I include cardboard  boxes as browns in my compost bin at home,  removing the tape where it is easily pulled off. However, some tape has always gone into the compost bin and I have removed it, in small batches, as and when I harvest finished compost from the bin. Compost C: N Ratio

This year I decided to check how much tape was actually  in with the compost bin. I left a Green Johanna until all the material was composted and emptied the bin into a raised bed. The photo shows the amount of tape removed from the compost bin. The lesson would appear to be that when composting cardboard boxes all the tape should be removed before the cardboard is added to the bin.

People at events who do not compost often offer the excuse that they do not have room in their garden or do not have a garden.   But this is not a valid excuse  composting is practical in a garden of any size even if it is completely hard landscaped and indeed may be used with household kitchen waste  in an apartment, flat  or patio. Help to avoid waste beeing sent to landfill and help fight climate change  by spreading the composting message. 

A suitable composting bin, wormery or bokashi bin can be placed on be used as a feature in the garden, painted by the children or grandchildren or  screened by trellis growing plants.

A conventional style plastic bin that would normally be placed on soil can be purchased with a plastic base or stood directly on the concrete or decking with some soil or mature compost being added to the bin as a starter. If too much leachate is produced it might stain the concrete or timber but this can be avoid by standing the bin in a cardboard or wood chip to absorb any liquid and monitoring the contents so that they do not get to wet.

If the bin is cannot to be hidden by trellis wooden beehive bins are  aesthetically pleasing and add an interesting feature to the garden.

Tumbler bins are normally mounted off the ground on legs. The original tumbler  where quite large bins and consisted of a single chamber and were most suited  for batch composting but   there are now quite small dual chamber tumblers which allow continuous composting.

Wormeries provide  an interesting alternative to a compost bin and  are normally equipped with legs of stand on a base up off the ground. A commercially available plastic wormery is suitable for kitchen waste supplemented with shred paper and cardboard. There are versions available for use on balconies and even indoors.

Carryoncomposting.com has updated its page on Composting Hair. http://www.carryoncomposting.com/416920208

A new paragraph has been included on the history of using hair in compost in China and India but the main changes relate to vacuuming hair from floors  and the risks of including microplastics in the vacuumed waste from synthetic carpets. Such plastics would enter the soil and ground water when the compost is applied to the garden. The original advice on composting hair was that vacuumed waste should be added to the bin. This was subsequently modified to suggest that it would be  better for the environment not to make compost from hair vacuumed from modern carpets but to dispose of the council provided  residual waste wheelie bin. (The photo shows hair and dust from a carpet cleaned each day)

However, the environmentally sound answer may not be to put the vacuumed waste into the kerbside bin destined for landfill as in a study  in which  twelve leachate samples from four active and two closed municipal solid waste landfills were investigated  microplastics were found in all the landfill leachate samples examined. In total, seventeen different types of plastics were identified in the leachate samples

In another study sampling and analysis of microplastics in leachates from a total of 11 landfills in three Nordic countries found  most samples  were positive for multiple microplastics.  http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1277395&dswid=-2541

 Solid floors do not present  a tile or wooden floors do not present a problem. With dogs that shed hair constantly and the floor is vacuumed daily the ratio of hair to other dirt is likely to be  significant.(see photo)

   Hair can also be obtained from local hairdressers or dog groomers but do be aware that any waste that comes from a commercial activity may be classified as business waste.  It should also be noted that this includes waste produced from running a business from home. See below. (Be aware that Regulations may apply to disposal and carriage of trade waste)

Composting Hair

Hair can form lumps (mat) when being composted unless added to the bin in a small quantity to form a thin layer or mixed with other Greens. It is recommended that the bin is aerated every two or three days for the first week to prevent lumps being formed and  to speed the composting process. The more hair being added at a time the more important it is to mix it well to prevent compaction which might reduce air circulation and create anaerobic conditions. Care should be taken not to overload the bin with hair. It should only form a small proportion of the Green material being composted.  If using a compost tumbler carefully monitor the process may not be as effective as a conventional bin as it has been reported that the hair may not compost completely in the time it takes other material when using batch composting.

Composting Parsnips

One of the pleasures of community composting on an allotment you never know what will be in the reception bin on any given day.

This week  we had more sprout stalks as another plot holder cleared their plot (more of these later) and a batch of parsnips. Normally there are relatively few parsnips to compost as they are not a crop which is allowed to go to waste in the ground but this year it was so wet many could not be dug and were lef to go woody.

Parsnips can be composted quite easily provided they are cut  into small pieces to present as large a surface area to the composting microbes as possible. If there are only one or two,  they can be easily cut with a spade but where there a couple of dozen I find it easier to use a hatchet to cut them into suitable pieces for composting.  This weeks offering provide enough cut material to fill a plastic trug enabling it to be shared across three bins. The photo shows the tug of cut parsnip ready to be added to our  Rowlinson Beehive to show household gardeners that a bin can be an attractive feature in the garden as well as a practical tool.