Making a bin out of a trash can

[PunkRotten]

Hi,

I saw a cool video about making a compost bin out of a trash can. Basically get one with a lid and make holes all over and on the lid. Then when you wanna mix it around you lay the trashcan on it's sie and roll it.

Seems easy but my only question is how do you get the finished product out? I have seen bins with a similar design but they have a latch at the bottom to collect finished compost. Has anyone ever made a bin out of a trashcan?

[rainbowgardener]

Haven't done it, but essentially you would be turning your trash can into a compost tumbler.

The deal with tumblers is they are batch composters. You load it up with green and brown compostables and let it sit, tumbling every day or two, until the compost is all done--in warm weather probably somewhere around 2 -3 months, unless you put a lot of tough stuff in. Then you dump the whole thing out and load it up again.

You can't do continuous adding or subtracting, because everything is getting tumbled/ mixed together, so you have no way to sort out new stuff from finished stuff.

[toxcrusadr]

To get stuff out, you would just tip it over and use a pitchfork to reach in and dig it out.

BTW, the bins with the doors at the bottom are kinda bogus. Serious composters do not bother using the doors. They are kind of a sales gimmick.

[ThomasCA]

Haven't done it, but essentially you would be turning your trash can into a compost tumbler.

The deal with tumblers is they are batch composters. You load it up with green and brown compostables and let it sit, tumbling every day or two, until the compost is all done--in warm weather probably somewhere around 2 -3 months, unless you put a lot of tough stuff in. Then you dump the whole thing out and load it up again.

You can't do continuous adding or subtracting, because everything is getting tumbled/ mixed together, so you have no way to sort out new stuff from finished stuff.

This is what I do.

I got a couple cheap Rubbermaid 42 gallon 'Brute' bins. I drilled 1/2" holes throughout. I toss grass clippings, dead leaves, kitchen scraps, used coffee grounds, shredded white papper taken from work, and occasionally I'll toss in some hard clay dirt from the front of my house to mix.

I water it weekly with about 2-3 gallons of water and roll it around on the ground (sometimes I dump the contents of 1 bin into the other, if one is empty.) Leave the lid on and put it out in the sun. It takes 2-3 months to completely breakdown, but the results, at least for me, were amazing. Dark righ black soil, that held together *just* enough when clenched in your fist.

And believe it or not, by the end of a 2 month period, the entire bin was FULL of worms! They somehow make their way to the surface of the dirt and find their way through the holes in the container. When emptied my last bin out, you'd swear it was a worm farm! The whole thing was moving!

[PunkRotten]

Think a cylinder made of fencing/chicken wire with stakes is better? I want something I can keep throwing scraps into and collect from as well.