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Master Composters and Master Gardeners

Out and about with the Master Composters

HOTBIN has been working with Master Composters and Recycling Officers for the past 12 months.  We donated 15 HOTBINS to be used with various teams across the country. We were keen to get the Master Composters to try the HOTBIN and see how it compared against the other composting bins they work with.

HOTBIN composting is quite different from traditional composting methods and we knew  Master Composters would definitely put the HOTBIN to the test!

What do we want to achieve via the HOTBIN project?

WRAP( July 2011) estimated there are around 7 million homes in the UK composting. About 65% of household food waste is classed as “do not add to compost bin”. Most composting is therefore adding 35% comprising mainly of vegetable peelings and tea bags from the kitchen. The HOTBIN can compost ALL food waste including meat and cooked leftovers.

If we can upgraded all home composters to compost all food waste, then that would divert an additional 1.12 million tonnes from landfill and collection. (250Kg/house x 65% x 7m households =  1.12 million mt of food waste). This equates to roughly 50 large scale AD/IVC central plants. Whilst costs vary, this is around £500 million of capital costs and 10 years of planning and building.

We clearly have a vested interest, but we think there is an environmental case for councils to subsidise the more expensive “all food waste compost bins” for those households that want them. If the government exempted compost bins from VAT (£25) and matched 3 years of food waste collection cost (£20/yr/hh), then that subsidy would allow a price point of £75 per HOTBIN!  The subsidy leads to a virtuous circle – more units leads to high volume production, which reduces costs, which reduces prices again which increases volume which diverts even more. We are miles away from this – but our goal has to be large scale diversion. (If you want to read more on the benefits of hot composting topic jump to this post).

This year will see HOTBIN enter all the major Council framework agreements (ESPO/YPO/Scotland Excel) giving us more visibility and opportunity to discuss removing food waste via home composting.  With the help of Recycling Officers and Master Composters we hope to divert more food waste in 2013.

HOTBIN test SITES include:

Organisation What & Why
Buckinghamshire CC 2 units with Waste Recycling Officers
Durham CC 4 units, 2 with Master Composters & 2 with Recycling Team
Gloucester CC 1 unit with Waste Minimisation Officer
Herefordshire CC 1 MC – Sarah, aka ‘Compost Woman’ Follow her blog and review here
Leicester CC 1 unit with Master Composter
Leicester CC On display Snibston recycling centre
Northumberland CC 1 unit with waste recycling Officer
Oxfordshire CC 1 unit with MC
Shrewsbury CC 1 unit with MC
Suffolk CC 1 MC & 12 Units with Waldringfield Community Composting
Telford DC 1 unit with MC
Worcester 1 unit with MC
York CC 2 Units, on display at York Rotters See St Nicks field website
Zero waste (Scotland) Waste Recycling Officer
If you would like contact details for the above, please email us at info@hotbincompostingblog.com

REMEMBER MASTER COMPOSTERS;

  • Already use many different composting systems
  • Work with many different users from novice to expert
  • Have undergone formal compost training and accreditation

So What Do the Master Composters say ABOUT THE HOTBIN?

Jane Griffiths, MC Network Manager: The HOTBIN processed a very challenging food waste mix into compost after 90 days. During the trial we were really impressed that when checking the temperature it read 60°C when the outside temperature was around 10°C.”

Lesley Tulitt, Buckinghamshire: I got the bin going and have not looked back. The time of year is irrelevant, as the key point is to introduce a large amount of fresh greens like grass clippings which start the process and then keep adding waste every few days to maintain the temperature. As long as you keep feeding it with material it works. (Lesley recently blogged at http://recycles.buckscc.gov.uk/).

Sue Baines, Oxfordshire: The HotBin website is fascinating, I can spend hours looking at it when I think I should really be gardening, but it’s good to have access to so much information. I received the straps a couple of weeks ago and they do seem to help to hold the hatch in place. I’m still having problems with leachate, although not as much as before. …The compost in the bottom of the bin was extremely compressed and wet and seemed anaerobic and smelly although it was mainly composted…. Having said all that, I’m still getting good quantities of reasonable compost out of the bin, so I’m not complaining.

Sarah, Herefordshire (see Compost Woman – blog): I filled the bin mid afternoon on a sunny but cool day (18C). After 24 hours the top layer of material was at 50 Celsius with an ambient temperature of 20 Celsius. It was very easy to load the HotBin and so far I am impressed with the ease of use. I am also VERY impressed with the comprehensive and user friendly information on the HotBin website – especially the FAQ pages, which are full of all sorts of useful information about composting.

Rod Weston, Leicestershire (HOTBIN at Snibston Discovery Museum): The bin is attracting a lot of interest, particularly the external thermometer just about everyone has to open the lid to confirm that it is hot (60-70C) inside. We are using it to compost food waste from the on-site cafe so it is a bit of a challenge but the bin is performing well.

Betsy Reid, Suffolk: I am the satisfied owner of a HOTBIN. What I am now wondering is whether you could offer any price reduction for a Community Composting scheme?

(We did and Waldringfield is our first community Composting scheme with 12 HOTBINS last year and another 12 HOTBINs to be delivered in March 2013!).

Linton Waters, Shrewsbury:  Having now experienced the HOTBIN, I’d be very happy to talk positively to members of the public at events etc and recommend it where it seems appropriate.

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