I have done various types of composting in Singapore within my bins on my balcony of a HDB flat. It is a good way to reducing waste, and great if you have plants.
There are 2 main types of composting — Anaerobic Composting and Aerobic Composting.
Anaerobic composting
Basically, this requires you to pile up organic material, wet it and throw it in an air tight container to deprive it of oxygen. he anaerobic process, which is essentially putrefaction, produces a very acidic environment similar to that in the stomach. Hence the term “digester” used to describe anaerobic processes and to distinguish them from aerobic composting.
I have one of those 50 liter blue tumblers which I fill up and seal up. Then forget about it, only to let some air out once in a while. It is very little work. Once it is full, this is just a waiting game.
Pros
This is for the lazy. Have a bin, fill it up, and forget about it. You can put all sorts of organic waste inside. Cook, uncooked, meat, poop from pets… everything. You need many of these bins if you want more compost, but once they are full, just cap it and forget about it.
Leave it in the sun, undisturbed and wait.
Cons
It takes a long time before you can use the compost. It is very acidic, and to make sure there are no more pathogens, you have to wait 1 whole year and this can be used right out of the bucket.
This produces a good amount of liquids, which is great for plants. But it also generate a lot of smell. You need to drain the water as well.
How to set up?
This basically is an air tight bin. I literally have 5–1cm holes in the bottom for draining away the liquids if I don’t want to keep. Leave it out on my grass patch, move it around to prevent the grass from dying. I can use the compost in a year.
I fill the bin with everything that is organic until bin is 70% full and seal it shut, out a date (1 year) and forget about it.
