digesters?

[taff]

my m-i-l has had a leaflet through from the Housing Association, with an advert on the back for discounted composters/digesters.
Now I have made a compost bin in her garden but according to the blurb on the back, the 'digester' will take all types of waste you can't put in compost, like cooked meat/bones/etc and you can't put in normal garden waste and you don't get any end result from it. As far as I can tell, it's just a plastic bin that's smaller than a normal size compost bin.

Has anyone else any idea what this thing is?

[elizajay]

See Green Cone -the home of food waste digesters

It is a composter you bury in the ground and you can only put kitchen waste in it. It is not for garden composting.

[taff]

I've looked at the site and it just tells you it's a patented method but not what the method actually is.
Has anyone got one/does anyone use one? In other words, does it work?

[FionaH]

I have a green joanna composter by the same people which claimed the same thing .The Green Johanna Composter It was my first composter and I put everything in apart from bones, I was worried about rats! It produced useable compost in 6 months. For the life of me I can't see that it is any different from a normal dalek excep it has a plastic bottom. This makes it harder to empty as you cant just lift it off.

Having said that it does work, I just dont know how.

I met someone with the digester and they swear by it, you dont get compost to use with it though.

[taff]

Thanks Fiona.
Don't suppose you know if it works with cat poo do you?

[Capsid]

It's a hot composter I believe. The high heat gives more rapid and complete digestion. I'm not sure how this produces more heat than a normal dalek though. Maybe it is better insulated and you have to aerate it frequently.

[ixi1456]

it could work by the heat generated by the waste but if it has a plastic bottom how do the worms get in if you have to put them in manualy then it would become a wormery..cant see it being usefull if its burried in the ground if your not in the younger years of life it could just sit there and stare back at you if you could not bend and lift weights

[Capsid]

The worms don't get in, the composting is done by bacteria.

[Two_Sheds]

I had a Green Cone in Brighton. It took meat, fish etc that normal composters don't, so was good for that.

Downsides:
1) you have to bury half of it in the ground
2) you don't really get compost as such...most of the waste just turns liquid and drains away into the soil

[taff]

I don't mind about it not producing compost or an end result, there are enough compost bins for that already, I was just ever so slightly, ok, very, sceptical that it would work.

Well, might as well give it a go then eh
cheers Two Sheds