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Disposing Of Biodegradable Waste

Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich soil or compost. Its the only sustainable way to deal with our waste… we love it.

It sounds complex, and  many  treat it as some kind of arcane science, but basically you pile your biological waste into a compost bin, keep it warm and it rots down naturally into a rich soil or compost. I do it without much effort. If it took much effort I wouldn’t! With the right bins you can turn all your scraps into plant food, or, if you don’t need plant food, dispose of your waste ecologically.

Great Reasons to Compost

  • You can use your compost bin  for garden litter which saves on boring trips to the tip.
  • You can dispose of your own kitchen waste which it gobbles up by the bucket load.
  • You can keep biodegradable waste out of landfill. Why? Well, biodegradable waste does not do well in the unnatural conditions of landfill. It bubbles away producing methane which adds to the greenhouse effect.
  • And so, composting reduces your carbon footprint  by diverting biodegradable waste from landfill.
  • It is  a practical investment for the future. The Uk government is committed to reducing the amount of biodegradable waste in landfill by 50%, by the year 2020. As 30% of UK domestic waste is organic this will affect us all. Setting up a home composting system is just getting ahead of the game.
  • Cuts our dependance on waste collection services by taking responsibility for our own waste.
  • Cut bin liners. No need  to wrap my mushy waste as it all goes straight in the compost bin. Read living without bin liners  for more information.

How It Works

All natural (as oppose to synthetic) materials do eventually biodegrade or rot. Here’s how long it takes for some commonly used products to biodegrade, when they are scattered about as litter:

Paper ~ 2-5 months
Cotton rags ~ 1-5 month
Natural fiber rope ~ 3-14 months
Orange peel ~6 months
Wool socks ~1 to 5 years
Leather shoes ~25 to 40 years
Tin cans ~ 50 to 100 years
Composting speeds up that process and results in a lovely rich soil additive that can be spread on the garden to feed the plants and micro beasties.  
It is also a way of managing your own waste. If every bit of trash was compostable you could get out of that destructive relationship with your landfill bin.

Useful composting information

Biodegradable –Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism, such as fungi or bacteria over a period of time. More about biodegrading here

Compostable – To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain amount of time, the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive.

Composting Standards For a man-made product to be legally sold as compostable, it has to meet rigorous composting standards

How to Compost?

So you are now hot to rot but which bin to go with?

A heap…
You can compost in a heap which is just as it sounds. You heap your compostables up and leave them to rot down. However composting works quicker when there is heat. To create heat you need to contain your heap. It needs enclosing.

Build a wooden bin…
These bins are not fully sealed. Animals (rats and mice) can get in so you need to be careful what you put on them. No meat dairy or cooked food. You can quickly and cheaply  build a compost bin out of scrap wood or pallets. Or you can buy wooden frames ready made.

Plastic Ready Made Bins
The next option is to buy a ready made plastic bin.
Basic Bin I got my first bin from the council. It didn’t work for me.. rats invaded my bin and refused to leave. Other people manage though. Rats can get in these bins because they are not fully sealed.

Enclosed Systems I use an enclosed system called the Green Johanna to compost everything. Yes its plastic but you can compost meat, dairy, cooked food and  NO RATS. Highly Reccomended!

Underground Systems If you just want to get rid of your waste rather than use the resulting compost,  you  could try an underground composting system. You put your rubbish in and the ground eats it. One such is  the green cone that just eats your biodegradable rubbish. Underground  bins can also be used to compost your pet poop .

Composting Indoors

Electrical Units
This is a nifty little electric composting unit that you can keep indoors in a kitchen cupboard

Other Ways

Bokashi Bins are not strictly composting but pickling. Great to  use in conjunction with worm bins.

Worm bins – a bin of worms that eat your rubbish.

Read all about these bins here……

Bokashi Bins

Because I love all things compost, I invested in a Bokashi kit - two bins with taps and bokashi bran ...
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Carpark composting

It's a compost bin... in a car park.... next to the other rubbish bins. How cool. How French! ...
Read More

Compost Bin – underground

You can put ALL your food waste into your Green Cone including meat, fish, bones, dairy products, vegetables and fruit. There ...
Read More

Compost Bin basic – cheap but rats!

I’ve had my compost bin for 14 months now and I am very pleased with it. I use it for ...
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Compost bin in a kitchen cupboard

I am lucky enough to have a garden where I can keep  my compost bin. However if you don't have ...
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Compost Bin the Green Johanna

I started composting with a simple black bin, the economy discounted version from the council. I chucked the food in ...
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Dog poop disposal

This is something I really hate …. plastic bags of dog @*%! hanging from the bushes. But then plastic bags ...
Read More

Worm Bins

Composting is a great way to dispose of kitchen waste and reduce your carbon footprint, but what if you don’t ...
Read More

Plastic and Composting 

Buy

There are plenty of links in the posts  links above to the suppliers

If you can’t do that then I have put together and Amazon catalogue. Yes I know..

 

 

Biard Eco Recycled Platic Environmentally Friendly Bokashi Composting Bucket Bin to help Compost Household / Kitchen / Food Waste Blackwall Twin Pack Bokashi Bin Bokashi Bran 3kg
Biard Eco Recycled Platic Environmentally F… £27.99 Blackwall Twin Pack Bokashi Bin £36.00 Bokashi Bran 3kg £16.50
Green Johanna Hot Composter Hatch for Blackwall Compost Converter Wooden Composter Large
Green Johanna Hot Composter £104.00 Hatch for Blackwall Compost Converter £7.50 Wooden Composter Large £34.99
Wooden Compost Bin 328L in BeeHive Style 337 FSC Classic Single Wooden Compost Bin FSC Classic Triple Wooden Compost Bin
Wooden Compost Bin 328L in BeeHive Style 337 £54.95 FSC Classic Single Wooden Compost Bin £84.99 FSC Classic Triple Wooden Compost Bin £209.99

 

Amazon is a very dirty word at the moment and I thought long and hard before suggesting them.  Heres why I went ahead….. No we are not entirely happy with Amazons recent history. However, we have always found their service to be good and their packaging usually compostable.

If you buy a product via this link we do get an affiliation fee for this. This is not why we do it.

https://wp.me/s4gI1n-9595

Sung to the tune of… can you guess…. on the count of three

Imagine no incineration
No chimneys towering high
no clouds of toxic ashes
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Composting today…

Imagine there’s no black bins – it isn’t hard to do
Nothing to burn or landfill
so no methane too
Imagine all the people
composting in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will compost as one

Imagine no recycling
I wonder if you can
No more single use dipsosables
only products with a long lifespan
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will compost as one

See our composting posts here

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