High Capacity Wooden Compost System Swallows Cute Plastic Composter

It’s the time of year again when plastic bags overstuffed with leaves start piling up in front of houses like sandbags around a bunker. Which is a shame, because even if you never grew a vegetable for the rest of your life, you could still convert  those leaves along with your coffee grinds, orange peels, and egg shells into a yard of the month award. 

Seriously, all that stuff can be used to make compost, which can improve the health of any plant on your property, even your lawn.  Don’t know how to make compost? Click here

Don’t know what a high capacity compost station is? Read on.

While the curiously expensive plastic composters hawked by garden catalogs are great for breaking down a few tablespoons of coffee grounds and a half a bag of grass clippings, the typical suburban homeowner will find herself with piles of other yard trash with no place to go. That’s why we suggest higher capacity, multiple compartment compost stations made out of wood, that can receive and process a more realistic amount of organic waste.

Because air exchange is crucial for the initial part of the decomposition process, a design with good ventilation is key.  Shipping pallets are great for building multi bin compost stations this because the spaces between the wood slats offer ready -made ventilation , and for the most part, pallets are simple to connect.  

We’ve made lots of pallet compost stations, some with a galvanized metal lid, and some without. Why the lid? Compost geeks out there can tell you that the anaerobic bacteria that complete the second part of the decomposition process can be killed if the compost heap becomes too wet ( i.e. gets flooded in a continuous rain ) Will the stuff not break down because the anaerobic bacteria drowned? No, of course not, it’ll just take longer.

Imagine you’ve got your compost skills dialed in, and your pile is steaming like a locomotive, and maxed out at a hand scalding 158 degrees. You’re taking pictures with your phone, and everything, when a rainstorm pops up and ruins the party.

That’s what the lid is for. It also looks nice. 

Another reason pallets are great is that they typically measure roughly 4’x4’, and when assembled, give each compartment the ideal amount of cubic area ; large enough so that the mass of the pile helps facilitate rapid decomposition, but small enough so that the material can be turned with a hand held tool like a spading fork. 

Pallets with hooks & eyes make great removable doors for the pallet compost station design.

Want something a little more elegant? We make a cedar version with hinged gates and galvanized hardware.

If you’re handy and patient, you could probably use these photos as a guide to make your own.

Not into wood splinters, working with razor sharp metal roofing,  or looking through a three story tall pile of pallets for a dozen pallets that are the exact same size?

We can help. Pallet or Cedar.  Put your plastic compost bin at the curb with your neighbor’s leaves, and   click here to get started