Thanks to Grill’d who have given us $100 as part of their community donation program, Local Matters. This can be used for straw, manure, lime etc, but if you have a better idea for how this money will benefit the community compost bins at Dawkins Reserve, let us know.
Dane reports: A key composter or I will email the Aerobin distributor to request replacement parts for the damaged internal vertical tube/core/flute for all four Aerobins. This should help deliver better air supply and more rapid, less smelly decomposting.
Note that 7 – 12 May is International Composting Awareness Week. More info here: http://www.compostweek.com.au/core/
Stay tuned for a possible event at the Dawkins Reserve CC site!
Last Sunday in Feb, we have had a working bee at Dawkins Reserve and thanks to some great hand-ons work by our keen composters, the bins were emptied out successfully. Compare to the last round, some of the materials seem to be decomposing better but still not as quickly as we hope for.
As mentioned previously, we have scheduled a meeting with council members on 2 May to discuss the future of the bins. If you have any ideas and opinions, please let us know through our email address.
If you are on our mailing list, you will have got this:
Hello Composters
The trial of the community composting site at Dawkins Reserve has proven very popular. It’s estimated that 50-60 households are using the bins, which puts them under a lot of pressure, requiring a lot of management (see Key Composters, below). You can help the bins work better by doing the following:
1. Chop up your veggies (microbes and worms will work on it faster).
2. Add in scrunched up newspaper as well (this provides air pockets and stops the pile becoming wet and smelly, as bins 3 and 4 are now).
3. Don’t clog the bins with garden waste.
4. Keep the area around the bins tidy to keep our neighbours sweet (we now have a litter bin to put rubbish in).
5. If you see something that clearly should not be in the bins (plastic bags or other stuff that won’t break down) please try and remove it.
A report and presentation will be submitted to council in March/April, with our recommendations for what should happen next. If the bins can’t be managed by the community, they will be removed and suggestions will be made to council for alternatives for diverting organic waste from landfill.
Key Composters
Firstly, thank you for helping to check on the bins and keep them in balance. We know that your work in covering the bin contents (which removed the fly problem) and removing litter (much easier now the litter bin is installed) has stopped the site becoming an eyesore and annoying the neighbours!
Secondly, more help is needed. Alex has been doing most of the maintenance on the bins, but she will be travelling from 23rd Feb to 17th March and she will leave the area permanently at the start of June. So the following tasks will need to be done to maintain the bins if they are to stay:
a. When bins get full, the lids need to be switched with the resting bin lids.
b. Active bins need to be stirred once or twice a week. The stake is under the brown bin. Jab it into the contents, avoiding the side walls. Move it around in a circle and give everything a good stir. You will need to do this in the four corners of the bin. The stake can be wiped off with a piece of newspaper, scrunched into the bin before replacing under the brown bin.
c. Once a week, each bin needs to be drained so the bottom doesn’t get wet and anaerobic. The taps are little buggers to turn, but they should be turned so the tab moves from 6 o’clock (closed) to 12 o’clock (open). Plastic milk containers work well as receptacles and often 10 litres at a time can be drained! Diluted 1:9, this makes great plant food and can be used directly on the garden or as a foliar feed (In the future this plant food could be used as a fund-raiser for composting materials like manure, straw and lime.).
d.When bins get full (like now!), they have to be emptied. The compost is not completely ready, but can be dug into gardens. If you know someone with a garden happy to do this, please arrange for them to pick up the material. It would be ideal for you to be there and help ensure that the hatches are replaced and then use the stake to give the scraps at the top a good stir so that they can drop down. A garden fork and waterproof fertiliser-type bags lined with newspaper are ideal for bin emptying.
e. Using the spreadsheet is becoming a good way of letting other key composters know about what is happening with mixing/draining/etc, so if you have time, do read through the comments and leave your own if you can.
The work on maintaining the bins is considerable for one person, but if you can recruit more people in the area to help, it won’t take much time. Unless the bins can be maintained within the community, the pilot will have to end with the bins being removed. The composting team would love more people to get involved, make these bins YOURS and take ownership of them for this part of Elwood.
We look forward to any thoughts and suggestions you may have on the future of the Dawkins Reserve Bins.
Cheers!
The Community Composting Team
Some time ago we had a big emptying of the compost bins and we had more compost than we were able to deal with that day (3 barrow loads were taken away). So we put it under the mulch by the tree in the centre. It would be great if these seedlings were able to really grow and produce tomatoes and pumpkins…
I’m going away for a week and the bins are almost full, so I biked down today to empty out some of the contents and put it on our community garden at Veg Out. If anyone else wants some compost, the stuff in the bottom of bins 1 and 2 (monster and one next to it) are the best bet. Just be sure to wear your old clothes and put the hatches back on afterwards!
emptying a bin is messy
the contents of bin one weren't too bad. Some of it has rotted down well
Bin 3 was compacted
As I emptied bin 3 out, I found it very wet and anaerobic.
bin4 better than bin 3 with more worm action
the destination for the compost: our community garden
The pilot scheme is becoming a victim of its own success. So many households are using the bins (50-60 we estimate) that they are filling up before the compost can break down. We may need to tape them shut, if we can’t find another solution…
It doesn’t help that people are still dumping garden waste and large items in the bins (chopped stuff breaks down faster. Whole coconuts don’t.).
Anyone want to make some signs – “help our bins work faster – please chop up your veggies!” etc…
I was up in Sydney for a cartoon conference and took the opportunity to check out a couple of the community composting bins in Chippendale. Was relieved to see that they look very similar, though I think we could learn from the simple signage attached to each bin (people do not bother to read our standalone sign).
How most of Sydney disposes of its organic waste
I knew I was in the right area when I saw this sign for eating weeds
Sorrel also grows in Melbourne and tastes very bitter and lemony
The bins are in sight
There is very little on the bins apart from the signs of what to put in
note!
Too much kitchen waste so brown needs adding. They have been using sawdust, but we are finding balled up newspaper is good to reduce moisture levels and improve air spaces
it takes a long time for stuff to break down if it isn't chopped well and mixed well
We are really glad so many people are using the Aerobins at the Dawkins Reserve Site, but it is a pain having to clear up the garden rubbish that gets dumped in the bins (often the brown bin that we store paper and card in). It overwhelms them and doesn’t break down and we have to haul it out behind the bins for council to collect when they mow the site. Not a good look.
We’ve tried painting the bins with signs, but this doesn’t seem to put any people off. Short of staking out the site with night vision goggles over the weekend, I’m not sure how we can tackle this problem. Any ideas?
We emptied out the bottom of the Aerobins on Sunday. It has been a full four months since the trial started and the material hasn’t broken down as much as we hoped, but it was good enough for one of our key composters to take for her garden. She has spread it around her veggie patch, covered it with soil and will report back on its effects, with any luck!
We then mixed in some rotted manure (good microbes) and dolomite lime (to combat the acidity of manure and kitchen waste) to the remaining material to give the decomposition process a bit of a boost. We hope also to source some straw and an auger to improve the aeration of the bins.
Community Composting in Port Phillip, Melbourne 