Woodlands Community Garden loves compost!  It’s a simple, free, natural process that transfers your kitchen and garden waste away from landfill and transforms it into a valuable and nutrient rich food for the garden.  In landfill, kitchen and garden waste releases massive amounts of toxins and methane, which is approximately 23 times a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, into the atmosphere.

Here at the Community Garden we have been composting since summer 2010, and now have compost bins, a Wormery and a ‘Ridan’ which is a hot, constant throughput, food waste composter.  We place food waste into the top of one end and the handle is rotated at regular intervals, so that it travels through the machine, composting in stages at high temperatures (up to 70C!) over a couple of weeks, then automatically emerges from the outlet at the other end into a waiting bucket.

It then gets popped into a compost bin where it ‘matures’ for a couple of months before it is ready to be used in the garden as an invaluable and nutritious food source for plants, providing the nutrients and structure they need to survive and thrive.  In January 2010 we started a Community Composting Scheme in which a certain number of local households bring their household waste down to site to place into the Ridan.  The scheme is in its early stages and we aim to expand in the future, including more households and local businesses.  

However, you do not need a Ridan Composter to compost at home.  Please download out free energy awareness pack for hints, tips and advice.  

Click to download the Ridan Operating Instructions