Keeping up with demand

The HCC got a mention in the Hackett Neighbourhood Watch Newsletter! Thanks very much to Barb who edits this great little periodical, for helping to share the word about the compost collective.

The newsletter is certainly well-read and has led to quite a few new members contributing kitchen scraps to the HCC. Welcome all!

This coincided with an impromptu holiday on my part so unfortunately I couldn’t be as responsive to new members as I would normally like to be. Hopefully waiting a few days to receive a bucket, or to have a bucket swapped, didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm for waste diversion.

Thanks very much also to some regular contributors who dropped off their waste on my front steps, it was lovely to come home to these degradable goodies 🙂

With all the new members the 3-bin compost system is now mostly full most of the time. That makes for an efficient hot composting system that can break down waste in a matter of weeks. The HCC can still accept new households into the fold as long as I keep up with clearing out the finished compost and keeping it all turning over.

The efficiency of the system relies on maintaining the right mixture of carbon and nitrogen rich materials. The veggie wastes from everyone’s kitchen provide a great consistent source of nitrogen rich materials. Nevertheless, I couldn’t say no to another rich feedstock material when Ceri from the Hackett Agistment paddocks let me know that there was horse manure available.

Funnily enough, before the HCC had all of it’s new members I was scouting around for a local source of manure so that I could heat up the compost heap. Now that so many kitchen wastes are entering the heap the manure is not necessary but it’s still great to add a little to push the degradation processes to be a little faster. Of course with all of these Nitrogen rich sources entering the pile I have to balance them with quite a bit of Carbon rich materials. Luckily I still have a stockpile of autumn leaves, allthough this is now dwindling.

If anyone has some dry leaves that they would like to get rid of then I’ll happily take them off your hands!

And speaking of increased demand for composting services there is now another option for households in Canberra if they need somewhere to transform their kitchen waste. The Canberra Environment Centre has a new composting machine, the OSCA (On-site composting apparatus). Scott and I attended the launch of this great little machine yesterday. It was fab to hear from and talk to people with the same values and future positive vision as those that underlie the HCC mission. It’s all about reducing greenhouse gas emissions while transforming waste into something useful!

The best thing about the OSCA is that the Canberra Environment Centre is going to use it as a demonstration of waste transformation and learn more and more about the composting processes. And they’re even going to share these ‘learnings’ with composting hub sessions where anyone can go along and learn how to best manage their organic waste.

As usual thanks for all the scraps and keep those buckets coming!

-Brook