The Urbin compost project started years ago.
My compost bin was surrounded by a minefield of rat traps from the $4 snap traps through the crazy lassoing with a rubberband trap to the latest high tech co2 canister powered design genius but none of them were bothering the family of rats living happily in my compost. I contacted the various manufacturers and was told that traps set next to compost piles were mostly unsuccessful because rats love your kitchen scraps more than any bait invented. Plus there's the lovely soft warmth of a functioning compost pile that makes a great nest.
For a while I tried to find a way of incorporating a trap into the wall of my compost but it became apparent that a real solution needed to be built from the ground up. The result is the Urbin. Most compost bins for sale are made of plastic and I originally considered developing a rotational moulded design but I decided against that and worked to make the Urbin entirely plastic free. The units are made from upcycled washing machine drums and plywood making them durable and sturdy.
My compost bin was surrounded by a minefield of rat traps from the $4 snap traps through the crazy lassoing with a rubberband trap to the latest high tech co2 canister powered design genius but none of them were bothering the family of rats living happily in my compost. I contacted the various manufacturers and was told that traps set next to compost piles were mostly unsuccessful because rats love your kitchen scraps more than any bait invented. Plus there's the lovely soft warmth of a functioning compost pile that makes a great nest.
For a while I tried to find a way of incorporating a trap into the wall of my compost but it became apparent that a real solution needed to be built from the ground up. The result is the Urbin. Most compost bins for sale are made of plastic and I originally considered developing a rotational moulded design but I decided against that and worked to make the Urbin entirely plastic free. The units are made from upcycled washing machine drums and plywood making them durable and sturdy.
SO here's how the system works....
You bring your Urbin home and either set it up nice and close to your kitchen so that it's an easy trip to empty your scraps and then later to harvest and tend to your garden or else my preference which is down the bottom of the garden so I do a bit of weeding each time I empty my kitchen scraps.
Every day you empty your scraps into the drum and give it a couple of spins. If the mix looks too wet add some dry carbon based material (bark chips are fantastic) then at the end of the week you open the hatch, spin the drum and empty it into the raised garden bed underneath. Put the lid back on the raised beds and start again. The sealed raised beds means no flies and the weeks worth of rotation makes for a lovely mix of compost materials.
Meanwhile in the side of the drum a rat sized entrance invites night time visitors who after a session of happy foraging find a more convenient exit which unhappily for them is set with a standard old fashioned pressure pad rat trap. The next day when you take out your scraps you reset the trap by dropping the rat into the raised bed and then emptying the drumful of compost on top of it. The powerful action of the hungry micro organisms in the lower bed means that there is no smell and by the time you go to empty the drum into the bed below a week later there will be nothing left but rich humus. You will find that once you have caught a few rats the catch rate will drop. As the unit is primed all the time a breeding population never builds up and your local bird life and skinks will thrive. Once the lower bed is full to the top you can leave it to settle or, if you are impatient like me sprinkle the top with some mature compost or soil and plant straight away. The level will sink over the next few months as the compost continues to break down but it will still make a perfectly good growing medium with all the benifits of nutrient rich humus. The top section now gets moved over to another raised bed and the process starts over. Soon you will have a series of garden beds made entirely through repurposing your kitchen waste. What's not to like!
You bring your Urbin home and either set it up nice and close to your kitchen so that it's an easy trip to empty your scraps and then later to harvest and tend to your garden or else my preference which is down the bottom of the garden so I do a bit of weeding each time I empty my kitchen scraps.
Every day you empty your scraps into the drum and give it a couple of spins. If the mix looks too wet add some dry carbon based material (bark chips are fantastic) then at the end of the week you open the hatch, spin the drum and empty it into the raised garden bed underneath. Put the lid back on the raised beds and start again. The sealed raised beds means no flies and the weeks worth of rotation makes for a lovely mix of compost materials.
Meanwhile in the side of the drum a rat sized entrance invites night time visitors who after a session of happy foraging find a more convenient exit which unhappily for them is set with a standard old fashioned pressure pad rat trap. The next day when you take out your scraps you reset the trap by dropping the rat into the raised bed and then emptying the drumful of compost on top of it. The powerful action of the hungry micro organisms in the lower bed means that there is no smell and by the time you go to empty the drum into the bed below a week later there will be nothing left but rich humus. You will find that once you have caught a few rats the catch rate will drop. As the unit is primed all the time a breeding population never builds up and your local bird life and skinks will thrive. Once the lower bed is full to the top you can leave it to settle or, if you are impatient like me sprinkle the top with some mature compost or soil and plant straight away. The level will sink over the next few months as the compost continues to break down but it will still make a perfectly good growing medium with all the benifits of nutrient rich humus. The top section now gets moved over to another raised bed and the process starts over. Soon you will have a series of garden beds made entirely through repurposing your kitchen waste. What's not to like!
A constructed Urbin costs $480 plus shipping from Auckland or you can find your own washing machine drum and buy a flatpack which includes all the hardware you need for $350 plus shipping.
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