Pre-Composting Kitchen and Garden Wastes

As residents of Marikina, our household practices waste segregation. Twice weekly, Waste Management Office (WMO) personnel collect garbage; non-biodegradables on Tuesdays and  biodegradables every Saturdays.

I decided on composting to lessen if not eliminate the collection of biodegradable waste as far as our household is concerned. The composted materials would become food for African Nightcrawlers, my pet worms.

Pot Composting

I got a foot tall earthen pot with cover.  Kitchen waste and food scraps are collected daily in the pot, sprayed with biolant bm solution, and covered with chopped, dried tree leaves. A large stone is placed on top of the cover to prevent cats foraging for food scraps.  Garden wastes are collected daily in a rice sack and chopped weekly using a grass cutter. The decomposing materials do not smell but maggots still infest the pot compost.

It takes almost two weeks to fill up the pot.  Once filled up, I just use another pot for collecting wastes.  The first pot is left to rot for about two weeks.  After 14 days, the pre-composted biodegradable waste  is ready to be fed to my pet earthworms.  By this time, the second pot is already full.

I recently asked a neighbor to just give me their dried tree leaves instead of having it collected by the WMO people.  Our garden is too small to provide enough dried tree leaves for our kitchen wastes.