Composting, bokashi and worm farms
Compost bins, worm farms, and Bokashi buckets are great ways to recycle your food waste. Food waste is a large contributor to landfill and greenhouse emissions, and these projects will ensure you're making the most of your scraps.
Compost bins
Compost bins are a good choice for people with more space as they can handle greater volumes of organic waste. However, they do require maintenance. Material in compost bins should be turned regularly to maintain air flow. This will help the micro-organisms to break down material faster.
Compost requires a balance of inputs to ensure the organic matter breaks down. It needs a balance of:
- Carbon - dry leaves, straw, paper, sawdust, shredded branches, dry grass
- Nitrogen - Food scraps, fresh grass, manures, blood and bone, seaweed, comfrey, lucerne
- Oxygen - introduced by turning the heap once a week while the material is new
- Water - to keep the heap moist and covered
- Correct size of particles and heap (small particles, large heap)
Compost bins are available in a range of shapes and sizes from hardware stores.
Further information on composting:
Bokashi bins
Bokashi bins are ideal for small apartments or units, as they can be kept inside. Bokashi bins can handle small volumes of kitchen waste, including food waste that generally can't go into a compost bin like meat and dairy. The system uses a process of fermentation, aided by the bokashi mix or enzyme, which is sprinkled over layers of kitchen scraps.
The end products are bokashi juice and solid bokashi waste. Bokashi juice can be diluted and added to your garden or indoor pot plants. The solid bokashi waste can be buried in your garden or added to a conventional compost heap where it will break down completely. If you don't have access to a garden, that's okay! Many community gardens are happy to accept this solid waste in their compost heaps.
Check with your closest community garden or visit Share Waste to find a compost heap near you.
Bokashi bins are available in a range of shapes and sizes from hardware stores or online.
Worm farms
Worm farms are a great option for people with smaller yards or balconies. With your worm farm you can produce rich soil (castings) and liquid fertiliser (worm juice) in a small area. Worm farming uses selected worms (typically Tiger Worms, Red Wrigglers and Indian Blues) to break down kitchen and garden scraps.
Tips
- Choose a cool shaded spot for your worm farm
- Add composting worms, such as Tigers, Reds and Blues to your worm farm as they live, work and breed well in the rich, moist, organic environment of your worm farm
- Keep your worm farm moist, warm and protected from the hot summer sun
- If possible, shred kitchen and garden waste into smaller pieces
- Cover the worms with a small black plastic sheet in cool weather - in hot weather a damped hessian, newspaper is more desirable
- Always replace the lid
- Castings can be placed in the garden around plants, in pot plants, around fruit trees, native trees and vegetables
Coffee grounds are a source of nitrogen and are a great addition to your compost as well. Add together with your kitchen scraps and make sure you layer with about one third carbon based materials such as dried leaves or untreated wood shavings. Coffee grounds also make good worm food. Some people like to add coffee grounds directly to their garden as fertiliser. They can also be sprinkled around seedlings to deter slugs and snails.
Worms and worm farms are available in a range of shapes and sizes from hardware stores or online.