Do it yourself compost bin

Composting. What more can I say than "It's easy to do and a great way to recycle a myriad of things from veggies scraps to laundry lint"? I have had a compost bin that I made from a trash can for two years now and it's been really easy to take care of it, but it has needed some alterations to help speed up the decomposition process. It was lacking air holes and an easy way to remove the ready-to-use compost at the bottom. So this morning Sofia and I went out to fix it up.

I would much prefer to use the three bin method, but as I'm a renter I don't want to build anything too crazy on the property. Also I must admit that I'm too frugal to spent $200 on a plastic bin that will just hold dirt. So a $10 trash bin from the hardware store will do just fine.

Here's what you need:

• 1 large trash bin

• a small hand saw

• a hammer and nail or drill with medium drill bit to make holes

• some duct tape

• various material to put in the bin

First I started by emptying out what I already had in the bin. What you see on the lid is all the new and half decomposed stuff. If you start from scratch with a new or empty bin then you are already half way done!

Further back is all the stuff I've wanted to get to for a long time, the finished compost.

I put the finished compost in a box. You can see there is still stuff left in there like egg shells and fruit pits. I've found that egg shells and avocado pits don't decompose very fast.

I started by punching three holes in the bottom.

Then I took my saw cut a little door at the bottom.

I then used some black duck tape to help keep the door closed and replaced the new stuff back in the bin.

I didn't include a photo here, but you'll want to punch a few holes around the body of the bin to allow air to circulate. This was the main problem before in why things were going so slowly.


Here are some tips for composting in case you've never tried it and want too.

• Make sure to alternate layers of brown and green materials.
• Brown materials are: any type of paper without glossy print, cardboard, and dried leaves
• Green materials are: fruit and veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grinds, tea bags and loose leaf tea grass and leaf cuttings
• Other strange things that can be composted: laundry lint, cotton fabric, hair from your hair brush, compostable diaper inserts (they do in fact break down like they say), nail clippings, and even urine.
• Turn your compost once a week, by either taking a shovel and digging into the bin and folding the middle stuff up over the new stuff or rolling the bin back and forth on side a few times. (If you roll the bin make sure the lid is tightly shut and that you have strongly duck taped the door shut).
• Make sure there is enough moisture in the bin to help with the decomposition. Most you around the country won't have this problem but if you live in the southwest you know nothing decomposes it just dries and starts to fossilize. In case your compost does get dry and it's not making any progress you can water it a bit help get things wet. I tend to put in lots of watery fruit rinds on occasion to help this out like water melon and cantaloupe.
• This is one really important: make sure always have some brown materials on top of your fruits and veg. The reason for this is to prevent fruit flies. I learned this from personal experience. To much fruit and you will have an infestation on your hands that is hard to control. If you are turning the compost once or twice a week this shouldn't be a problem. If you happen to add a lot of scraps one day just take the extra minute to turn the compost or add leaves or paper on the top.

I hope this tutorial was helpful. I am by no means an expert, just wanted to share with you what I've learned. Here are some links to people who really know what they are talking about in case you really want to get serious!

• http://www.howtocompost.org/
• http://compostguide.com/