Waste Digesters

You can use a digester to dispose of kitchen waste that cannot be composted or fed to a wormery. Digesters work by providing an ideal environment for rapid decomposition of organic matter. The best known digester is the Green Cone. It creates an environment rich in micro-organisms and bacteria that decompose meat, bones, fish, dairy products and vegetable matter. The design ensures a free flow of air over the waste, maintains warmth and allows free drainage of liquids that stops the waste becoming waterlogged and 'anaerobic' (air -less). In general the waste in a Green Cone doesn't smell because the system contains free flowing air. The rotting process only starts to smell when decompostion takes place in the absence of air. If you follow the instructions provided, and add an activation powder in colder spells, your digester will deal with food waste from a four or five person family without problems.

Don't put garden waste in a Green Cone, it will clog it up and is much better suited to composting anyway.

Green Cones need to be setup correctly before you start using them. All the action takes place in a mesh basket that is placed in a hole in the ground. The cone part is double walled and acts as an air pump that circulates air over the waste material, and heats up in sunlight. A well fitting lid keeps any flies out, and mainatins the system. Activator powder made of beneficial bacteria can be added in cold spells to keep the decompostion process going over the winter.

If you have really heavy soil, or shallow rocky soil that is very difficult to dig, the Green Cone might be difficult to install. The hole it sits in needs to be 45cm deep by 60cm diameter -and the mesh basket must be fitted flush to the surface of the surrounding ground.

Green cones come with a kitchen caddy to make life easier! The caddy is a sealed box with a carbon filter that stops smells that you can keep in your kitchen. Just put scraps in the box and empty it into your cone every few days.

The Green Cone's basket will fill up eventually - in a few years time. Anything that is left will be nutrient rich and can be put on a compost heap or dug into the garden. Most of the stuff thrown into the cone will have been decomposed into carbon dioxide and water long before that though!

See the Green Cone website for full instructions and more details of this amazing digester, or visit the Mission (im)POSSIBLE website for more details, and some great offers on home composting