washing machine composting

4
Washing Machine Composting Magic By Penelope Reyes One of the biggest challenges people in the city have is to process their kitchen organic waste, because it is a smelly and complex matter. Facing this challenge at the back of my mind, I observed some of the principles that insure an easy transformation of kitchen waste to useable compost. The biggest issue is smell, and the key is water. When the decaying matter is exposed to wetness, ammonia and other foul odors are released and this noble action turns into a daily nightmare. The amount of composting space that we perceive we need to effectively compost kitchen waste can also be deceiving. Keeping to the saying ”small is beautiful”, I went to the local junk shop and found a few common parts that cost around thirty pesos in total. A top loading washing machine drum, an electric fan front cover and three feet of blue PVC pipe that is about an inch in diameter were among the parts I salvaged. Added to the collection of parts are four bamboo poles of about three centimeters in diameter, a Styrofoam lid that is large

Upload: penelopereyes

Post on 23-Dec-2015

25 views

Category:

Documents


3 download

DESCRIPTION

An easy How-to Guide on Backyard composting using discarded material.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Washing Machine Composting

Washing Machine Composting MagicBy Penelope Reyes

One of the biggest challenges people in the city have is to process their kitchen organic waste, because it is a smelly and complex matter.

Facing this challenge at the back of my mind, I observed some of the principles that insure an easy transformation of kitchen waste to useable compost.

The biggest issue is smell, and the key is water. When the decaying matter is exposed to wetness, ammonia and other foul odors are released and this noble action turns into a daily nightmare.

The amount of composting space that we perceive we need to effectively compost kitchen waste can also be deceiving. Keeping to the saying ”small is beautiful”, I went to the local junk shop and found a few common parts that cost around thirty pesos in total. A top loading washing machine drum, an electric fan front cover and three feet of blue PVC pipe that is about an inch in diameter were among the parts I salvaged. Added to the collection of parts are four bamboo poles of about three centimeters in diameter, a Styrofoam lid that is large enough to cover the washing machine top and a rock to keep it in place during stormy periods.

A bin of any material can be used to collect the dried decomposed compost as it falls out of the bottom of the fan grill.

The procedure is as follows:

Page 2: Washing Machine Composting

Cut a hole large enough to hold the fan screen in the bottom of the washing drum but insure that it cannot fall through, place the PVC pipe in the center after drilling some holes of about ten millimeters at regular intervals along the length of the pipe.

Secure the whole set up on a few bamboo sticks which are held in place with cable ties and in case it is required, place a receptacle under the elevated drum if hand contact with the dropped processed waste is wished to be avoided.

How does it work?

Before placing and decomposing materials into the drum, layer the bottom of the container with a layer of paper, it can be either newspaper, magazine pages or we use discarded cardboard from the supermarket when we do shopping.

Everyday, we segregate the left over cooked materials into a plastic container beside the kitchen sink, then, this is later transferred into the composting bin. Fresh vegetable scraps are fed to the chickens and the ducks but they can also be added into the composter.

Page 3: Washing Machine Composting

When the new layer of kitchen waste is added, it is again covered with paper. The layer of fiber helps in the absorption of the moisture present in the waste and also prevents the from fowl odor from escaping. The diverse collection of microbes present in the food will start to help decompose the food and bio-residues in the layers. This is where the composting magic takes place.

Make sure to cover the open top end of the washing machine drum with a piece of plywood or in our case we use a piece of waste Styrofoam held down with a rock.

What happens next is a most amazing transformation.

After a few weeks: By force of gravity, this compost finds its way out of the electric fan grill at the bottom of the bin. What starts out as smelly kitchen waste can easily and cheaply turn into high-quality odorless compost - believe it, or not!