinsing it out, and tossing it into the recycling bin. But lately, I have wondered about all that rinsing. We’re in the middle of a drought. It seems so wasteful to rinse out a carton just so it can be recycled.

Even asking if I spend too much time thinking about my garbage — on Earth Day — probably should earn me a one-way ticket to an environmental re-education camp – you know, the kind with barbed wire fences.

To avoid that fate, I make up my mind to get these questions answered once and for all. I go to the Castro Valley Sanitary District‘s website. CVSan’s site is admirably designed, with the recycling guides popping up right away. I choose the guide, which shows the page layout. There’s the GREEN can. I select it, and the question I’ve been asking myself is right there on a green circle: “What goes in my green organics cart?”

To the right are photos of what goes in the cart, and lo and behold I see chicken bones, eggshells, and what looks like cheese. I remember with chagrin that I may have disposed of some ancient cheese rinds in the garbage. (I was brought up to think of my garbage can as a garbage can – now I know it’s just a mini landfill in my kitchen.)

But what should I do about the milk carton? I click on the BLUE recycling can. There it is: a picture of a paper carton. Justified! But I’m curious; does this qualify as food-soiled paper, the kind that can go in the compost? I click over to the GREEN can. Yes! I can put my milk carton in the green can without rinsing; a win-win for the environment.

The road to environmental efficiency is littered with obstacles. I look forward to the day when I can cook or clean up without standing and staring at a chicken bone or an eggshell or realizing with a groan that I have, yet again, chosen the wrong bin, can, drain, or cart.

So even though this is something I rarely suggest, let’s do the math. If I spend two minutes a week staring at my trash and thinking about what I should do with it — and then take two three-minute trips to the CVSan website each year for a refresher course — that’s just 1 hour and 52 minutes total.

I suppose I could use that time to binge watch two or three episodes of my favorite shows. But come on, this is the planet we’re talking about.

(CVSan is hosting its annual Earth Day Clean-up & Recycle Event this Saturday, April 25^th at Canyon Middle School. CVSan will give 3 free 1-cubic foot bags of compost to its customers from 8 AM to 2 PM while supplies last. For more information, visit www.cvsan.org/ed.)