Making A Compost Tumbler

Meet the real green card holders

Of R300 per month, to a garbage-loving retired rubber technologist in south Mumbai, families from all walks of life across the country are making all sorts of changes to their homes and their lifestyles to reduce their carbon footprint.

Often, they’re unfairly dismissed as health- and eco-minded hippies. Depending on your idea of environmental friendliness, you could see them that way too. But these people have a certain vision of life and they do their best to live by that vision. Read on to see how and why these families reuse-reduce-recycle, and why you don’t necessarily have to waste the green in your wallet to be ‘green’.

A man of the elements
Sanjay Bhalla, an engineer in Delhi with a passion for solar energy – think street lights and heaters – makes a business out of it
Delhi
From the rooftop of his home in Nizamuddin, you can see the dome of Humayun’s tomb. The same rooftop where Sanjay Bhalla, a self-proclaimed solar enthusiast, has installed a water heater and an exterior lamp which run on nothing but the boundless energy provided by the sun.

Bhalla, who looks much younger than his 51 years, is an active speed-cyclist and occasional golfer. Solar energy is both his passion and his profession. He runs Silverspark, a company which provides energy solutions in the form of street lights and water heaters that run on solar power. After installing the solar heater at home, he has almost never switched on the old electric water heaters. Even on a cloudy day, the water is hot at 60 degrees and ready for use.

Bhalla’s travels through rural India influenced him to use the power of the sun to get electricity to villages. “In the Muzaffar Nagar-Saharanpur belt in UP, I once saw a big 1.7 lakh litre tank to supply water to a village – but no electricity to fill it. A solar pump would have done the trick.

Best Organic Compost Tumblers or Rotating Bin & Barrel ...

Tumbling composters make it easy to mix and aerate compost. No pitchforks or aching backs. Composting time is reduced from months, to 4 or 6 weeks. At least that's what the advertisements say. We look at the practical realities of choosing and using one at home.

Most look like barrels or large disks. A few are spherical. Prices range from $150 to $500. Warranties are typically from one to five years. Brands include Urban, Back Porch, Tumbleweed, Lifetime, Kemp, Ezyroll, RotoComposter and Envirocycle.

Some of the information in this article is based on information from consumer reviews of compost tumblers on the Amazon.com website.

Introduction to Tumbling Composter Basics

A compost tumbler is rotated to mix up and aerate (ventilate) the compost inside, to allow aerobic (air-breathing) bacteria to work. They're a bit like laundry tumble dryers, or European-style front-loading washing machines. Air vents are drilled into the bin for ventilation, with some composters having aeration pipes to ventilate deep inside the bin. Aeration pipes also help to break up clumps of compost during rotation, but block the way and make it more difficult to dig out the finished compost.

Insufficient ventilation slows down the composting process. In extreme cases of bad ventilation, especially when combined with too much moisture, anaerobic bacteria take over from the aerobic bacteria. This creates a stinking sludge, instead of compost.

A door allows material to be added and removed. Flimsy doors or latches are a common complaint. They should be checked for sturdy construction, before purchase. Complaints of broken hinges and latches on doors, are common. Sliding doors are usually stronger, but jam more easily. Twist caps can also jam, and are more easily affected by warping of the plastic bin by the weight of the compost, which changes the shape of the door.

A large door makes it easier to remove compost, but is also more difficult to secure against pests. Duct tape can be used to seal doors and replace broken latches.

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