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May 15, 2007 5:49 PM

The Daily Dump [video] is an open source design for a terracotta home composting unit that aims to provide manifold benefits - for potters, for homemakers, and also for civil society, particularly in a country where waste removal isn't as regular or reliable a service. How to's here.
posted by infini (18 comments total)

I just throw fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps in the woods behind my house. They magically disappear quickly.
posted by stbalbach at 5:58 PM on May 15, 2007

Pepsi Brown!

I'm kidding - this is cool. Not everyone is lucky enough to have the space for big, ugly bins made from landscape timbers like we have. These could go just about anywhere.
posted by found dog one eye at 6:39 PM on May 15, 2007

I'm a huge proponent of composting, but I'm not certain that this rather complicated looking page is going to inspire confidence in novice composters. I think it's smart that they have a service which helps out noobs, but for small-scale composting I think worm bins are easier for the average non-composter to deal with. The terra-cotta bins are nice looking, though.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:51 PM on May 15, 2007

That video is awesome but:

a) a bucket of scraps in the kitchen is just asking for ants.
b) with his bare hands?
posted by DU at 6:54 PM on May 15, 2007

Full disclosure: I thought this Daily Dump post was going to be about terra cotta composting toilets. I had to read the post multiple times to realize that wasn't the case (I blame the grey- and black water recycling class I had last Thursday).
posted by oneirodynia at 6:54 PM on May 15, 2007

My master gardener friend hates garbage disposals because they encourage people to overload the sewage system, and not compost.
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:58 PM on May 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oneirodynia, I thought for a second when I was reading the post that it was about recycling excrement into home building materials. While that might be very green, I probably wouldn't sign up for it. Even if it was polished...
posted by BrotherCaine at 7:00 PM on May 15, 2007

DU: I think the kitchen scraps bit is for the promo video, plus it would probably be emptied daily. Ants, bugs, flies etc are a problem in India regardless. As for bare hands, yah, latex gloves and anti bacterial paranoia hasn't quite made it to the third world yet. Don't forget we don't use toilet paper either. [worry not, you won't catch a thing from me, i'm writing from a different continent right now ;p]

As for worm bins and other tools for backyards and gardens, composting itself is not common or even known/understood in urban india for the most part. Garbage piles up in the cities and cows make a mess, this is one attempt by a leading designer to attempt to find a solution to a problem that probably doesn't exist in more developed nations.
posted by infini at 7:27 PM on May 15, 2007

My master gardener friend hates garbage disposals because they encourage people to overload the sewage system, and not compost.

In my neck of the woods, it's one and the same. That which goes down the sink ends up in a very high-tech digestor plant, where it is all effectively composted; it's then pumped up onto the highlands to water golf courses and ranch fields.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:04 PM on May 15, 2007

PDF of a pamphlet explaining how to make your own composting toilets etc.
posted by serazin at 8:58 PM on May 15, 2007

Wait: what am I missing here? What's wrong with touching kitchen scraps with his bare hands? I mean, aren't kitchen scraps the same stuff that goes, you know, into his bare mouth? What's wrong with bare hands?
posted by terceiro at 9:29 PM on May 15, 2007

Well, y'know, it might be icky or something.

North Americans have an odd attitude about waste.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:31 PM on May 15, 2007

North Americans have an odd attitude about waste.

Hey, I'm a North American, and I'm wondering the same thing! What's wrong with using his hands? I'd do the same thing.

But then I'm from the backward midwest. Do you even know how long it took for my home town to get a Starbucks? Ohmigawd.
posted by katillathehun at 10:03 PM on May 15, 2007

I have a large compost bin in my small London garden. It rocks and has reduced the amount I throw out by about 30%. Next year, we plan to start crapping in it.
posted by rhymer at 2:26 AM on May 16, 2007

I'm pretty sure these would only work for vegetarians. Putting the remains of meat in one of those things would only attract vermin, no matter what country you live in.
posted by Dave Faris at 2:53 AM on May 16, 2007

Luckily, we're vegetarians, DF.

Seriously, infini, THANKS FOR THIS. I'm in a flat, and I've been looking for a way to compost.
posted by chuckdarwin at 4:13 AM on May 16, 2007

BrotherCaine: I actually have worked with building materials containing excrement (adobe bricks, earth plaster, and cob), but it sure as heck wasn't human excrement.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:24 AM on May 16, 2007

...in a country where waste removal isn't as regular or reliable a service.

England?
posted by atrazine at 12:22 PM on May 16, 2007