How to Make a Compost Bin From a Garbage Can

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

Rate: (136 Ratings)

Compost is nothing more than decomposed plant material, so you don't need a fancy bin to make your own compost. You can create compost in a heap on the ground, but most gardeners think that containing your compost pile makes it look tidier. Here's how to make compost in a recycled garbage can.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Bricks
Garbage Cans
Garden Hoses
Old Newspapers

Step1

Punch holes in a garbage can. The microbes that actually do the composting need oxygen to do their work.

Step2

Chop plant debris into small pieces and place them inside the garbage can. Ideally, you should use 50 percent green material and 50 percent dry, but you can use shredded newspaper for the dry material if necessary. You don't need to fill the can all at one time - just put in the plant material you have on hand.

Step3

Spray water over the chopped plant material inside the can, until the material is damp but not soggy.

Step4

Put the lid on the can.

Step5

Place the filled garbage can on bricks or several 2-by-4-inch pieces of lumber to keep the can off the ground and prevent it from rusting.

Step6

Turn the can as often as daily, or at least once a week. Lay the can on its side and roll it around to mix the plant material inside.

Step7

Add more plant material at any time.

Step8

Keep the compost about as moist as a wrung-out sponge by spraying it with water when the plant material begins to feel dry.

Step9

Harvest your compost after one month. Use a wire screen or piece of chicken wire to strain out the unfinished compost.

Tips & Warnings

Compost can be used to top-dress garden beds or as potting soil for indoor plants.
Once the plant material inside the can is no longer warm to the touch, the composting process is finished.

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Comments

ALearner said

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on 6/21/2008 I used a plastic garbage can, but I think I would have experienced the same problems with a metal can too. It was very heavy to move and in the end gave up. I resorted to good olde chicken wire and transfered it from one pile to another. Not as pretty & tidy but far more managable.

Whenorwhere said

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on 4/30/2008 you stated "most gardeners think that containing your compost pile makes it look tidier" Most of us use a bin to keep vermin specifically rats away.

You also said "Place the filled garbage can on bricks or several 2-by-4-inch pieces of lumber to keep the can off the ground and prevent it from rusting." If you are going to use a garbadge can it needs to be a rubber can, not a metal one. Why do you think there are no metal compost container on the market? Because you can use a metal container. Plastic or wood.
Also your sugestion for turning it is in no way visable. A garbadge can is going to be too heavy, and turning should be donw end over end not by rolling it on the ground. Do you know anything about composting?

Whenorwhere said

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SunflowerOcity said

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on 11/30/2007 Bravo!
I enjoyed your article and rated it with five stars! Please check out my seed topic related articles at the following links:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2072035_do-easy-composting-garden.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2128557_use-coffee-grounds-garden.html
Thanks!
Chris

Anitra said

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on 8/13/2007 Collyflower: compost can be used in any garden and any type of soil. The only variable I have run across is that "low-temperature" compost (compost made by a process that generates lower heat) may be more helpful to perennials than "high temperature" compost. The only way any kind of compost is going to hurt any kind of plant is if it isn't aged well enough: raw manure will damage plant roots (and could carry infections dangerous to humans) and uncomposted vegetable matter will suck nitrogen *out* of the soil until it finishes decaying.

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