making a compost bin from a wheelie bin?

margaretclare

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I knew you would write something dramatic :rolleyes:. The guy who started me off in gardening was in his eighties, could hardly walk, yet somehow he still managed to hobble the few yards from his backdoor to his compost heap that stood in a corner of his garden, where he threw his compostable waste. He never turned the heap, the only time it ever moved was when he let me dig into it for worms for fishing.
I guess he just didn't like to see any compostable waste go into the rubbish bin. Like him when I am old, I hope I still care enough not to throw kitchen waste into the bin, but manage to hobble the few yards to my compost bin.

I don't throw kitchen waste into the bin either - at least, not into the ordinary bin. We now have 3 wheelie bins and all kitchen waste and garden waste goes into a green bin which gets collected weekly. In fact, there's very little kitchen waste - peelings etc is all - but it's a godsend having garden waste collected.

The wormery and one of the green Dalek bins were collected by a guy from Freecycle this morning.

daska

You can hot compost it all, easily, with a Green Johanna. We had to give our first one up when we moved house, we now have a back garden again and immediately went for one of these.

ixwood

You don't HAVE to cut the bottom off the bin off. Just add some soil or a bit of existing compost and it'll be fine. In fact, you could then compost food as it'll be rodent proof.

I use my Green wheelie bin as a composting bin (as well as a big heap). It's also a lot easier to move around and empty where you need it, so overall a pretty good option IMHO.

Lotus-eater

You do have to make it very leaky though, otherwise you will have a great big stinking wet mess.

HariboJunkie

Lotus-eater wrote: »

You do have to make it very leaky though, otherwise you will have a great big stinking wet mess.

Absolutely. I have 3 recycled (from the dump) dustbins which I use as compost bins as I found the standard beehive ones too hard to turn. I drilled holes in the bottom before use but noticed today that the compost is a bit damp so drilled a few more holes. The gunge that came out was vile. _pale_ Luckily the bins are placed over a drain but it really stank.

tomterm8

Lotus-eater wrote: »

You put wire under your bin to stop rodents getting in and as for maggots, I've never seen any, I didn't think you got maggots on vegetable waste, only meat.

That's quite right, by kitchen waste I meant meat or meat contaminated waste, vegetable matter is fine.

ixwood wrote: »

You don't HAVE to cut the bottom off the bin off. Just add some soil or a bit of existing compost and it'll be fine. In fact, you could then compost food as it'll be rodent proof.

As long as you make sure it can drain, it should work well. I prefer the compost to touch the earth, allowing worms and stuff to do the work, but it should still compost well.

daska

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

As long as you can guarantee that it is organic matter only - that means nothing cooked, no meat or dairy products or contamination of raw vegetable waste with these - then it is absolutely still recommended to compost your kitchen waste.

Surely meat and dairy are organic, they are derived from living organisms... whether they're raw or cooked.

As to not composting them: there are different methods of composting. Many councils sell subsidised 'food digesters' such as the one I posted about earlier - hot composters in all but name. Our council takes our organic 'food' waste away and then sells the compost - they don't sift out all the meat and dairy first!

Personally I'd rather cut out the middle man. My Green Johanna 'food digester/hot composter' doesn't smell, doesn't attract rodents and produces lovely rich compost.

carole.uk

ixwood wrote: »

You don't HAVE to cut the bottom off the bin off. Just add some soil or a bit of existing compost and it'll be fine. In fact, you could then compost food as it'll be rodent proof.

I use my Green wheelie bin as a composting bin (as well as a big heap). It's also a lot easier to move around and empty where you need it, so overall a pretty good option IMHO.

Hi thanks for this I going to try it .. i have compost shop bought and also a bag of horse manure can i put that in or keep them seperate

Lotus-eater

tomterm8 wrote: »

That's quite right, by kitchen waste I meant meat or meat contaminated waste, vegetable matter is fine.

Well in that case, it's never been advised to put any sort of meat or animal parts in your compost bin (unless it's in the green cone and even then I've heard horror stories of rats getting into them), so it's hardly a new thing. You should have said that, instead of stating that no kitchen waste should go into a compost bin.


Btw if you have your compost bin on concrete or other material, worms will still get into it, they seem to be able to get everywhere.