Reports by Consumers

I was browsing around Treehugger the other day and came across this story about a company in India that makes these really unique home composters. Well, what caught my eye first was the photo of the composters. Are they not absolutely gorgeous and unique?

As I am sure you can imagine, deforestation of this magnitude exceeds the capacity that our two black plastic composters can manage in well, let's say, 30 years. So, a little chain-sawing here, some clipping and hauling there, and the canopy starts to come down. The debris, beaver dams, and straw huts left over from the aboriginal tribe are piled into the Toyota and off to the "Recycler" we go.

The best solution to this problem is composting. If you are in a large city, and small apartment check out No Impact Man and if your city has compost drop off sites. If you have an outdoor area, there are many different composters available for purchase, or you can take the cheaper route and build it yourself. I’m hoping to get ours built this summer, so if you have any tips please let us know! To avoid odors or fruit flies, simply pick up some biodegradable bags and collect compostable garbage indoors, tie it up and toss the bag in your outdoor composter.

Everyone who has a backyard compost bin knows the problem: too many wet sloppy kitchen scraps makes for a methane-emitting, sludgy mess. Since methane is one of the worst of greenhouse gasses it can really take the edge of our self righteousness as composters. But where is the average inner suburban dweller to get the dry sawdust or leaves that most compost books advice should be added to the bin along with the mushy stuff?

Our back yard composters use a ‘passive’ method of composting which means that our piles never get hot enough to kill invasive weed seeds or root systems. So by composting Morning glory or any invasive plant you will simply be transplanting the problem into other parts of your yard via compost.

I got the composting bug a couple of years ago. Our county council was offering cut price composters to residents so I thought I’d have a go. Until then we had a large compost heap that was organised and turned by John Coe, who helps us in the garden. This heap mainly consists of grass clippings and leaves, so as not to attract rats. Now I would have a rat proof container that I planned to use for vegetable scraps and the droppings from the chicken house.

I am totally sold on the idea though and promise to work on my squeamishness in honor of dedicated composters everywhere.

An organic composter is the type of person who really is environmentally conscious about the kinds of stuff that go into their compost pile. Not just any old thing can be organically composted. TNT, many different explosives, gas, oil, jet fuel, diesel fuels, insecticides and such are all perfectly compostable, but not considered the kind of thing an organic compost pile is made from. Most people when doing composting in an organic way want things that come directly from nature.

I've been using the same system more than 15 years: keeping an empty (and washed, of course) two-litre milk carton by the sink, ready for peels, grinds and all that rot. In summer, it's a slice to trot out and dump into the two composters I have running; when it's cold, I wimp out, and keep them piled in the thankfully freezing garage. More recently, I've been stacking them around the corner of the house, waiting for a fine enough day.

Piper owns a little business called Hawai’i Rainbow Worms through which she teaches composting workshops to her fellow islanders. Vermicomposting is about letting worms eat your kitchen scraps. Ever the tree-hugger, I’ve been wanting one of those big, plastic backyard composters for a year now, but have been reluctant to spend the 150 bucks to buy one, particularly in a year when I was too busy choosing bridesmaids’ dresses to bathe my dog or dust the furniture, let alone tackle any major landscaping projects. So I was excited to see how a real pro uses worms to turn used paper towels and papaya rinds into rich feed for plants.

I am waiting for our composter to be delivered this week - the Soilmaker (scroll down one). I love the name, it sounds "Arnoldesque." Don't worry, faithful reader(s), there won't be any "Compost Blogging." Well, maybe not much anyway.

It’s not a pretty picture (look left), but it is a pretty cool product. A new system form the Sharp Corporation can dramatically reduce kitchen about 92% of your kitchen waste in just 24 hours. How? This energy-efficient composter breaks down and “digests” organic food waste at room temp with its proprietary Composting Bio Mix--a blend microbes and yeast cells, which conveniently also suppress odors while they work via Plasmacluster Ions that inactivate airborne mold and effectively clean the air ...