Aerobin Intervention & Trying Paper/Card Instead of Leaves

Mixing up the compost and using paper to cover over the exposed rotting material has definitely reduced the flies. So it seems that compost which decays faster and keeping the attractive mouldy fruit covered is the key to preventing clouds of annoying fungal gnats.

Dane and I sorted out bin number three (3rd from right) on Sunday. As you can see from the pictures below, it was very wet and had become anaerobic and smelly. From other people’s experience of Aerobins, it seems that using almost entirely plane tree leaves for the brown material could be part of the problem. They take longer to break down than materials like paper and card. They also don’t provide air pockets like corrugated card, or balled up newspaper. We were disappointed that the Aerobin design did not help with air flow, as promised.

So, for faster, fly-reduced compost we recommend the following:

• The smaller the pieces, the faster it breaks down. If you can chop things up in the kitchen before bringing them down to the bins that’s great. We found whole heads of lettuce and cabbage deep in the bins
• No bulk garden waste. Tree/lavender/rosemary prunings that are more than the length of your finger won’t break down, get stuck in the bins and clog up the process
• Key composters like Sharon and I will bring down paper and card to put in the brown bin. Ripped up pizza box pieces and scrunched up newspaper are ideal for creating air pockets and stopping the pile get too wet with all the mushy kitchen scraps.
• Key composters will mix the compost when they can (a metal auger, or a big stake will work, but Dane and I achieved this by emptying out the bins and relayering the material with card and paper). Spreading dumped masses of kitchen waste over the whole area helps.

Sunday pics:

1. The caps over the Aerobin pipes come off very easily, allowing material into the air pipe

2. We emptied the anaerobic material out of the bin onto cardboard (which was put in the bins afterwards)

3. You can see the leaves are just becoming slimy and not breaking down

4. Going down deeper and it doesn't look like compost

5. Lower down and no different

6. An intact half of cabbage can be seen in top left

7. The Aerobin pipes aren't sturdy and are easily dislodged and blocked

8. We needed to clean out the bottom of the Aerobin

9. Dane reinforced the pipe and used a plastic pot as a permanent cap to keep out the gunk

10. The whole length of pipe is drilled with air holes

11. The material went back in with layers of ripped up card and balled up newspaper