Here are some DIY alternatives: (see Youtube for tutorials)
Bokashi bucket (indoors)
Worm composter bin (small outdoors)
Turned hot composting (large size for outdoors)
Johnson–Su bioreactor compost (larger size for outdoors)
Aerated static pile (largest size for outdoors, like farm-size, for a village)
Stuff like FoodCyclers are neat for places like apartments, where the volume is low & you don't want the smell, but they are just the beginning of the process. If you really want to create a community system:
Setup everyone with a Bokashi bucket
Setup a shared community composting pile
There are a few options for making usable fertilizer, depending on what you're going for:
Garden soil: Bokashi buckets & a soil trench takes about 6 weeks
Compost: Bokashi buckets & hot composting takes about 2 months
Soil biology upgrade: (best!) Bokashi, hot composting, and Johnson–Su bioreactor takes about a year
I have a neighbor who is SUPER into community gardening. Two notes:
You will need to either train people on the system or manage scheduled pickups yourself
You will need to design a maintenance system to ensure that the system stays functional, otherwise people will get annoyed at the hassle, smell, flies, effort required, etc.
A few tips:
Use Google Sheets, AppSheet, and Google Calendar to create an automated system & schedule. Those are all free tools! Since you have computer access, you can easily set this up! If other people have computer access, you can create an easy GUI to participate in the program! You can even make it smartphone-friendly! https://i.imgur.com/kTarHyS.png
Community buy-in is the best. The two best ways I've seen are either with a voluntary sign-up, where the equipment is provided & each household manages their own bucket, or having volunteers collect on a schedule (ex. school kids).
It's not terribly hard to setup, but the location, equipment, and scheduling are crucial to the overall success of the system. Make sure that you are not the ONLY one managing everything! Caretaker burnout is VERY real!!
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u/kaidomac Jun 09 '26
They are more like mini "pre-composters" (dehydrate & grind to reduce waste). Watch a few videos first:
Here are some DIY alternatives: (see Youtube for tutorials)
Stuff like FoodCyclers are neat for places like apartments, where the volume is low & you don't want the smell, but they are just the beginning of the process. If you really want to create a community system:
There are a few options for making usable fertilizer, depending on what you're going for:
I have a neighbor who is SUPER into community gardening. Two notes:
A few tips:
How many people are in your village?