Container Composting

If you have limited space for composting, or are only composting a relatively small amount of waste, this may be the perfect solution for you. If you are new to composting, this is also a good way to get started.

It is possible to construct your own composting container, but I won’t get into this here. By searching the Internet you should be able to find plans for this. Commercial composters are not expensive, perhaps $50, and are usually well designed. It can never hurt to have a composter that is a little bigger than you need, so be careful not to buy one that is too small. Some cities often offer discounted composters, as a way of encouraging people to recycle their household waste. Here is a picture of the one I use:

Some composters have moving parts, and are designed to stir the compost, but this is not necessary. The basic idea behind my composter is waste is put into the top, decomposes, then can be dug out of the bottom. Some of the cheaper composters don’t have the little door at the bottom. All composters of this type are open at the bottom, so when your compost is ready, all you have to do is lift the plastic composter off the top. I find it useful to completely empty the composter every year so having a door that let’s me dig a little bit at a time out is useful, but not very important. The little door can also be a nusance, because inevitably it will fall off or break.

The composter will hold much more than it looks like, because as you add waste it will decompose, leaving more space for more waste. Think of it like a bottomless garbage can. With a bit of luck, you may be able to fit in 10 times more waste than the actual capacity of the composter.

If you have the space, it can be useful to have two composters. This is so one of them has a chance to sit and decompose, while you are adding fresh material to the other one.

In Composting and Mulching I talked about what to put in your compost. You can add both yard waste and household waste, but many people that have a composter like this live in a city and use it only for their household waste. It’s perfect for this. Just keep an extra container in your kitchen to hold your compostable kitchen waste. You may want to line it with a paper bag to make cleaning easier, and the paper bag can just be tossed into the composter with the rest of the waste. By composting your waste in this way you can often reduce what you put into the landfill by more than 50%. There is not usually a lot of nitrogen in household waste, which can slow the composter down. If you want the composter to go faster, you can add small amounts of cow manure to increase the nitrogen content. Since fresh cow manure can burn the roots of young plants, be sure not to add any near to the time you will actually use your compost.

Composting in a container is usually faster than composting in an open pile. My compost is normally ready for use within a year. I will often use the compost a little bit before it’s really ready, and simply pick out the pieces of not yet decomposed waste and put them back in the composter.

Compost depends on micro-organisms, that in the beginning can take several months to establish themselves. In order to get these established more quickly, you may wish to find a way to add them yourself. The easiest way to do this is to hold back a couple of shovel fulls of compost from your previous batch, and add it to your next. Of course if you are starting at the beginning, you have to find another way. These micro-organisms are in store bought compost, as well as manure. There is also no reason why you can’t just wait a few months for the micro-organisms to establish themselves. You can also buy inoculant (compost accelerator) in the garden center, but I think this is kind of a waste of money considering there are other sources. In any event, inoculant won’t make the composter go any faster once the micro-organisms are already present.