[crosseyedsheep]

Hi,

I've been looking for an inexpensive (and hassel free) method to compost cooked food while eliminating problems with pests. I had ruled out wormeries due to issues with worms dieing off due to thermal conditions etc. I came across a post on a forum where someone described how they had buried a perforated steel bin where the waste broke down due to anerobic or erobic activity. Sounded interesting but I couldn't find the post again, I found this however:

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/8890/diy-food-scrap-digestercomposter

I'm not sure about his theory about the worms being able to get in and out, I think it's more likely that it will break down the food by erobic bacterial activity without the aid of worms. I noticed that he has a comment at the bottom regarding standard composting practice i.e. not adding cooked food etc. But I think this could work for cooked food and I'm going to try it (for cooked food only as I have a composter for peelings etc). It probably will attract pests but they won't be able to get access as we have a cat and 2 terriers to deter the pests anyway so not too concerned there. Now all I need to do is fins a steel bin as they all seem to be made of plastic these days.

So, Does anyone have any thoughts or feedback?

[tippben]

Firstly, what kind of food are you cooking? My wife and I are mainly vegetarian, and add cooked food to our normal compost with no problems. The main problems if you are trying to compost meat, fish, dairy etc is that they are broken down by maggots, or by other animals eating and excreting them. We don't put fish remains into it except in the winter months because of the smell.

If you bury a bin like that in the ground, and make sure that cats, dogs, rodents etc can't get in, and chuck your food waste in it, it will eventually rot. You will get flies and smells.

I would concentrate on either not cooking too much food, or making better use of leftovers. The only thing that is dodgy to eat again is shell fish.

[crosseyedsheep]

The cat and the dogs take care of the meat scraps. It's difficult to cut down on food waste when you have a bunch of picky kids. What I'm looking to use it for is things like breakfast cereals which haven't been finished, mouldy bread, mouldy cheese etc. things which I wouldn't feed to the dogs or cat (or birds) or put in the normal compost bin. I've had some experience of rats invading the normal compost bin before and I want to avoid anything which would attract them.

[Good guy]

I've just come across an ad for a 'hot composter' in the RHS Garden magazine. The ad says it is made of expanded polypropylene and incorporates a filter for smells and will take bread, eggs, meat, bones etc. Sounds interesting.
www.hotbincomposting.com

It's very pricy, but the site has loads of good info on hot composting. 50mm of insulation seems to be key. You any good at DIY?

[crosseyedsheep]

[baabamaal]

I put in two standard (heavy duty) composters into the ground. This is a hardstanding area (crushed stone that is compacted). I have had a couple of 'visitors' who managed to dig their way in but I added some poison into the bins and they died after a couple of days (I am really reluctant to use poison due the presence of birds or prey, including owls, in our area- thankfully the rats die in the composters).
Anyhow, it is working very well. I put in two composters even though there are only two of us in the house. I did this to ensure enough capacity and to avoid having to turn the waste. The process is mainly anaerobic as a result, although there is some aerobic activity at the top of the material. No smells so far (my wife eats meat, I eat fish) after the composters being in use for the last three years. I think of them exclusively as food digesters, not composters and only emptied them once in that time, due to me siting them incorrectly the first time. They get sun almost the whole day and there is no cover for rodents around them. This project is exclusively waste management and I'm very happy with it.
I compost all the garden waste separately and use it as a mulch and soil conditiioner.

[crosseyedsheep]

[baabamaal]

Well, you could still use the composters. What I should have done was line the pit first with fine steel mesh (heavy duty). The compacted stone would really help- big rocks would be preferable.