Mini Wooden Portable Compost Bin

Step 4 What can we put in our bin?

What is acceptable compost? There are many waste products which are acceptable in your compost bin.

First off, we need an proper amount of Carbon and Nitrogen rich materials. Carbon rich materials, also called "browns" are your dried leaves, wood chips, papers, and anything somewhat brown. The Nitrogen rich materials are also called "greens." These are your grass clippings or kitchen scraps.

Too much greens can cause a smelly odor, and too many browns can slow down the decomposition process.

So, what is acceptable to put in your compost bin? I split these up between Carbon (browns) and Nitrogen (greens).

Carbon - Browns

• Leaves, preferably chopped up to decrease the amount of space that they take up.
• Small pieces of cardboard, and wet them a little bit before you put them in your pile.
• Corn cobs work well in compost, but are better in small pieces.
• Dryer lint is great because
• Sawdust/shavings, but in small amounts. Too much can dry out the compost.
• Pine needles and pine cones are great because they decompose slow, and add great nutrients.

Nitrogen - Greens

• Grass clippings, but remember to mix them with a good amount of "browns" because they tend to smell. If you dry them out a little bit, then they will not smell as much.
• Peels of fruits and vegetables, but I don't recommend using meat scraps or foods that are high in fats.
• Egg shells, but try to crush them into smaller pieces before you put them in your bin.
• Yard clippings, such as dead flowers, prickly bushes, sticks.
• Coffee grounds are great for your bin and worms love them.
• Pieces of newspaper, but in small amounts. Recycle it if you have too much.
• Manure, from horses, cows, pigs, sheeps, goats, chickens, rabbits, BUT NOT FROM DOGS.
• Weeds, you may want to dry them out before you place them in your bin

Comments

[jlpinha]

Nice instructable!

Is there an ideal C/N ratio to feed the bin with? Or it´s something more empirical?

[Ian+Siobhan]

Why not dog feces? My g/f's father uses dog waste on his garden and his tomato plants are twice the size mine are!(and mine aren't bad for this time of year..) I was just wondering if there was a reason for not adding dog waste, as we have two furry little deuce-machines at our house and we use their waste in our barrel composter all the time without issue. Seems ideal for dog owners.

[porterlu]

Though there are definite reasons to avoid certain kinds, it is nevertheless possible for the waste of pretty much any animal to be used as fertilizer, including human, dog, elephant and tiger. But that does not mean it is always going to be beneficial, useful or safe for general use. Grazing animals - cows, elephants, sheep, camels, rabbits, horses - herbivores in other words, produce waste which is far more useful and safe for fertilizing as it is composed of almost nothing but organic plant matter. Tigers and dogs and humans, by contrast, have very high acid, high fat, low nutrient waste which, though may work on some plants, is generally not going to work well for most applications. Because of the typically high levels of meat we and they consume, it also has a much higher risk of carrying or attracting disease. Even pig manure is less than ideal as they frequently eat meats and processed food. The use of dog feces as manure may work on certain levels but personally I would steer far away from doing so - like humans, dogs are carriers for all sorts of nasty stuff. It's crap you really don't want in your garden. Ever see what happens to grass when a dog drops one in the yard? It kills the grass underneath. Ever see a cow patty lying in a field? It has grass and flowers growing out of it. That's my take anyway.

[sheepguy42]

There is always the concern on pathogens in the feces of any animal, but especially those eating meat and/or highly processed foods. Most dog food fits both of those descriptions.