School Composting: Source Quality Materials

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Managing Your Bins

Step 1. Source quality materials 

You'll need a source for carbon material, such as straw, hay, or leaves
Food scraps must be blended with other materials, often called “feedstocks,” in order for them to compost properly. Finding a source for those materials is probably going to be the very first step in getting the compost process ready. You may already have some ideas about where your feedstock materials will come from, or it may take some networking to source materials that will work well.

In general you are looking for two categories of feedstocks:

  1. Carbon materials, such as leaves, sawdust, saw chip, wood shavings, straw, hay, or bark, and
  2. Bedded manures such as horse, calf, sheep, goat, chicken, or lama. The manure source should be relatively dry (you should be able to squeeze a handful without having dripping) and contain a large amount of visibly distinguishable bedding material.

You will need a dry place to store these feedsticks near the compost bins that is accessible by delivery vehicles. Fresh manures work best, so manures will need to be sourced four times a year at a minimum. Carbon materials will not break down as quickly as manures, so they can be sourced in larger quantities if there is adequate storage. Sourcing materials must be on-going to avoid periods where there is nothing to blend with the food scraps. Build relationships with your feedstock providers to ensure you can continue to work with them in the future.

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