Start Hot Composting
With spring well upon us, we’re devoting this blog post to BBC Gardeners’ World Best Buy winner for the ‘fastest composter’, which is, you guessed it: the HotBin. This sleek and slimline hot composter is an excellent addition to any garden, especially if space is a premium. Working up to 32 times faster than cold composting, there are an abundance of reasons to suggest the HotBin is an ideal solution for all households to transform their food waste quickly and conveniently, rather than sending it off to landfill to emit greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change.
The HotBin isn’t picky when it comes to what you can throw in. All food waste and most garden waste can be chucked in to generate your highly nutritious compost, including cooked/raw fish and meat (including bones), vegetable peelings, fruit scraps, dairy produce, tea bags, coffee grounds and perennial weeds too. Simply throw in your chopped waste along with paper shredding/card, and wood chips, which act as high carbon bulking agents to balance out the nitrogen present in the materials already in your compost pile, helping you achieve richer, faster compost with less work required.
The HotBin is manufactured from expanded polypropylene, which has excellent abilities in insulating heat, thus allowing the HotBin to reach temperatures between 40 and 60° Celsius. This high heat enables the HotBin to produce compost in just 30-90 days, enhancing your homes’ zero-waste journey by converting more food and garden waste into rich compost all the way throughout the year, and at a quicker rate than a traditional composter too! A minimum of 5kg of waste should be added little and often per week to maintain the speed and efficiency of ‘hot’ composting, however, it’s recommended to stick to just fruit and vegetable peelings, tea leaves and coffee grounds if temperatures of the HotBin are below 40° Celsius.
The carefully thought out ergonomics of the HotBin ensures it’s absolutely 100% user friendly, despite reaching such high temperatures. The hinged lid facilitates filling the HotBin, whilst the handy angled base funnels the liquid leachate naturally produced during the composting process into the bottom of the HotBin, which can be drained via the featured tap when required. Additional design highlights include a temperature gauge in the lid, a carbon filter to absorb smells and restrict foul odours, and an easy to remove hatch door panel to remove mature compost when it’s ready.
Whilst all these features sound brilliant, you may still be wondering how the HotBin actually works. Bacteria naturally populate the waste, working their way through breaking it down whilst generating heat at the same time. This heat is subsequently ‘locked in’ the composter via the thick insulating walls, which catalyses the composting procedure. The hotter the HotBin gets, the quicker and more efficiently the waste is broken down into rich, valuable compost for your garden. The HotBin works all year round, with no turning or tumbling required, making your composting process hassle-free and absolutely simple!
An innovative composter, the HotBin provides effective aeration between the bottom air inlet plate and the air outlet rotating valve to ensure for optimum composting conditions, draining excess water through the valve as steam, thereby controlling the rate of heat loss.
Arriving almost fully assembled, and weighing just 4kg for the HotBin Mini and 6kg for the HotBin Mk. 2, these hot composters are a revolution in the composting industry. If your garden is slightly space-conscious, the HotBin, which is no bigger than a standard wheelie bin, is an excellent idea for transforming your kitchen and garden waste all year round. The finished compost can be easily harvested from the bottom, enabling you to continuously top up with scraps from the lid at the peak of the composter.
So, there’s our quick guide to the HotBin. Expertly manufactured to keep nature thriving and assist you in redirecting waste away from pollutant landfills. Together, we can shape a brighter, EvenGreener future, and kitting your home out with our eco-friendly products is a sure fire way to minimise your environmental footprint and transform waste into sustainable, healthy produce to benefit everybody in the fight against climate change.