Thursday, January 13, 2011

Minimising Rubbish


I have recently bought two bins - a bokashi bin and a compost bin. I need to get one more - a benchtop compost bin - this will complete my bin collection.

A boskashi bin is good for dealing with ALL kitchen waste, including meat and bones. You just need to sprinkle with the magic sawdust (bokashi additives) and bury the waste in your garden once it has been 'pickled'.


My compost bin is a massive 190L black one on wheels. I can turn it to air it and move it around the garden to chase the sun. I will be putting all my fruit and veg waste here, plus newspaper and grass cuttings.

I am very excited about minimising rubbish. Now I just gotta watch plastic packaging I bring home. I'm aiming for one small bag of rubbish per week.

12 comments:

  1. Can the bokashi bin go on your bench? Why a separate bench bin?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes the bokashi can go on the bench. But my dad is insisting it goes outside (bacteria) and he is Mr Safety-Man!

    Also, the bokashi bin fills up real quick. Mine filled in 3 days. So I'm just waiting for it to "pickle" a bit, then I will bury.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 3 days??? Wow! Was that with all compost, or just the stuff that can't go into your other compost bin?

    I was hoping that this would let me empty the compost less often, but I guess not! It's more than double the size of my current compost - but I'm not currently composting meat, eggs, dairy, table scraps etc. So, I guess by the time they were all included it would only last 3 days or so too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I put ALL...should have just put in stuff that couldn't go in the normal compost. I had about 8 corns in 2 days....so lots of corn bits and hairs!

    I'm going to try just the meat and dairy, round #2. see what happens.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is the stuff u bury good for growing plants?

    ReplyDelete
  6. but you are not to bury it too close to plants. Acidic or basic...can't remember.

    ReplyDelete
  7. is the bokashi bin vermin proof if it goes outside?

    ReplyDelete
  8. so far so good Bronwyn. The fit is pretty tight. but if the vermin is small calf size, it could probably open it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hadn't heard of this before, but sounds fascinating. We loved having a worm farm before we moved to the Scottish cold, though the little guys couldn't handle meat (or rather, were too slow and flies beat them to it, so it is not recommended).

    ReplyDelete
  10. yes, and you can't put in other stuff? e.g. citrus. onion. which is a hassle to sort through.

    After you've "pickled" what's in your bokashi, you can add to your normal compost. I think I've reduced about 60% of my rubbish doing this. It's very exciting :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. True, or rather, minimal citrus and onion (they can handle a little from time to time, just not a big dump all at once because it burns their skin).

    But there was something about being able to see the squirming mass of soil production before your eyes that was really rather satisfying.

    ReplyDelete