- Composting is a decomposition process that occurs when bacteria break down biodegradable waste. Since the main ingredient necessary for composting is organic waste -- material you would normally throw away in the trash -- composting costs typically vary based on the equipment and supplies you use during the composting process. Help keep your composting operation affordable by setting a reasonable composting equipment budget and sticking with it. Regardless of your budget, always remember: purchasing expensive composting equipment doesn't mean that you'll be able to produce better quality finished compost.
- As long as you have access to a garden rake or manure fork, you can produce compost without spending a single dime. Create a compost pile by gathering your organic scraps into a 3-cubic-foot heap on a patch of well-draining bare soil in your backyard. Speed up the decomposition process by using equal amounts of nitrogen-heavy waste (green, wet scraps, like grass clippings, cow, horse or rabbit manure, and vegetable or fruit peelings) and carbon-heavy waste (dry, brown scraps, like dead leaves, newspaper, straw and sawdust). Keep the waste slightly damp (ideally about as wet as a wrung-out sponge), and stir the pile once every one or two weeks with a garden rake or manure fork to create nutrient-heavy humus within approximately six months.
- If you'd rather not have a potentially unsightly compost heap in your backyard, you can still compost affordably by building your own compost bin. Potential inexpensive materials include wooden pallets, scrap lumber, old bricks, field stone and rolls of wire. Regardless of what material you choose, use it to build a simple three-sided compost bin, which leaves one side open to give easy access to the compost waste when aerating or harvesting it. In general, most compost bins measure approximately 3-feet-by-3-feet-by-3-feet, but you can also construct multiple bins if you anticipate needing to dispose of more waste.
If you don't have a lot of organic waste, consider putting it in an unused plastic trashcan, suggests Nancy Ondra, author of "Soil and Composting." Remove the trashcan bottom and submerge the lower half of the container in the ground for a small stationary compost bin. Or convert the trashcan into a compost tumbler: Punch aeration holes into the trashcan sides with a hammer and nail, then fill it with slightly damp biodegradable waste. Seal the trashcan and roll it across the ground once weekly to produce finished compost within several months. - Commercial compost activators and starters cost a bundle and they typically don't add anything to your compost waste that you can't provide just as easily without spending any money. These composting additives jump start the microbial activity in your compost by increasing the amount of nitrogen, bacteria and enzymes in the waste. But adding a bit of plain topsoil or finished compost to your compost waste works just as well at boosting microbial activity, says Stu Campbell, author of "Let It Rot!"
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