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Communal Compost

Probably partially baked in rural area and third world countries, but oh well
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For anyone who home composts, there's a number of problems that come with the territory. keeping pests out, preventing it from freezing over and filling up to fast in the winter, etc. there's also many people who would like to compost but have no place for the fresh soil, and so send kitchen waste out with the trash, where it will sit, preserved in a plastic baggie, for decades (possibly centuries. I don't know my trash science).

my suggested solution is a number of giant composting stations at regular intervals on city property, manned and run by the city. Each station is essentially a giant dumpster with an underground chamber and accessway. Waste is deposited into the sides through hinged entry ports, and soil can be taken from the basement chamber. (there would be a series of various locks and separators and such for clean extraction of the dirt. perhaps a small room in the basement chamber with a sort of air lock mechanism, otherwise sealed from the compost heap.)

Every year (or suitable interval according to decomposition rate) the city department would send a maintainence crew to remove a portion of soil and make it available to the public at large. Free, of course, because it was their garbage in the first place. The home composters don't have to worry, those who want to have the opportunity, less waste in landfills, more jobs, and everyone gets a free T-shirt and a cup of coffee.

the problem I see is people being too lazy to walk half a block to drop off their garbage. maybe making compost buckets part of the garbageperson's job would be a solution, but I doubt it. The second problem would be McCarthyists who would start raving about how composting leads to godless communism. but oh well

schematics, Apr 01 2005

Current solution http://www.solidwas...ograms/compost.html
Quite baked [Worldgineer, Apr 01 2005]

[link]






       This is commonly done with yard waste, and where I live they are now allowing anything compostable. You put out a large clearly labeled garbage can, and it's picked up on trash day. They don't give back the compost, however - it's generally sold.
Worldgineer, Apr 01 2005
  

       here, you can have a bagfull of mine if you want it. +1   

       world, hah; Ted and Joe's Marvellous Adventure.
po, Apr 01 2005
  

       We have this here also (UK) - green bins in which you can put anything (or possibly anybody - not tried this yet) which will compost. Dunno where it all winds up though.
Basepair, Apr 01 2005
  

       Where I used to live, the dump, for some reason, had a knack of drawing all the degradeable stuff out into the open, and pumpkins and tomatoes grow there in abundance, maybe they hire tramps to go dump diving to find degradable stuff?   

       I keep having the problem of all my kitchen waste miraculously sprouting weeds.   

       I believe that there is a Glaswegian company that creates compost, bags it, and sells it to gardeners and garden centers...
froglet, Apr 01 2005
  

       How long did you live in the dump?
Worldgineer, Apr 01 2005
  

       As [Basepair] suggests, this is well baked. Some councils sell compost generated from this method - the only problem is that it often contains perennial weeds such as Bindweed which you would avoid putting in your own compost.
hippo, Apr 02 2005
  

       [World] I have never lived in a dump, and although it seems to be an interesting experience, I don't plan to live in a dump any time soon. I visited the dump a fair bit, as I helped my aunty who lived on a farm she would dispose of loads of stuff at the dump.
froglet, Apr 02 2005
  

       //third-world countries// like Canada. (That's not sarcasm: the only marker we need to complete the set is a dictator with a chestful of self-awarded medalia).   

       Anyways, well baked here, for a while now. Trucks collect household organic waste every week (though from the look of things it's going to be every two weeks soon), and yard waste every two weeks, seasonally. Every summer there's piles and piles of the resulting compost at transfer stations, available to be picked up by residents (or anybody with a truck, basically).   

       It works, despite being run by the government.
FlyingToaster, Apr 12 2015
  
      
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