There are many large scale composting operations, often operated by the commercial "lawn care" people, the people that come around and remove all the organic matter from your lawn and often dump poisons on that same lawn to control the problems that exist because of the lack of organic matter. However, I doubt you would find any here.

Yeah I'm not looking for those people. I don't agree with that. I am just trying to see if there is anyone that has over a 100 yards of compost sitting around and wanted to know what they used for good compost and how long they let it sit etc.

Mid scale?

Oh I wish! I just compost on a small scale with piles and a tumbler..next I want a worm farm. I just got a truck so I can go scavenging for more compostables.

Look to your own community. If you have a roadside pick-up program, chances are they are producing a large-scale composting that is available to its citizens by do-it-yourself-pickups.

To give you an idea; Michigan is, at the present time, the recipient of most of the garbage from communities of southern Ontario. A particular community in that State is being paid hansomely to take ours, and many other American communities, garbage.
But, by the year 2010, most of what goes across the border, will be given over to a landfill of our own and by a pick-up program of composting material, about 85% of what used to be trucked to the landfill, is now composted.

Sometimes such material is available at sewage treatment plants. Maybe your community has one and may make available its product for pickup.

I would suggest you gather up everyone's fall leaves, and start with that. In NY, I put all my leaves in a big bin, and in the spring the worms flock to it.

By summer's end, I've got worm castings that many would die for.

You might even advertise that you'll allow everyone to dump their leaves at your place.

naturally-ny-

That is what I was thinking. Eventually I would like to purchase a trommel screen and screen topsoil and compost. I was thinking of leaves and other garden brush. Anything that will give me a nice black healthy product.

Along these lines...this is the trommel screen I'd like to pick up down the road.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:306288}}

jeannie7
Look to your own community. If you have a roadside pick-up program, chances are they are producing a large-scale composting that is available to its citizens by do-it-yourself-pickups.

_________

In my Neighborhood Norfolk VA, curbside pickup is turned into Nutrigreen.tm. I bought some at the nursery for $5 a bag.

Where I'm moving to Logan,UT county compost is available at $34 a truckload or $17 a yard. I'll be filling raised beds w/ that to get started.

This past week I've started picking up some neighborhood curbside pickup to add to my compost pile. Problem is I go to work at 330am and in the dark it's tough to tell what I'm getting. I came home w/ one full bag of magnolia leaves. I've heard their tough to break down.

O.K.
Here goes.
When I worked for a very private school, I had a compost set up where I collected approximately 8 to 10 buckets of food waste every day, each bucket held twenty gallons, some days I could collect as many as 15 buckets.
I would then take said buckets and empty them into a bobcat bucket and drive the whole kit and kaboodle to my compost mountain and mix it in.
The compost "base ingredients" consisted of 100 truck loads of wood chips 100 truck loads of leaves and random truckloads of what ever happened to come to close to my clutches. (such as a roadkill deer)
After about six months it was ready to use as bedding material and after a year, it was potting soil.
In the winter, it was worm central and I could have turned out a huge amount of finished compost if I had more space.
I found that the food waste would be digested by the pile within a week.
I've posted this before,about when I gathered all of my neighbors leaves and such, about 250 bplb, shredded em down to 25 or 30 bplb composted those down to a big trash can full and,,, well, there you have it.
ialbtc

Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Forum Shorthand Definitions

I am a caretaker at a retreat center. I am in charge of composting about 1 cubic yard of food waste per week. I fell into this position by virtue of the fact that, being a carpenter, I could build a solid, rat-proof bin. I had almost no previous experience with composting. I am experiencing some problems. My bins hold about 1 cubic yard. I put the food waste into the bin and mix in straw to add carbon and help get air in. I also add horse manuer to "seed" the bin with organisms and worms. I get good temps initially (140) but this drops off rapidly and the bin goes cold before it is finished composting. I can get the temps up some by adding more manuer, but the temps only raise to 80-90 and it's time and effort consuming to do this. I have eight bins so I would like to go from waste to compost in eight weeks to avoid having to build more bins, though I can do this if necessary. I also have a massive fruit fly infestation. Suggestions?

spiritrockjohn, your compost sounds absolutely normal, flies and all. In fact many people here would give plenty to have piles like yours.

We have plenty of rats in the neighborhood and in my yard but I've never seen them near my pile.

spiritrockjohn, I would say covering the kitchen waste with leaves and manure should keep out the fruit flies, but then I suppose the manure would attract fruitflies of its own. The right birds can help with the flies--where are you located?--but overall you might just want to give in and allocate a larger space for composting so that you can afford to go slower. Slower vermicompost might be a little easier.

dchall, the compost area was infested with rats when I arrived in Sept. When I first constructed the new bins, we had close to 100 rats clinging to the bin trying to get at the compost.
cali, I'm thinking of covering the full bins with a layer of soil, thanks for the suggestion. I am in central CA, north of San Francisco. Vermicomposting interests me though would I have to modify the bins? They are open to the air (screened) on three sides and the bottom. We have tons of worms in the manuer pile so I have a ready supply of those. How does this solve my fly problem? How long do you think it would take to compost with worms? Would I still add straw?
I know the flies are harmless but the compost area is just 100 yards from the residential buildings and I am getting complaints about the flies.

Man I hate rats!

With that kind of numbers, I would also be thinking about trying to control the rat population.

It seems the food waste is the attractant for them and they can smell it and they will try to get at it. If the food is accessible, they will attempt to get at it even if they have to chew through wood to do so. Piles or windrows would just be a further haven for them complete with a built in food source. The rat population has to be controlled somehow.

With the straw you are using, is it shredded? I tried unshredded wheat straw as my main source of brown and it did not work well at all. Got an initial heat then phfftt, nothing, just cold and wet. I intend to try shredded straw come summer to see if that makes a difference.

With the amount of material you are getting (1 CY of food waste) by the time you have added the carbon material it's at least doubled in volume? Or is the combined food waste and straw one CY?

I'd love to try food waste composting in my multi-tumbler but I don't have that kind of volume of kitchen waste available, and there is no way the rats can chew through the steel to get inside!

Good luck

Lloyd

Lloyd, Sorry I wasn't clear on my situation. I have indeed eliminated the rats. My bins are 4'X4'X3' boxes framed like a house with 2X4 lumber. I put 1/2" hardware cloth on the inside and outside of the walls to keep the rats from simply reaching through the wire for the waste. A hinged top and removeable back (for dumping) completes the fortress. After the food supply was cut off, the rats went elsewhere.

I have been using rice straw for added carbon. I am no where near 50:50 as the straw is somewhat costly. I have a steady supply of wood chips I could use but they don't seem to compost very fast and I end up with a bin full of wood chips. The gardener here at the center does not want wood chips in the finished compost so I end up having to screen them out...a pain!

More on my quest for carbon: There is an amount of carbon in the waste i.e. paper napkins and compostable tea cups. Still, no where near 50:50. I am considering adding the shredded paper from the offices but I am concerned about the ink content. The waste from the kitchen is 100% vegetarian and organic so I don't want to contaminate with a bunch of ink. Any thoughts on this?

Yes, my rice straw seems to go away pretty quickly, leaving my bins wet and cold, as you say. I have ordered some oat straw to see if it holds up better than the rice straw. What is the advantage of shredding it and how do you acomplish this?

I am becoming convinced that the shortage of carbon in my bins is the reason for the fruit fly infestation and also why the bins go cold before they finish.

I don't do large-scale composting. Your idea is definitely on a commercial/industrial scale so I think you need to read industry publications and manuals to see how they manage. Two magazines that might help are "Biocycle" and "Municipal Solid Waste" (MSW). I know that there are some landscape companies as well as separate dedicated operations and municipalities that do this -- maybe you could take a tour of one. A lot of them use heavy equipment (grinders, shredders, windrow turners, etc.) so they can speed things up and get the fast turnaround they need which can be a pricy investment.

The link for Biocycle is http://www.jgpress.com/biocycle.htm

The link for MSW is attached.

Here is a link that might be useful: MSW

Okay, but I still hate rats. :-)

I have no experience with rice straw and wouldn't know it if it bit me in the leg. Just looking quickly on the web, it looks much like any grain straw so I suspect it is a decent carbon. Oat straw is a decent carbon as well, although I haven't used any (yet).

I am going to try shredded wheat straw myself this summer. Unshredded didn't seem to work so good last summer. :-( I am speculating that the unshredded stuff just kept the material too fluffy to retain heat.

I have an old silage cutter I'm going to use to chop some straw.

There are previous discussions regarding paper and ink, I don't normally use paper so I'm not the guy to ask, sorry.

Lloyd

This may be where you need to post your questions.

Compost Discussion List, managed by the US Composting Council, as a service for composting professionals.

Here is a link that might be useful: US Composting Council

Thanks everyone. I think it's just too wet and carbon starved. We really don't want to invest in equipment as we are a non-profit, short on funds, feeling the economic downturn type of retreat center. I'm going to try drying things out (we have been rinsing the compost buckets into the bins)and adding more straw and the shredded paper from the office. I'll let you know what happens.

Some possible answers for the compost at the retreat center.

As carbon material when humanure composting people find sawdust to be a good additional source of carbon material. Hardwood sawdust breaks down faster than softwood sawdust. Definitely raw sawdust like one might find at a sawmill works better than anything kiln dried.

I collect dried leaves from the neighborhood for added fluffy cover material for the bins since I will not buy costly straw for the compost bins.

You might need more space for the compost since the easiest way to make that compost will be to fill up a bin with the mix of food scraps and the cover materials. It will heat up for a few days but don't expect it to stay hot overly long. The rest of the process is done by time, not necessarily heat. Turning the pile and adding some alfalfa pellets might get it to heat up again and speed the process a bit but you are better off just letting the compost sit for most of a year and it should turn into something usable by the gardener. Problem is, keeping that much compost around long enough to age and cure properly, takes up a lot of space. Once the compost has cured in the bin for several months, it will be less attractive to rodents, and it could probably be removed from the bins to a "future" garden location to finish curing out on the ground.

spiritrockjohn,

Ok John, I had a closer look at what you posted and now understand your situation. I have collected the material from 10-day courses (S.N.Goenka) and know that the material is very wet compared to normal household stuff. You need to have a lot of browns - straw, leaves, sawdust, and other garden refuse to compensate. It will be a job to collect enough for your composting. Your guide of 50:50 kitchen waste to brown is too shy on browns. I am assuming that you are talking volume ratios. A better mix should aim for 60% to 70% browns by volume. The C:N ratio of 30:1 for example is based on dry weights. Your food stuffs is a lot heavier than the rice straw you are adding even without the water.

As you may have found, you need to turn the pile frequently to prevent it going anaerobic. The wood chips are not going to compost very much but are a good bulking agent to aid the aerobic process. Screen the wood chips out after each batch and they can be reused.

I am providing a link to compost bin construction. These bins can be made from salvaged pallets and so will be quite reasonable in price. By having a floor that is off the ground, rats should not have access to the bins. You will also have to have a lid. This bins do not keep out mice though.

Some centres have composted materials; some centres have others collect it for off site composting; other centres give it to local farm families to feed pigs. Those may be some considerations if you cannot get a handle on the composting.

With metta.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wooden Compost Bins

Agreed. Find a local sawmill or woodworking shop that has planer shavings, or cutting/sanding dust. This is what I use as the primary carbon in my backyard bins. I take it home from work for free and most places give it away just to be rid of it. Just make sure they don't use any treated wood and you're golden. If you were close by I'd say you can have some of mine. I've got about 3 cubic yards waiting for the furnace, someone with stables, or to use myself as needed. We keep the material with walnut separate so the people with stables don't get a nasty surprise. The best material is dry leaves, but they can be hard to come by at any time of the year, but fall.

Go for the paper! The ink will almost certainly not be a problem--unless you're printing pounds and pounds of shiny or color ink pages--and if you shred it up first, with enough nitrogen, it should compost in due time.

Congrats on getting rid of the rats! :)

This is a great forum, thanks. I will add the shredded paper, more straw, and go back to the wood chips. I will build two more bins giving me a total of ten so I can give my piles ten weeks before dumping on the ground. At ten weeks, even with the problems I've been having, the material is pretty far along and should not attract rodents. I have plenty of room to dump the partially composted material. And you are right, cowgirl, I have been going anaerobic on a regular basis; so more turning.

If I were in your situation, I don't know if I'd turn it. Once you get a better ratio of browns to greens, it should get hot for 10 days. Then, I might just move it to a windrow and let it finish composting there.

Thanks Idaho, one advantage of having so many bins is I can try various techniques. I'll turn one and leave one alone. J.