School Composting: Charging the Piles

Managing Your Bins

Step 3. Charging the Pile

The best charge comes from a pile of horse manure The potential for your compost piles to get up to temperature requires achieving a minimum volume of one yard of material within about a month’s time. In order to achieve the required temperatures we suggest schools start a fresh pile by adding a half-yard of bedded horse manure. The pile will then build up from there, but this initial charge of high energy material will set the heating process into action very quickly.