Composting with Plastic Composters

Why To Use A Plastic Composter?

Plastic composters (shaped like cones) are many people’s first experience of composters. They are freely available, and may be subsidized by the local government in an effort to promote home composting and cut down on the amount of waste being collected. They have a small footprint, and for many urban gardeners they are more than capable of dealing with the supply of garden waste and vegetable peelings.

What Are Their Advantages?

The main advantage of a plastic composter is that they’re easily installed in the garden. As they are made of plastic and have a lid, they keep moisture levels inside the compost heap more even than composters which are open to the elements. Many are black or dark colours, which means that they heat up in the sun and speed up the composting process.

And The Disadvantages?

Plastic composters tend to be tall and it’s hard to get inside to mix the contents up to encourage composting. The sides aren’t breathable, so it’s easy for the bin contents to become anaerobic and smelly. They’re not attractive items and many people place them in an out-of-the-way part of the garden, where they are neglected. However, others have used their resemblance to Dr Who’s daleks to make them into a garden feature!

Get the best out of your plastic composter

The main point to remember with plastic composters is that if you put a mixture of items into the composter as you go along, there is no need to try and mix the contents physically later on. Compostable materials can be divided into those that are high in nitrogen (generally green, such as fresh lawn clippings) and those that have more carbon (usually brown, such as newspaper and cardboard and older garden waste). If you put your lawn clippings into the composter, try to alternate layers with something like cardboard or scrunched up newspaper to get a good balance. Most kitchen waste, such as vegetable peelings and coffee grounds, is high in nitrogen.

Adding scrunched up newspaper or cardboard tubes (e.g. from the inside of toilet rolls) adds air to the compost contents as well as carbon, and helps keep the compost contents from smelling.

If you’ve added a lot of dry material to the composter, add a bucket or two of water to keep the contents moist.

If at all possible, place your composter somewhere where it will catch some sun. This is especially important in the winter, when cold temperatures slow composting down dramatically. And put the composter down onto soil, if you can, as the necessary microbes and beasties will be able to find their way into the composter from there.

Composting Addiction

All that’s left to do is to fill the composter and wait for the contents to break down into lovely brown compost. This can take anything from 6 weeks to 6 months, depending on the weather and the contents. Once you’ve uncovered your first batch of homemade compost, you’ll be hooked and one composter won’t be enough!