Any one got a greencone?

[sharonr]

I`ve been thinking about getting a greencone.
Our local council are selling them for £30 including delivery and instalation.
I have 2 compost bins allready but apparently you can put kitchen scraps, cooked meat, chicken bones and even dog poo into it.
Has anyone got one? And if you have are they any good?

[firstimer1]

hey never herd of them but would be interested just for the dog poo

[yorkshire sam]

what is a greencone? Never heard of one!

[Two_Sheds]

I had one. You have to dig a big hole in the ground to put it in. You can put in fish, bones etc. I'm not sure about dog poo though ... Green Cone

It worked okay, the waste just dissolves into the ground, you don't get usable compost as such.

[dandy]

I'm getting a Green Cone (for free!!) as part of of our councils trials for these types of composters/digesters (after volunteering at a recycling roadshow). Once it is installed and up and running I can give the vine updates if anyone is interested.

[Sue]

isn't there a special system for dog poo?. Similar thing i think but you have to use some sort of additive.
Will report back on my cat poo bin which I've set up with worms. Seems to be working well and after a year is looking like compost, will give it another year before using it (on the flower bed!)
Sue

[dandy]

Update on green cone installation

Further to my trial of the green cone - it has taken me nearly a week to install (due to working etc). The hole has to be 36" wide/long and 28" deep as I have a layer of thick clay about 20 or so inches down. The backfill is mixed in with small stones, bits of broken pots and brick so that drainage is adequate. As I am using stone etc from the garden a lot of the time has been spent breaking up the stone. Obviously if you got gravel or something similar then it would be quicker.

All in all so far it has been a lot of work (and a LOT of soil to shift ) so I'm hoping it will be worth it.

[HeyWayne]

We're supposed to be getting a kitchen caddie from our council soon. Weekly food scrap collections - cooked/uncooked food, bones and all. Goes to a local anearobic energy facility.

"Soon" was a few months ago now though...

[dandy]

Just put our first scrapings into the green cone today and included a bit of activator to get everything cooking. Hopefully I won't need to use too much of this as it looks like it will work out very expensive to buy (approx 180gms for just over £7!). It seems to me like it may be the same or very similar to bokashi bran i.e bacteria in a cereal base - very fine grained brownish material. Can anyone who has a bokashi system tell me if this sounds like the stuff that you have?

[Alison]

Sounds very similar to bokashi bran. Haven't got a green cone and didn't realise that you had to add anything to it.

[dandy]

It comes with a small sachet of activator that is designed to keep it going when the weather gets colder and the bacteria slow down a bit. I don't think you need it all the time like bokashi bran. I just think that it would work out to be quite expensive using the GreenCone brand of activator and I wondered if Bokashi bran would do the job but be a bit cheaper. I put a good dollop in yesterday just to kickstart the process.

[SlugLobber]

If anyone is in Surrey, then Mole Valley have arranged for them to be sold for TEN QUID!!!! Just ordered mine. I hardly produce any food waste, but for a tenner, it had to be worth it! Even with £8 postage, it was worthwhile, but I added some extra additive to the order, to be sure!

Would be interested in seeing if the bran works as well, though!

[NOG]

You need to remember that they don't work in clay, or if the water table is less that 28" under the surface.

They are just a way of reducing the amunt of stuff they goes in your bin.

You can put in cooked food scraps that would normall go in the bin.

There are reports that in heavy soil they need to be moved every 2 years to let the ground recover.

Also they need to be in full Sun and away from any crops that you may eat.

It may be better to cook less and not have any scraps.....if you don't clear plate you cant get up from the table.

My brother has been stuck at the table since 1979 when we last had kippers.

[dandy]

Why do they need to be away from any crops you may eat? and how far? Is this because of a danger of contamination?

Our soil is quite clayey but I put a lot of broken up stone/bricks in the mix when refilling the hole. As I said in my first post on this thread this is a trial for the local authority. Most people in our area will have similar soil to mine so it should give a good indication of any problems that it may cause. At the moment it is just filling up gradually although it is getting hotter. This is more noticeable when it hasn't been opened for a day or so.

What mainly goes in is the leftovers from the buffets at the office building where I clean in the evening. The amount of stuff that is wasted there is frankly immoral!! I put a few veg peelings and tbags etc in to balance out the meat scraps as it is supposed to be a 50/50 split (I think).

[NOG]

Yep its the bacteria and pathagens in the food that stay live in the ground.