I hear this one a lot. “I want to compost my food scraps but I just cannot have rats and racoons running around my yard”.
No worries guys, we can fix this one. If you want to recycle your food scraps there are a few awesome solutions. Let’s look at 6 really effective ones.
Make sure your pile has some browns in it.
A good pile has a good mix of diverse materials. For example, a compost pile made up of just food scraps will definitely decompose, but it can also wind up smelling like exactly what it is, a pile of rotting food. Rotting food is good, but rats and scavenging animals also think rotting food is good, and so will seek it out as food.
However, mixing your pile with something like dead leaves from fall, newspaper, or sawdust, will help to absorb some of the moisture and smell, and create a happier environment for your food to decompose. Active, well built compost piles don’t reallly smell!
Make Sure You’ve Got Enough Oxygen
One of the three main ingredients in your perfect compost pile is oxygen. Oxygen keeps the happy bacteria cooking, which helps keep your pile from smelling “rotten”. This speaks to the difference between Aerobic (with oxygen) and Anaerobic (without oxygen) digestion. For now, just know that Anaerobic smells bad, and Aerobic for the most part does not. If your compost pile starts smelling bad (and good to pests), you can try a couple things.
If you can, try turning your compost pile to inject some oxygen into the mix. Using a pitchfork or shovel, flip that stuff around and the oxygen will rush in. It will also mix up your greens and brown to keep your recipe well incorporated.
Another way to get oxygen in your pile is to add some “bulking material” into your pile. Food waste for example is generally very wet. So when you pile it up, it can have a tendency to matt down and not allow any air inside. To combat this, you can add some bulky material to add some more air pockets. Leaves are great for this, as are wood chips, and other yard waste which. You shouldn’t need too much of it, just a little bit to fluff up the overall situation.
Guard Your Compost With a Tumbler or Box
If you’re concerned about rats getting into your compost, one way to fight that is to put it in a closed container. There are tons of of composters that you can buy. There are boxes that sit on the ground, there are “tumble” composters which are cyclanders which you can rotate. They both have the advantage of providing a barrier to the outside world and will provide a deterrent to any small critters looking for a midnight snack.
These also have an added benefit of insulating your compost. Keeping it warmer, especially in the colder months, will keep your compost cooking along and keep it from freezing or getting stuck.
Bury your waste
If a compost bin will not work for you, there are other things you can do. Maybe you have too much waste for a tumbler, maybe your pests are just really intrepid, or maybe you have larger and smarter animals which just don’t give up.
One way to get around this is to bury your compostable waste in your garden or backyard. In a world where everyone is talking about the “absolute best way to compost”, this methods is pretty full proof. It’s called the trench method.
It’s just how it sounds. You dig a trench in your backyard about 10 -16 inches deep and however wide you’d like for the amount you are composting. Dump all your compostable waste in the trench, and fill it back in with dirt. That’s it.
It takes a while to decompose under the ground, but it will decompose just as surely. One awesome benefit to this is that you won’t need to dig it up again to reap the benefits. You can actually plant right on top of it the following spring. The roots dig down deep looking for nutrients, and they will find it.
If you are composting in order to reduce the amount of waste you send to the landfill, then you can do this anywhere. If you would like to reuse the nutrients for your garden, build your trench where you will plant your garden so that your plants will be able to find it! Super easy and the ground will prevent any smell from leaching out.
The Green Cone
The Green Cone a compost bin which uses similar principles as trench composting. It’s a compost bin that is slightly buried in the ground. This insulates the smell of decomposing matter from animals, and it also gives the compostable material access to the billions of microorganisms, worms and bugs in the ground to aid in decomposition.
Recycle Food Waste Indoors.
Generally, food waste is the thing that attracts animals to your compost pile. So an obvious solution is to keep it out of the compost pile. One way to do this is to utilize what is known as the “Bokashi” method. I mentioned above “Aerobic” and “Anaerobic” composting. The Bokashi method uses the “Anaerobic” process. Anaerobic means no or very little oxygen. Simply put, you can collect your food waste in a sealed container and add in specialized enzymes to break down the waste inside the bucket. You can routinely drain out the liquid that forms and this can be used as a liquid fertilizer for your plants. In time, you will also wind up with bio digested waste that you can also use as a solid amendment.
Another way to compost food scraps indoors is to feed it to worms and vermicompost! Now, I love worms, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is not the same as traditional composting. What you are essentially doing is feeding your food waste to your worms and reaping the rewards of their waste (castings), while also cutting food out of the landfill stream. Worm castings are an absolutely amazing nutrient source for plants.
Utilize A Compost Pickup Company
If you are unable to have a compost pile at home to compost your food scraps, private companies are popping up all over the place to help fill the gap. Details vary from company to company, but the general principle works the same. They will give you a container to collect food scraps in, and you put it out for pickup on a schedule. These guys will come pick it up and take it away to be composted, usually at an industrial scale facility. Often, you will even get finished compost back in exchange!
there are many ways for you to compost without attracting pests. It just depends on which method is going to work best for you!
Good luck and happy composting!