Liwovien

I am continuing to be more environmentally friendly and I am always looking for new ways to improve. Back in October 2007, I decided the next step would be to compost bin. My anticipation was that our trash would decrease and not smell bad after a week and we could turn our food into compost that we can use in our yard. It has now been 5 months and our trash has decreased and doesn’t ever smell bad. The compost has been a little slow going but it is understandable since we just went through the winter months when the internal temperature of the bin is lower and doesn’t breakdown as fast. Below is the breakdown of my compost bin experience.

The Plan for building a compost bin:

• Research Composting
• Figure out the best area in the yard to set it up
• Buy a bin or build one
• Buy small bin for kitchen to collect food to compost
• Collect food in kitchen bin
• Take food outside and put in compost bin on a regular basis
• Compost created in a little while

Filling of compost bin:

• 1:25 ratio of green to brown
• Brown = straw, hay, dried grass & leaves
• Green = food, green plants
• Layer brown and green
• 8″ of brown on top
• See website for more in depth instructions

The Result:

• 2′ x 8′ plastic lattice from Home Depot
• Twist ties to connect ends of plastic lattice together
• scissors to cut end off twist ties
• small bail of straw

Learned lesson:

• Never leave food in compost pail in house for long before taking food out to compost – it breaks down and smells disgusting and/or grows mold