Home & Garden Blog » Active Recycling Choice: Compost Heaps

Every true green household is concerned with recycling.  How far you take this concern totally depends: some people think recycling means not throwing plastics and papers into the trash and sorting them instead; others completely change their buying habits to reduce packaging waste to only a shopping-bag full a week.  If you ask me, recycling happens on multiple levels and is a never ending process.  It happens on the national level, where you sort cans, papers, plastics, etc and hand them over to the recycling services to deal with.  It happens on a home level, such as using recyclable bags when shopping and using ceramic or reusable plates instead of paper or plastic ones.  But one of the most interesting and active recycling choices, I think, is the compost heap.

First, some facts about compost heaps:

1. Compostable materials are natural materials that biodegrade substantially under specific biological conditions.  The compost doesn’t just “happen” if you put the materials in the backyard.  Bacteria and heat need to be at work, and they need a specific environment in the heap to make the compost effective.
2. 4 important elements are needed to make the materials biodegrade in the most efficient way: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and water.  Some easy carbon materials are cereal straws, cornstalks, dry leaves, wood, cardboard, or office paper.  High nitrogen levels are found easily in green plant material, grass clippings, manure and kitchen waste, such as fruit and vegetable cooked waste, or tea and coffee grounds.
3. Compost heaps can be done at high temperatures (active or aerobic compost) and low temperatures (anaerobic).  High temperatures are necessary to compost meat, dairy, eggs, grease and cooking oil.  To create an aerobic compost heap, the compost needs to be contained within a bin so it can achieve high levels of heat inside the bin to decompose the matter inside.  Recommended size: 3 feet x 3 feet.
4. Anaerobic composting happens at around 86 degrees Fahrenheit.  It is slower than aerobic composting but still effective, and is the common technique for domestic gardening.  Usually an open (or closed) bin of wood or plastic, or even just in the yard in exposed piles, anaerobic composting works for kitchen scraps and garden clippings.  It is recommended to improve airflow and eliminate odor by adding carbon-rich “brown” materials, such as wood chips, shredded bark, twigs, etc.

Now that we have a run down on the important facts about compost heaps, let’s look at some of the products on the market to help with aerobic and anaerobic composting.

HomeDepot.com’s ECOmposter Tumbler with Base is only $249.00 and holds up to 71 gallons of waste inside.  This is a great design for the aerobic processes, and promises to have nutrient rich compost created in as little as 4-6 weeks.  The design looks kind of like a spaceship, but at least it will contain most of the smell.

CleanAirGardening.com’s Black Soilsaver Compost Bin is a double whammy:  the bin is on sale for $109.99, reduced from $139.99, AND it is made out of recycled materials itself!  This is a great bin for domestic use compost in the garden.

Find at Smarter.com:  Shop for more compost bins.