Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 4 – Dalek

I hate to keep you in suspense on the 4th of my five lazy ways to compost series. So, despite not really having everything together here, here goes.

What has a dalek got to do with composting? Are we all going to exterminate waste by blasting it? Sorry, I don’t have anything as exciting as that for you today, but let me tell you a little story.

A number of years ago my parents were given, by their local government authority who are in charge of trash removal in their part of Scotland, a plastic composter. It was a very simple thing – like an open-bottomed trash can. The shape reminded us all of a dalek. Thus it was christened. I’m guessing that my parents were one of the few locals who actually used this dalek. But I digress…

My 4th lazy way to compost involves digging a shallow hole and covering it with some type of container, which is fixed down, to hold waste for composting. This is how the dalek worked. It was both simple and effective. You just tossed in things like potato peelings and onion skins and over time they either rotted down or were consumed by the resident worms and other such decomposers. The only work you had to do was to dig out the hole when setting up and to take your waste outside and put it in the “dalek”.

Positives of “dalek” composting:

• easy to set up and use
• doesn’t require mixing and turning

Negatives of dalek composting:

• you don’t generate any compost which can be taken off to use in the garden – all of the goodness just dissipates into the surrounding soil

I recently found an interesting variation on “dalek” composting, which I also want to share. It’s just as lazy, but has several advantages. In order to share I need to get out my pencils and paper and draw a diagram. When I do, I will share with you.

What do you think of “dalek composting’?

Related posts:

1. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 3 – Bokashi
2. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 2 – Worms
3. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 1 – Tumbling