DIY Compost Bin

My roommate Drew decided to build a compost bin in our backyard for his final project for his agroecology lab. I volunteered to help build it and take pictures to document his project. I thought it would be fun to share our DIY compost bin!

We built this whole project for free by getting pallets from a shop down the street and finding nails and wire in our garage. You could build a similar bin for very little money too! All of the words and images below are from Drew's final project presentation.

Building a Backyard Compost Bin

SELECT A SPOT

Choose a place for your compost bin that is out of the way yet accessible, is relatively level and has good drainage, and gets some sunlight.

 

PREPARE AREA

 

Clear any debris and, if possible, turn top six inches of soil. This will help give worms and other organisms better access to your compost pile.

 

GATHER MATERIALS

For the simplest of bins, you will only need four pallets and some heavy wire. To create mine I also used a hammer and some small nails. If you want to put a door on the front of yours, hinges, a latch and a drill would likely be handy.

PLACE BACK & SIDE PALLETS

I chose to place the shorter sides of the pallets on the ground to create a taller bin that occupied less space. Put the rear pallet in place and butt the two side pallets against it.

ATTACH PALLETS

You can do this several ways, but I found the simplest and most effective method was lashing the pallets together with heavy wire at the top and bottom of each corner. I found nails and screws to be more difficult to use because of the odd angles of the joints and the likelihood of hitting the nails that were already in the pallets.

CONSTRUCT FRONT

 

You can choose to leave the front open, construct a door or a half-door, or do as I did and build a partial wall. Whatever your choice, just be sure it allows you some way to access your compost pile, as you will need to turn it regularly. 

 

I pulled a number of boards off the fourth pallet and used them to create the front of my bin. I fastened them with small nails, spacing them approximately an inch apart and running from the ground to about halfway up the bin.

START COMPOSTING!

Your compost should be a mixture of carbon-rich “brown” material (dead leaves, wood chips, straw, etc.) and nitrogen-rich “green” material (fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings, manure, etc). The ideal C:N ratio for your compost pile is 30:1.

A NOTE ABOUT PALLETS

Pallets are a great material for building compost bins because they are a good size (a pile should be at least 3’ by 3’ by 3’ to heat sufficiently), they are easy to find, and they can often be had for little or no cost. I found mine by asking a local business if they were getting rid of any. They were happy to get rid of a few and didn't charge me for them. I was able to build my bin in just a couple hours for no cost at all.

HAPPY COMPOSTING!