Compost bin without food scraps (we have bears and don't want to encourage them)

[momee]

Is it possible to do compost bins but not add kitchen scraps?  We have a new construction site and I don't have any green materials.  I was thinking of hitting the neighbors up for their grass trimmings and doing a bin...but will it work without veggie and fruit leftovers?

[regentrude]

sure it will work - after all, stuff composts in the woods naturally without anybody going to add fruit and veggie leftovers.

Even leaves, without "green" stuff, decompose eventually; it just takes longer.

[Carol in Cal.]

What you need mostly is a mix of green and brown in a moist but not wet environment, that you toss (mix) from time to time.

 

If you can't use kitchen scraps, you might consider burying them.  Then they will decompose underground.  That's slower but it does work.

[Vida Winter]

Yes, it still works. I have a compost that is entirely straw and chicken droppings. I stopped putting in things that might be tasty to bears a while ago. We also had a problem with wild turkey and other animals getting into it.  What are you planning on composting?

[Carrie12345]

For whatever it's worth,my bears have never touched my compost bin or open pile,both with kitchen and garden scraps.

They prefer my garbage cans with the meat and dairy scent! 😣

[Tanaqui]

What do you normally do with your kitchen scraps to keep bears out?

[MEmama]

We have one open bin made from pallets for yard waste, and one closed bin for food scraps. Most of what goes in the open bin is brown (fall leaves in huge quantities), but I add in green stuff whenever I have it. It takes longer to decompose, but works fine. Adding in a shovelful of soil now and again helps introduce bacterias, and if your kids like to collect worms, that's a useful place to put them. :)

[Renthead Mommy]

Look into bokashi.  It is a Japanese form of composting, but bokashi means fermentation or ferment.  On Okinawa, they have such a heavy produce diet, but so little land in the cities, and what land they have is often used up with gardens.  

 

You sprinkle the EM (effective microoganisms) about every 1-2 inches in your bucket that seals.  Once I fill a bucket it sits for a week or two and ferments.  Then I bury it in my compost bin.  Worms love it and it speeds up the composting process. But becuase everything is pickled (so melon rinds still look like melon rinds, they just have a pickled smell and look to them, but they are not rotted and moldy in your bucket) animals don't bother it like food scraps.  In the winter, when I didn't want to walk to the compost bin, I would just dump the bucket into a large garbage bag and it sat outside my back door, right in the yard.  Nothing, not mice, squires or cats bothered it.  (Sorry no bears in Long Island to test.)

 

But look it up.  It will really speed up your composting process and then you can still use your food scraps as well.