Heather Lawrence

via Heather Lawrence | US Composting Council.

Red wrigglers: trouble-free and useful pets!

Did you know that table scraps and yard waste account for about 40% of our garbage? That’s really too bad, because we’re throwing out valuable natural fertilizer that ends up in landfills. Vermicomposting (worm composting) is a simple way to recycle most of this organic material.

What is vermicomposting?

As its name suggests, this composting method relies on worms, more specifically a type of worms known as red wrigglers (Eisenia foetida). Safe inside a covered bin, they transform food scraps and plant waste into high-quality compost. You can vermicompost year round indoors or on a balcony in summer (red wrigglers can’t survive freezing temperatures).

[More via Vermicomposting Green Pages [Montréal Botanical Garden]

Here’s a follow up idea for repurposing and reusing discarded wooden pallets.  This is an idea we first came across 5 years ago in 2006.   We posted the idea as an “OFFER” on FullCircles Ottawa – OFFER: FREE Compost bins (some assembly required) – Tunney’s Pasture.  VERY appropriate this time of year when yard clean up is underway, and compost season is just starting!

Thanks for the prompt, Sara!

Eric Snyder
Team FCO
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Wooden Pallet Compost Bin

A very inexpensive compost bin can be made using wooden pallets. These bins cost almost nothing and you divert pallets that might otherwise end up in the landfill. This design includes a removable front to make it easy to turn the compost.

Related articles

• DIY pallet projects (holykaw.alltop.com)

Get involved! Time to start planning your ICAW events for 2011.  The International Compost Awareness Week Committee of the USCC congratulates Heather Lawrence on winning this year’s poster contest.

To see what others are saying and for more information on ICAW and how to get involved, click here

via US Composting Council.

Image by urbanwild via Flickr

Bokashi composting

Inside a recently started Bokashi bin. The aerated base is just visible through the food scraps and Bokashi bran.

Bokashi is a method of intensive composting. It can use an aerobic or anaerobic inoculation to produce the compost. Once a starter culture is made, it can be used to extend the culture indefinitely, like yogurt culture. Since the popular introduction of effective microorganisms (EM), Bokashi is commonly made with only molasses, water, EM, and wheat bran.

In home composting applications, kitchen waste is placed into a container which can be sealed with an air tight lid. These scraps are then inoculated with a Bokashi EM mix. This usually takes the form of a carrier, such as rice hulls, wheat bran or saw dust, that has been inoculated with composting micro-organisms. The EM are natural lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and phototrophic bacteria that act as a microbe community within the kitchen scraps, fermenting and accelerating breakdown of the organic matter. The user would place alternating layers of food scraps and Bokashi mix until the container is full.

via Compost – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Related articles

• Drink Your Bokashi Juice? (reluctantretiree.wordpress.com)
• Winter Bokashi Update (reluctantretiree.wordpress.com)

Solid Waste & Recycling Magazine – Guelph compost plant to close.

… “a disappointing end for the city’s attempts to establish itself as a leader in waste diversion by being the first in Ontario to build a so-called “wet/dry” two-stream system. Guelph eventually moved to a three-stream system, and rebuilt its MRF. The plant needs scheduled structural improvements, but newer, more advanced composting technologies are available.”