Making a compost bin from pallets

To get started

You will need to (legitimately) get your hands on 4 pallets.  You can use any scrap wood but pallets are just perfect shape and size and are normally available free if you ask nicely from the back of large stores / warehouses who are more than happy to have a free recycling collection rather than have to pay to dispose of them.

At its most basic you can literally tie the 4 pallets together with string or garden wire and you're away (see this video of how to do that) but assuming you have some basic DIY skills I've included instructions for how to make a really good job of it below.

Step 1 - Clear the ground

 Pick a nice spot in the garden and clear the area where you're going to put the compost bin and, if necessary, level the ground using a spade.  

Step 2 - Secure to the ground

 Take a pallet and stand it on its long edge to form the back edge of the compost bin. I recommend you just push a stake through the two layers of the pallet at either end, using a sledgehammer to drive them firmly into the ground - about 20-30cm deep.

Step 3 - Repeat step 2

  Position the remaining two pallets at right angles to the first to make the sides, butting the corners tightly together to stop compost spilling through the gaps. Fix in place with stakes in each corner, as in step 2.

Step 4 - Tie it up

  To keep the structure stable, wire the pallets together at each corner.  If you want to do a really tidy job, trim the tops off the stakes with a saw.

Step 5 - Make a front door

  Wire the last pallet onto the front of the right side pallet to make a "gate". You'll need to open it when you want to get to the compost - and start filling your bin with garden and kitchen waste.

My beautiful compost bins

In the recent snow, the whole garden looked beautiful and photogenic with white powder all over and crystals of ice on every plant, but I really liked this photo of my snowy compost bin (bought back in the 'good old days' when you could get those lovely recycled plastic flat packed ones for only £10 a bin through the Council).

Ludlow Loves Pancakes

Residents in Ludlow have been celebrating Pancake Day in style thanks to the Love Food Hate Waste Campaign.  As Pancake Day marks the beginning of lent it seemed appropriate to launch an awareness drive around using up left over food and throwing less food away.

In the UK we throw away a staggering 8.9 million tonnes of food waste every year! Not only is this bad news for the environment but thats literally billions of pounds worth of food which then requires collection, treatment or disposal at taxpayers expense.  Shocking.

But there are simple solutions and the good news is that it can help people save money too.  By teaming up with Sunshine Radio the Love Food Hate Waste campaign were able to reach thousands of residents and offer them top tips on how to waste less food.

With a michelen-starred chef on hand to make the pancakes its fair to say that Ludlows reputation for good food was enhanced and hopefully the increased awareness will help to reduce the amount of rubbish which has to be dealt with from the area.

Bokashi system

As part of their research into sustainable gardening and waste practices an intrepid team of 13 volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters and Garden Organic set out boldly on a voyage than no one had been on before.  The team undertook a detailed assessment of some kitchen waste composters utilising “Bokashi”. If you’ve never used (or never even heard of) this relatively new system of home composting, don’t worry, just read on to discover what our testers found out.

The kitchen composters are marketed as a way of treating all kitchen waste at home. This includes cooked and processed food, meat, fish and dairy, as well as the usual uncooked peelings. The units themselves are essentially a large (18 litre) bucket, but they have a few extra features, namely a sump and tap to drain off liquid and an airtight lid. They also come with a supply of activator, which should be sprinkled in each time food waste added.

The aim is to facilitate a fermentation process within the kitchen waste. This process is aided and abetted by the activator, which contains lactic acid bacteria, fermenting fungi, actinomycetes and yeasts which are all good fermenters. The process is also helped by manually squeezing as much air from the material as possible and by keeping the airtight lid on. After a few weeks fermenting the material can, be safely added to a normal compost bin.

The general idea is that they might be useful for people in flats. However some felt that the general public may find the idea of keeping putrescible food waste in a container until it’s covered with mould less appealing than us hardcore composters!   Certainly despite our best efforts the smells were quite noticable.  And certainly the added level of complexity may prove a serious disincentive to most. But we’ll see how they perform in the summer and after transferring the contents to the compost heap for maturation.

Either way its another way to keep biodegradable material out of landfill and turn it into a useful product, so something all keen composters should atleast be aware of.

A big thanks has to go for the funding and support for this trial was secured from the retailers Straight by our partners at Garden Organic.   Boukashi bins are available via the local council home compost bin schemes across Shropshire and Telford.  If you would like more information on this project or any other aspect of home composting please contact your local volunteer Master Composter via our website www.shropshirecomposters.co.uk  

NEW Environmental Education Project for Shropshire

Mal Brown in a social-entrepreneur from near Shrewsbury.  As a qualified youth worker and enthusiastic musician, he has developed an innovative approach to getting kids to recycle more.  Making and playing musical instruments from recycled rubbish is a great way to raise awareness of waste prevention.

For more information visit his website http://www.whackitsmackit.co.uk/

Home compostable certification scheme launched

The Association for Organics Recycling (AfOR) has this week launched a ‘Home Compostable' certification scheme and certification mark for the UK.  Due to the increasing number of ‘compostable' packaging and plastics products being developed, the association has teamed up with Belgian certification specialist AIB Vinçotte to develop the scheme. It sets out the criteria packaging needs to meet in order to be deemed ‘home compostable’ and measures products against them.

Four tests may need to be completed in order to gain accreditaion. These are:

• biodegradation;
• disintegration;
• eco toxicity; and;
• chemical analysis.

The disintegration test requires that at least 90% of a product fragments within nine months. 

It differs from the ‘industrially compostable' standard EN 13432 because this test uses laboratory-scale composting conditions that are equivalent to industrial conditions rather than home composting ones.

While ‘Home Compostable' packaging/plastic waste can be commercially composted, it is anticipated that the certification mark will direct this material into home composting bins, thus helping to reduce the resources, costs and carbon related impacts associated with kerbside collection, treatment and disposal. At present, there are around three-and-a-half million home composters operating in Britain.

Further details about the new scheme for ‘Home Compostable' packaging and plastic products can be found on AFOR's website.

Shropshire businesses powering ahead

 

Three local businesses: G’s Growers Co-operative, The Shropshire Group and Produce Global Solutions (PGS), are proposing significant investment in a new Anaerobic Digestion facility in Cambridgeshire.

They are promoting the investment as part of a wider project to develop a new mushroom farm which would employ 150 people.

The companies wish to expand their operations into mushroom growing to serve the increasing demand in the UK market for local and regionally sourced food thereby significantly reducing food miles. At present most mushrooms sold in the UK are imported.

The plans also include proposals for a 2.5 megawatt anaerobic digestion plant located adjacent to the mushroom farm to provide renewable energy to power the facility using organic waste from the companies' crop growing operations in the area. Any surplus electricity generated would be fed back to the national grid to power nearby homes and businesses in a sustainable manner, helping the UK to meet its renewable energy targets and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.