January 2017

These 2 containers have wall panel infills of HD shadecloth.  I am using them to accumulate organic waste for the thermal composter.  The brown one is filled with dry carbon rich waste, and the sandy beige one is filled with greener waste with a higher nitrogen content.    They are ventilated so the waste dries out and doesn't start to rot down prematurely.

They both have a capacity of about 220 litres and when they are full, the waste can be transferred into my 440 litre composter to start a new batch of thermal compost. The containers are bottomless so to empty them, you simply lift them off the material and collect it from the ground.  In the unlikely event of material refusing to come out of the container, you can easily access it by removing the front panel (unscrewing 6 Tek screws).

The retired propagator on the right is being used to store sieved compost, which I use in my Ecobeds, Ecobins, EcoPropagators and lawn.  The gadget on top is designed to take some of the effort out of sieving.  The twist and shake method I currently use is becoming a bit strenuous for me in my declining years.

To make this work, the sieve pivots at the back of the unit supported by the back wall. By raising and lowering the front of the sieve, the material is made to move backwards and forwards over the wire netting in the bottom of the sieve.  When the fines have all fallen into the box, the coarse residue is removed by hand after a reasonable amount has accumulated.

A full thermal composter (capacity about 440 litres) will produce about 300 litres of finished compost.  200 litres of this is sieved to produce about 180 litres of sieved compost and about 20 litres of coarse material to be recycled into the brown waste bin.  The remaining 100 litres of compost which is not sieved is used on my drip line irrigated garden beds.  It all works quite nicely.