Nature is designed to recycle the accumulated waste products and essential elements living creatures and plants need through a process called decomposition.  This process involves the breaking down of  the complex highly organized molecules that make up living organisms such as proteins and sugars into their less organized individual parts that can be reassembled into new molecules and used by other living organisms.  Think of two children playing with Lego blocks.  Each child uses the identical same blocks but put them together to form the structures they desire.  Any combination of blocks can be broken down into individual blocks and then reassembled into different combinations to form the desired structure.   This is exactly how decomposition works.         When a living organism dies or produces a waste product, another living organism recycles the remaining materials into products needed by other living organisms.  It is an extremely efficient process that has served the earth well for thousands of years.   However, it has two major drawbacks; time and smell.  The production of wastes has become too great for this natural process to keep up.  Decomposition simply takes too long to handle the amount of waste products produced in our world today.  As far as smell is concerned, a common form of decomposition is what we call spoiling or rotting.      Composting is simply creating an environment in which decomposition can be carried out in an accelerated rate.

Method 1: The traditional “Compost Pile” The method of composting that the average person may be most familiar with is the traditional compost pile.  Basically, this method involves creating a “pile” of bedding, waste materials (food scraps, lawn clippings, leaves, garden wastes), and moisture that provides the group of microorganisms called the “decomposers” a perfect environment in which to do what they do in nature, break down materials into reusable parts.  This group of microorganisms include; bacteria, fungi, protozoa, micro arthropods, along with some larger helpers like sow bugs, fruit flies, and mites. You can compost a large variety of household wastes in a compost pile.  These include eggshells, coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, fruit peelings and cores, leaves and grass clippings, and the end of the season garden clean off. The key to a successful compost pile is to add equal amounts of green materials such as food waste that contain high levels of nitrogen, and brown material such as leaves that are rich in carbon.  Your pile will let you know when it is out of balance.  Too much nitrogen rich materials and you get overgrowth of bacteria resulting in a very fowl sour odor that your neighbors won’t appreciate.  Too much carbon based materials and your compost will not fully decompose.  You also need to monitor moisture.  Too much moisture also causes overgrowth of smelly bacteria. It is best to have a bin to contain your compost pile and to protect it from neighborhood critters.  Bins are usually made of wood or plastic.  Better ones have holes for air circulation and moisture evaporation.  Compost piles must also be turned at least once or twice a week.  This is best achieved by a special tool called a compost turner, aerator, or augur.  When adding materials, always add to a different area of the pile and bury it at least 3 inches below the surface.  Occasionally, you will need to add extra bedding to keep your compost pile going.

Advantages of Compost Piles: 1. Continuous Production. (2) Can handle high volume of wastes. (3) Can compost all types of wastes in the same bin.

Disadvantages of Compost Piles: 1. Not advisable in areas with small backyards and houses close together.  Need plenty of space between your pile and your neighbors. (2) Harvesting finished compost can be difficult or unhandy.  Must be shoveled and moved by wheelbarrow or wagon to the area where it will  be used. (3) Cannot harvest liquid fertilizer. (4) Can be physically challenging to turn the pile and maintain it. (5) Can become dormant if not properly maintained. (6) Turn around time for converting wastes into usable compost can be several weeks or longer depending on environmental factors.

Method 2: Vermiculture

Vermiculture is the scientific name for worm farming.  The practice of using worms to process waste is not new.  It is mentioned in ancient writings as far back as 200-300 years B.C.  It became popular in the United States through 1970’s than died out.  It has regained attention since the late 1990’s and continues to grow as the world deals with the increasing production of wastes especially in large urban areas and the decreasing availability of landfill space to deal with it. There are some who believe that earth worms are the “missing link” in our environmental economy and provide the best chance of balancing our production of wastes and the earth’s natural ability to recycle them.  Considering the amazing ability of earthworms to eat large amounts of kitchen scraps, animal waste, paper, cardboard, and almost anything else organic and converting them into high quality organic soil rich in nutrients, the reason for such enthusiasm is not hard to see. Vermicompost, or worm castings, the rich, dark black fertilizer that is produced by earthworms, is held in such high esteem by master gardeners that it is often referred to as “Black Gold.” Vermicomposting also produces a liquid fertilizer called “worm tea” that can be collected and used for indoor houseplants and potted vegetables that some researchers have compared to the quality of Miracle Grow in terms of its affect on soil fertility. There are several types of bin systems being marketed to help make it possible for consumers to use Vermiculture to recycle household wastes into organic fertilizer and they all work.  However, you can have similar problems with worm composters as you do with compost piles.  The main problem being that of smell.  After reviewing and researching several models, we decided to offer the Worm Factory® Worm Bin as our solution for home composting with worms because of its unique patented design that eliminates the problem of foul odors.  It is so effective, the Worm Factory can be used indoors.  The key is the lid mechanism that allows fresh air to flow into the bin inhibiting the growth of anaerobic bacteria which causes the foul smell and does not help in the composting process.

Advantages of Vermiculture 1. Incredible turn around time.  A pound of worms can eat and convert a pound of waste into nutrient rich completely organic compost in as little as 48 hours. (2) Continuous production.  By using multiple trays, a continuous conversion of waste to finished compost is possible meaning you do not have to wait to add waste material. (3) Compact system.  Can be used anywhere.  Indoors, back porches, small back yards, right in the garden. (4) Ease of operation.  No weekly turning or manipulation of compost.  No need to bury waste materials. (5) Only earthworm castings contain a substance called humic acid.  Humic acid and other Humids make up humus which is essential for plants to extract nutrients from soil, improves root growth and development, helps protect plants from stress factors like Vitamin C helps our immune systems, and helps dissolve organic matter to make it useable by plants.  This is why healthy soil will have earthworms living in it. (6) Production of liquid fertilizer, “worm tea” as well as compost.

Disadvantages of Vermicomposting. 1. Higher cost to start compared to compost piles. (2) Limited to smaller amounts of waste added at a time compared to compost piles and batch composters. (see below).

Method 3: Batch Composting-Tumble & Drum Composting Batch Composters use the basic natural process of decomposition by microorganisms but create conditions of high temperatures and controlled humidity to speed up the process and convert large volumes of waste into quality compost at a much faster rate than compost piles.  Some can produce up to 2 full batches per month. Batch composters are also known as Tumbling Composters because most have a mechanism that allows you to turn the contents of the bin without opening it or touching the contents with your hands or tools.  This is usually accomplished with a crank or lever attached to a round drum or bin that enables the entire bin to be rotated, thus mixing the contents. This method is the best solution for composting large amounts of yard wastes such as grass clippings, leaves, pine needles, and garden clean up. You may also add household trash and kitchen scraps to this type of composter.

Advantages of Batch or Tumbling Composting 1. Larger models to handle large volumes of waste at a time. (2) Rotating drums or bins make it easy to keep compost mixed.  (3) Easier to unload finished compost than from compost piles.

Disadvantages of Batch or Tumble Composting 1. After adding waste material, you must wait until each “batch” of compost is complete before adding any more waste to the composter.  You have to “batch” it. 2. The conditions for composting must be restarted each time.  This may require adding a biological compost starter to each batch to get the process started quickly. 3. Turn around time from start to finished compost is faster than the pile method but slower than worm composting.

We chose to carry Sun-Mar Garden Composters over other types of tumblers or drum composters because the patented design of the double drum ensures that as the drum rotates, compost moves along the outer drum and back through the inner drum, before dropping from the output port into your wheel barrow or basket.  What this means to you is that all the above disadvantages are eliminated. 

1. You can add waste material whenever you need to.  You do not have to batch it.  

2. Since you do not have to batch it, you can keep the composting conditions of the outer drum in continous operation.  This reduces down time and the need to add accelorators and starters.  These products are useful and benefit your compost production, but you are not restarting from scratch every couple of weeks so they are less essential.

3. Although the turn around time still cannot match worm composting, since production is continous, this becomes less of an issue.

Whatever your goals are in composting, there are products and solutions that can help you acheive them.  Our goal is to continue to bring the information and products that make your decision to compost a rewarding and successful one.

Thank you for visiting our site and using this information,

The Home Composting Solutions Team