Spelthorne Borough Council

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Ashford, Laleham, Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell & Sunbury

Different ways to compost

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Composting Microbiology Methods



Home composting
This is the most common type of composting. Done at home, it is the simplest process.  The home composter unit consumes a small amount of waste – the kind of volume produced by an average garden.  The garden composter will digest fruit and vegetable waste but not cooked food or meat products.  Discounted bins are available through the Council.

Follow this link for more information (external website)

Food waste digesters
These use an aerobic digestion process; solar heating the material brings the temperature up to thermophillic levels and air circulation through the material means that the micro organisms can breathe – little creatures need air too.   It also means that larger creatures, worms, moulds and fungi can make a living breaking down the waste. The enclosed way these work means that they can take all sorts of food waste safely including cooked food, meat and fish.
Food digesters are available at a discount rate for a short time.  
Visit: www.greencone.com (external website) for more information

In vessel composting
The process begins with an initial check for contamination, which is followed by shredding of the material. It is then placed in chambers or ‘vessels’ where it is enclosed and sheltered for seven to ten days.  In the vessel it must reach a temperature of 60ºc for at least two days to eliminate any risk of disease and also to kill off any seeds.
This process is repeated again before it is transported to a nearby site to mature. Here, out in the open, it is piled up in long blocks called windrows and turned regularly by the great Turninator machine (pictured) to add oxygen and mix the material.
Finally, the compost is put through a Screener, a sort of a giant sieve, which separates out anything not wanted in the end product. The finished product includes compost sold as soil conditioner.

Stuff collected through Spelthorne Borough Council's garden waste collection scheme is sent to an in-vessel composting site in Middlesex.  www.wlcompost.co.uk (external website)

Hot compost heaps
Because they need large volumes of waste to work, these are the compost heaps of the real enthusiast. They are out of the reach of most gardeners.  By piling up vast amounts of compostable material and covering it to encourage the kind of micro organism growth that will generate immense heat, the process is much similar as that which takes place on an industrial maturation site.  You need more than a garden fork to turn it.  
You can see these kinds of compost heaps on large estates or parks.  It is said that Kew Gardens in neighbouring Richmond has the largest compost heap in Britain. It is made from green waste from the gardens and from some of the other Royal Parks (external website)


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