Topic: Stuff that I can compost?

[dtw]

I didn't feel like building a compost bin, so I had a trawl round the garden centres and most of them were £30-£40+
I had a look on google and found out that most councils subsidise the purchasing of compost bins.  :D
My one does, and I can get one for £7 with free delivery.   :o

Type your postcode into the following link to find out if yours does.
http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/in_your_area/in_your_area.html

I also found that Phillipa Forrester (off the telly) uses one, so that's even more incentive to buy one. :D

[cornykev]

I had three of them dalek bins off the council £6 each with a freecaddie and a roll of bio gradeable caddie bags, love a bargain.    ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[gary]

Does any body compost their cardboard boxes ie toothpaste, and breakfast cereal boxes? I put my egg boxes on and toilet roll tubes are getting saved to start my peas of in but have never thought of cardboard with shiny coatings.

Someone posted a link to a Bristol council composting web page (exciting I know lol)and they say it is OK. http://tinyurl.com/yzv8us

Anyone any thoughts?

Gary

[manicscousers]

well, we do, I don't seem to be able to send stuff to landfill, ours are not very shiny, we put pill boxes, all our cardboard, really, don't know if we're doing right ? ??? ??? ;D

[cornykev]

Read  the link Gary still not sure about putting in shinys, do put in other paper did you read on where they put slugs in the compost thats a question I was going to post. :-\ :-\ :-\

[gary]

I read about the slugs also. Like it says at least you know where they are and they are not eating what they shouldn't be eating, and anything that once lived can be composted.
I do draw the line at beer THAT'S MINE.

Gary

[Baccy Man]

Shiny card & paper is fine sometimes it is shiny because it is coated with plastic if that's the case you just take out the plastic after the compost is finished same goes for the liners in the tetra-pak cartons.
I put slugs in my heaps they usually melt into a gooey mess within a minute or 2, once composted they do a bit of good for a change.
Beer I wouldn't waste on the compost heap but all the lees from my homebrew do go in.

[carolinej]

I was worried about the dyes in coloured cardboard, and so didnt compost them. After reading this , I'll start composting them. It all helps ease the pressure on my rubbish bin. I recycle as much as I can, compost my waste and still have loads of rubbish. I blame the manufactureres for all the layers of packaging on everything.

Heard yesterday that M and S are using maize to make their 'plastic' containers. That is definately a good idea, as they could be composted, whereas in my area, they normally cant be recycled.

cj :)

[supersprout]

Does any body compost their cardboard boxes ie toothpaste, and breakfast cereal boxes? I put my egg boxes on and toilet roll tubes are getting saved to start my peas of in but have never thought of cardboard with shiny coatings.

For the last four months (since we got a paper shredder) everything shreddable is shredded! Then most of it goes on two experimental beds on the plot, layered with raw kitchen waste (lasagne-style). These beds won't be used for roots for at least two years. Just 'muddling through' - thought I'd cover with 6" of soil in March and plant spuds or squash - what do you think?

[manicscousers]

sounds great to me, ss, I bet you'd get good squash type things from them  :)

[Baccy Man]

I dig in loads of shredded paper from a cross cut shredder (easier to dig in than strip cut) it helps a lot with moisture retention & I mulch with corrugated card that has been through a garden shredder a couple of times. My main crop each year is tobacco which requires an awful lot of water but even during the heatwave last year I hardly had any watering to do. At the end of the growing season the worms have eaten most of the paper & any mulch still visible is dug in so the worms can eat it through the winter.

CJ
The inks on coloured paper & card are all soy based these days so there is no problem composting them. The compostable plastics are more of a pain they require very high temperatures for the composting process to start I have added them to my heaps many times but I only get 60-70% to break down properly despite the effort I put into keeping my compost heaps active.

[supersprout]

BaccyMan, your gardening sounds more and more fascinating every time you say a little more about it - thank you :D A printer told me the same thing six months ago, but I still felt a little nervous (well he would, wouldn't he?) so thank you for the reassurance :)

I got a x-cut shredder as the Which? report said that the shreddings were more 'handleable' for composting/mulching. Also good for packing roots for seed swops!

[cornykev]

Baccy tell us more about the tobacco you grow. :D :D :D

[Baccy Man]

Baccy tell us more about the tobacco you grow. :D :D :D

What would you like to know about? growing, curing, manufacturing (making it smokable), flavouring, the legal situation on it, the differences between homegrown vs shop bought, or another aspect. I can probably answer any question you can come up with although I think it would be better to start a new thread for this as it doesn't have much to do with composting.

[Helenclare]

I have just bought a dog po loo which is basically a wormery dedicated to the output of my two labrador's.
So far so good, it doesn't smell...which I thought it would! and the worms all seem to be fit and healthy. You only add dog waste and in small quantities to begin with and gradually build up as thw worm community grows. You can use the output after a year but I will use it on boarders I think, rather than food crops. I really wanted to avoid putting it in the bin and it going to land fill. The only thing to remember is to leave it a week after the dogs are wormed for obvious reasons!!!!!!!

[jjt]

sorry i don t do links but google csimba and look on his site/forum for Jim Beam,world authority on composting dog poo and very funny man.Some of the stuff is deleted now but its very readable and there s photos.Whole site is interesting anyway.

[Baccy Man]

Jim will compost anything that stays still long enough he puts a lot of work into his composting & is not afraid of trying new methods two cents JB's pictoral guide to composting pet waste can be found here;
http://csimba.com/jimbeam/jimspage.html

If you want to discuss it with him try here;
http://www.csimba.com/compost/viewtopic.php?t=22&sid=54d9c6f5ea66b20650064dfeeff6fa78
or here;
http://pub30.bravenet.com/forum/2544104454/