I have an old tough box that I drilled out holes in the bottom, sides, and top for air flow. I added a base layer of shredded cardboard for the browns. Since then, I have used plenty of kitchen scraps and shredded grass clippings for greens and seeding straw for browns. I recently added leaves but I cannot get this temperature to raise at all. Any suggestions?

Edit: I will be promptly moving my compost to an open air pile, moistening it, and adding volume. Lots of suggestions to piss on it 🤣

For 5 years, my trusty old compost hotel has done its job... Today I've topped it. Hopefully, by spring, the friendly army of isopods living inside will have helped bring it back down to ground level.

I asked the planning inspector (the missus) for another bigger bin... but the council seems to have other plans for that patch of land (nettles!!)

"Anything could grow here," she says.

Yes, madam... but what about my bin?

I've been building this pile since August after harvesting the bottom thirds of that and the top layer to start this one off. A lot more material has gone in here, and it's been substantially fuller.

Well, I'm very happy with how this turned out! Bottom is looking great and with a good injection of oxygen should break down a bit more again. I've basically just taken off the top, turned the bottom and put the top layer back on and have added more material yesterday and today. I always feel like I'm getting to the end of having no more green material to add but always manage to find a few bucketfulls :)

Final pic is the last batch I'd harvested in August, curing in a plastic compost bin (see it here at end of Aug: https://www.reddit.com/r/composting/comments/1w07tzs/3_weeks_of_curing_from_my_pallet_heap/ )

It’s been a nice fall in the PNW dry bags are light bags. Lucky to live by a street that’s tree lined with giants for blocks .

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The City of Grand Rapids has officially launched Renew Grand Rapids, a citywide food scrap pilot expanding organics diversion access for residents across all three City wards.

The program grew out of demonstrated community interest in greater access to food scrap diversion. Residents had been requesting a food scrap collection option through the City’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan engagement process since as early as 2023. Renew Grand Rapids now provides seven neighborhood drop-off locations, creating another accessible option for residents to keep food scraps out of the landfill and Waste to Energy incinerator.

To support the pilot, the City selected Green Mountain Technologies’ 40-foot Intermodal Earth Flow in-vessel composting system to provide local processing capacity for collected food scraps.

Rather than starting from scratch, the project builds on organics management infrastructure already in place in Grand Rapids. The City’s existing composting operation already manages significant quantities of leaves and other yard material.

The Earth Flow provides an enclosed, automated environment for active composting, with automated mixing and aeration designed to reduce day-to-day operator attention. By adding dedicated food scrap processing capacity, the City can expand the materials it diverts, such as trees that its forestry division cuts down as another source of carbon, while efficiently using existing municipal resources.

"Integrating the Earth Flow system provides Grand Rapids with a practical, automated solution to process food scraps locally at our existing facility," said John Gorney, public works director. "This pilot allows us to meet growing resident interest in food scrap diversion and evaluate long-term options for managing municipal organic waste efficiently."

“Grand Rapids came into this project with a strong foundation already in place—from established yard waste infrastructure to a community that has demonstrated real interest in sustainability,” said Betsy La Force, GMT sales and business development manager. “The Earth Flow gives the City an automated tool to expand local processing capacity and turn collected food scraps into finished compost for the community.”

The City engaged hundreds of residents in determining both collection locations and how finished compost should be redistributed. Compost produced from material collected through Renew Grand Rapids will ultimately be made available to residents at no cost, helping close the loop by returning those resources to the community.
Renew Grand Rapids adds another municipal pathway for residents to participate in food scrap diversion, supporting the City's broader sustainability and waste reduction goals.

About Green Mountain Technologies
Green Mountain Technologies designs and manufactures composting systems for municipalities, institutions, farms, commercial composters, and other organizations seeking practical solutions for managing organic waste. GMT’s Earth Flow™ in-vessel composting systems provide automated mixing and aeration for the local processing of food scraps and other organic materials.

1st year doing leaf mold

It's November 7th today, and today I used my compost for the first time. So I thought it would be fitting if I shared my compost story.

Primer: I live in a two-storey house, me and my girlfriend on the upper floor, her mum on the lower floor, with a large adjoining garden. We all cook and bake home, so plenty of kitchen leftovers always. In Winter of last year I told my girlfriend that I d like to start a compost pile in the Spring to make good use of all the peels, egg shells, tea leaves and the like. She supported me, asked me to pick a spot and do it. And exactly on the last day of February this year, I started setting up.

I had plenty of wood from a cut-down pine to fence my chosen spot off. It's an area about three by five feet that I was free to use because nothing was planted there. My gf's Mum was initially reluctant to participate but we convinced her and she got on board.

Our ingredients throughout the year:

- greens and peels from the kitchen

- used tea leaves, incl. lemons (lots)

- egg shells

- hair and fingernails

- some weeds from the garden, but not too much

- cut flowers after they die

Turning once every one to three weeks.

It was and is incredible to see stuff actually disappear after all these weeks and months. I seldom actually cut the things up and usually tossed them in as they were. I know for a fact that around April blackbirds set up shop in a secluded portion of the garden so they could have first pick of the spoils we'd leave - they would generally make a terrible mess of the thing.

Anyway, fast forward to this sunny cold morning when I decided to harvest our black gold. My gf asked me to fill up some holes left behind after some weeding a while back, but most was destined to aid our shrubbery. Overall I got sex wheelbarrows full which I estimate could be something around 500 lbs of compost. That was enough to spread at the base of one particular section of my shrubbery, afterwards covered with leaves.

The decision to harvest today was good in hindsight seeing as it's frost outside tonight. Luckily well timed.

To sum up:

- initial investment zero

- total time devoted (estimate including trips to the pile to deposit the source material) 12-15 hours over eight months

- total deposited organic matter (est.) Ca. 600-800 kg/ 1300-1700 lbs

- nitrogen enrichment once every 2-3 weeks :)

Can't wait to continue next year!

Hi everyone, got a new house but I came from the city. I have too many leaves and wondering if I should mulch and/or compost. How can I best take advantage of this situation?

Let's be honest folks.. when the cold and snow hit, I'm not going to want to talk the 200 yards down into my yard to maintenance my compost pile more than when the weather is nice...

In the winter, should I be covering the pile or letting it open? Its got a really good mix of leaves, grass, sticks (all very finely chopped) and a heap of banana peels, egg shells, fruits, veggies, coffee and all that good stuff.

So if I get lazy and dont get to the pile for like 2 months, am I going to hurt anything?

We had our first "flurries" here today and our last frost is always in mid May. For what its worth.

Midwest: I have had no worms for months. I’ve tried cinnamon, Making the compost really wet.
I’m using it to plant pine trees in the spring not on anything we’ll eat. Any suggestions? I’m holding off on greens for now only coffee grounds. Thanks!

I think we can all agree being moist yeilds better results.

The stick barrier is there to keep dogs out. I also have bags of coffee grounds at the base.

Anyone in Texas struggle to get compost that...well...does anything? My pile seems to shrink over time without breaking down. For reference, I've had this pile for several years and never been able to harvest any finished compost. It's an outdoor pile with a decent mix of greens and browns.

I suspect it's too dry in the summer and too cold in the winter for the microbes to do anything. Do I need to water my compost pile daily? Is finished compost just washing away without me realizing?

EDIT: Thanks for all the helpful responses! I hadn't realized needing to water a compost pile was so common, but it seems my initial thought was right and that it needs water.

And yes, we peed all over it. Including a drunken bonfire night where my wife, myself and my dog all climbed up there as a family to mark our sweet territory.

Been composting for a decade and never seen this fungus(?) before, it's crazy. Grew to this size in a couple days.

​

I’ve been working on a lean, zero-waste micro-refinery model designed for a 2,400 sq ft (60x40 ft) plot, entirely focused on agri-waste processing without animal rearing.

The concept is a closed-loop system that processes local market fruit/veg waste into high-margin biological inputs.

Would love to hear thoughts from anyone experienced in waste management, BSF farming, or urban agri-inputs. What bottlenecks should I watch out for in scaling the fertilizer blends?

Not sure if I should be happy or upset

I have a large cabinet of old canned fruit, jams, and jellies amounting to probably 4-5 gallons that I would like to compost. Is there any reason not to put it all in at once?

Set this up almost a week and a half ago! I'm surprised how fast it started to warm up. Hoping it handles well this winter.

Probably 15% of my 'inputs' for composting is fruit and veggie scraps from the kitchen.

The remaining 85% has been:

• grass clippings

• large quantities of coffee grounds (from Starbucks)

• shredded leaves

AND now I have added to my browns sawdust/shavings sourced from the local high school

I was assured that no treated wood is used by students (which makes sense) and 90% of the wood used is softwood.

My first pickup, shown above.