Composting

[liv2bike]

Just back from a stay up in the mountains of NC. Cabin we rented had us composting food scraps/food waste etc. Has me thinking about incorporating this into our household. Any of y'all compost? I would appreciate any tips or tricks that can be passed along.

I have a spot in my backyard identified. It used to be a sand box. Approximately 4'x4'x1' with wooden timbers acting as the shallow walls. We back up to conservation so there is plenty of detritus I can gather for the carbon source. All my neighbors bag their grass clippings so plenty of nitrogen available whenever I need it.

We eat lots of fruits and veggies so peels, cores, leaves etc. from cooking are plentiful. Coffee grounds, egg shells, tea bags, napkins and the like would also get thrown in. I know not to put meat or poultry scraps into a compost pile. My concern: critters. Thinking chicken wire or similar to keep the critters out.

What do y'all keep in the kitchen to put all the food waste in? I am thinking a big Tupperware container with a lid. A diaper pail has also crossed my mind as they are supposed to keep odors contained, which is my wife's biggest concern. I would dump it every few days though so no different than the food scraps sitting in our regular kitchen can for a few days before I take the garbage out.

Anywho, appreciate any lessons learned/feedback. Thanks!

Guy

[donevwil]

We have a stainless steel bin with carbon filter in the lid after trying the coffee can and Tupperware thing. It's kind of $$, but ultimately we do prefer it. It's also small'ish, but one should empty the thing sooner rather than later anyway.

Outside we have an inherited plastic, stacking wall box that is OK. You should really find something that facilitates turning the pile over often in the available space. A screen and wood, build you're own would probably be as good as ours. With limited space I'd really consider the eye-sore rolling tumbler type.

[christian]

We've been doing it for about two years. I built a 36"x36"x36" wood bin with a hinged lid in the back yard, with 2x2 stakes for the corners. No bottom, just drove the stakes into the ground.

We get all the greens, plus coffee grounds, plus egg shells from the kitchen. Every so often we throw in a handful of leaves because we think there should be some "browns" in there. It really doesn't matter, honestly, the stuff disappears faster than you can add it! We're a family of four who eat all our meals at home and heavy on the veggies and greens. Even so, we can't half fill the bin if we try. The composting process slows down markedly in the winter, but in the summer, it's frighteningly rapid. Corn cobs last a few weeks, watermelons compost in about 6 hours! There is no smell, but slugs, flies, spiders, and some crazy molds do begin to take residence. We had one intrepid chip munk come in a few times, but we kept him out with chicken wire. A pitchfork is useful for turning the pile every week or so.

Other than that, not much to it. We keep a tupperware container under the sink to put the compostables in and then go dump it in the bin every 3-4 days.

We used the humus produced in our flower beds last spring.

Honestly, there's a bit of start up thinking about it, but after that, it totally runs itself. You really don't have to pay much attention to the carbon/nitrogen mix or all that. Stuff magically turns into humus. That's all there is to it.

[jitahs]

I'm using a huge stainless stockpot someone left on the curb. Advantage over plastic - doesn't retain odors, doesn't stain, easy rinse. Our green plastic one is now black inside, despite lining it with newspaper over the years.

Our curbside service takes bones, etc., so that part's covered. Just throw them in the freezer 'til collection day. One thing that goes down the disposal is egg shells; even rinsed in the bucket they're fetid.

[maunahaole]

What they said. We use a combo of a plastic garbage can with some holes drilled in it and a rolling tumbler. Start in the can, finish in the tumbler. Small container on the kitchen counter for scraps. Whatever you use in the kitchen needs to be covered at the very least. For us, it is to mitigate fruit flies, but we are in the tropics and insects thrive here.

Once you get the stuff in the home stretch, make sure to turn it occasionally to keep the process moving along evenly. Grass clippings are great when you start, but not so necessary once you are in full digestion mode. Get ready for lots of bugs, snails/ slugs and sometimes toads in the pile.

If us great to have around for home gardening, whatever you plant in it thrives. It is great to throw a big lump in the pot under anything that you are transplanting, as the roots take right to it.

[prolix21]

We recently started composting now that we have a house with a yard. We are trying out this Geobin thing from amazon. We'll see how it goes, but I can already see why people use the tumbler types...

[liv2bike]

Thanks for all the input. I like the idea of a SS bin for the kitchen. I need to make this as easy as possible so my wife isn't put off by plastic that will become yucky. Sounds like I need not over-think it either. We will be using the humus in our flower beds and potted plants etc as it becomes available in the compost pile. I am looking forward to seeing how much less we put out on the curb. We already recycle and this seems like another step in the right direction. Thanks all!

cheers,
Guy

[Jonathan]

We already recycle and this seems like another step in the right direction. Thanks all!

cheers,
Guy

Ronnie's wife is a University of Florida Master Gardener. She may have some specific ideas for our climate.

Wrt to recycling and garbage. As the guy who takes the can and bins to the curb I can tell you that there is a very strong and multiplying correlation between how well we eat and how much waste gets carried to the curb. If we could stick to the outside aisles of the grocery store I would bet we'd throw only a small bag of trash out every week.

[christian]

BTW, this looks like a good deal to me: Leisure Season 27 in. x 27 in. x 30 in. 8.5 gal. Cedar Compost Bin-CB2730 at The Home Depot

It cost me $65 in materials and half a day to build one of my own that looks near-identical. OK, mine has hinges on the lid and a handle, but still.

[Loki]

J All my neighbors bag their grass clippings so plenty of nitrogen available whenever I need it.

Anywho, appreciate any lessons learned/feedback. Thanks!

Guy

Be cautious with sourcing your materials, fertilization company's throw systemic insecticides and herbicides these days. Merit is advertised to control grubs for 90 days. Aside from that, if the weedkillers have not been watered off before bagging you are putting those things into your pile. Backed by Bayer

[j44ke]

New York City government (Bloomberg) has started to make noise about requiring this in the city. The details are sketchy, but buildings would be required to separate out food waste and put it into a separate container, the contents of which would then be collected curbside by the city separately from trash and recycling collection. NYC has a constant rat problem (since like infinity) and so far it seems the indication is that the food waste will NOT be in plastic bags in order to facilitate composting at the landfill or wherever it will all go. Nothing like large quantities of food waste stored in basements and then dragged out curbside all over the city to create a possible boom in the rat populations. The containers will have to be nuclear strength. And I can only imagine the smell in the summer if the containers aren't sealed.

Not to whine really. This is inevitable. But we're trying to figure out a container for inside the apartment, because before it gets to the basement, it hangs around in our house for a while. I'm thinking a medical waste trash can or one of those Vipp bins. They have nicely sealed lids, foot operation and removable inner bins so we can schlepp the slop down to the basement to feed the rats.

Or the pig. Maybe we should just get a pig for the building and put it in the basement.

[Jake Rosenfeld]

we keep a half gallon beer pitcher in the sink and when its full (which is often and several times a day sometimes)
we dump it into a 6 gallon galvanize pail with a lid that sits in a red wagon 15' from the back door. When that's full,(once a week or so) it gets pulled 150' to the 3' round by 3' tall wire hoop in the garden as that gets filled and mixed with equal amts of leaves and oddball garden extras we move the hoop. The pile that's left gets pulled into the garden in the immediate area.
Its amazing what will volunteer up out of those piles, this year it was a huge pumpkin, tomatos and a 2'+ tall avocado sprout!

[tele]

Years ago I got some wooden pallets for free and screwed them together to make a couple of compost bins. I have learned to put chicken wire on the bottom so that burrowing creatures dont get the scraps from underneath. I usually throw all the compostable stuff into 1 pile during the year, turning every couple of weeks. The other pile is left for finishing the previous years pile. Other than no meat and no fertilized grass clippings, I dont think you can screw it up.

It is amazing how little our family of 4 throws out as garbage after composting/recycling.

[steve garro]

Having a small orchard, we do this every day.
We have a plastic unit where you dump stuff in the top, and it has a hatch where you remove stuff from the bottom.
Works well enough, but I'd really like one of the ones made from a 55 gallon barrel on an axle, it has a door and a crank and sits off the ground - you put it in the hatch & spin it, and it composts so much faster.

To harvest the compost, we dump it on a sifter screen made of 1/4" mesh screen on a wheelbarrow for the trees - one thing, and I'm no kidding, take this into thought, is that's it's seriously 1/4 ALIVE = 1/4 of the compost hits the wheelbarrow running - roaches, centipedes, pill bugs, worms, scorpions......

I let it sit for a little to let them get out, as they are doing allot of the composting.
Place it well away from your house, and you WILL have squirrels, coons, skunks, ect.
= Why I would want one of the barrel ones - I would have to import some of the crawlies into it to get it to pop.

For collection just a lidded 1 gallon plastic container next to the sink, and a 5gal bucket outside the door.

Makes rich black soil - the plants love it, really awesome for potting and planting, and all the trees get a scoop in the fall & spring.
Against tradition you sure can throw anything in there like meat, fish anything, chicken bones, dog turds - just expect more critters.......
Stuff does not last long in there, not at all
But yeah, mostly plant material, egg shells, coffee grounds, leaves........be sure to stir often!
- Garro.

[Eddie]

I've never understood the bins, and the barrels, and all the extra effort. In our urban setting, we had about a 4'x40' planter in the back, and one corner about 4' square was dedicated the "compost pile." Pretty much everything went in there except for the coffee grounds - I didn't have enough knowledge about our soil ph and didn't want to mess with it. A dedicated shovel lived with the pile, we'd dig a hole before dumping a fresh load, and turn the whole thing over occasionally. Come end of winter, we'd spread the whole thing through the garden. Out of the pile we had reliable volunteer squash and some cantaloupe, tomatoes, mint, etc.

We had one of the green pails with the charcoal filter on top just outside the back door, but it didn't have drain holes and it would collect rainwater, and then bacteria would get a hold, and holy hell did that stuff smell - gag reflex inducing odors. Switched to a couple of yogurt containers in the kitchen with a pinhole poke in the top to let the pressure escape, emptied those as needed, and no more bacteria.

I had plans to build a bin as Christian describes, and we never had any issue with critters, so I just let it go. The only real issue we had was that I'd dump the spent grains from brewing, the dog got into them two or three times, and we'd have to deal with his G.I. issues. That, and the spent grains would really tend to stink for a few days before they started to break down, which brought me a bit of sick pleasure as I'm sure it irritated one busybody neighbor in particular, but now I feel bad as our pile was right next to the kitchen window of the recently passed Rep. Foley.

[cny rider]

Hogs and hens are the ultimate composters.

[Eddie]

Steve, we never composted any animal product, but yeah, I'd pick up worms I'd see around and drop them in there. It was pretty cool when I would turn it over and you'd see things go scattering all over.

I know some apartment dwellers who have under-sink compost buckets with some resident worms. Seems like it would be a bit of work to maintain, but heck, why not?

[liv2bike]

Be cautious with sourcing your materials, fertilization company's throw systemic insecticides and herbicides these days. Merit is advertised to control grubs for 90 days. Aside from that, if the weedkillers have not been watered off before bagging you are putting those things into your pile. Backed by Bayer

I know who treats and who does not so I can avoid those who treat. When they put out their clippings on the curb, I will just snag as needed from my more earth friendly neighbors. Heck, I won't let my kids run and play on some of my neighbors yards they put so much crap down. When we go for walks you can smell the insecticides/pesticides. Good point though man. Thanks.

[twails]

To follow j44ke's comment regarding potential NYC food waste recycling, we already have a scheme set up in London, UK and other parts of the UK. Various boroughs in London provide a plastic caddy (kitchen receptacle for the waste) and compostible liners. Depending on whether you live in a block or house there is also a large plastic bin/trash can which is emptied weekly or fortnightly. The system works.

Here is a quick link to kitchen caddies for food waste recycling (it is a UK site but there will be US alternatives)

Caddies - Compostable bags for food waste recycling, Caddies and more!


If you go ahead you will notice a huge reduction in weight when hauling you pre-food recycling trash can to the kerbside.

Good luck.

[christian]

I had plans to build a bin as Christian describes, and we never had any issue with critters, so I just let it go.

As near as I can tell, the only reasons for a bin is to keep (biggish) critters out. As long as you keep the pile reasonably tight, it will compost just fine. We happen to share our yard with a racoon (a really big, healthy, happy-looking Guy Fieri of a raccoon), so a little bin to discourage his foraging seemed worthwhile.