Recycling ideas, materials and junk

Sometimes priorities take a while to settle in. And sometimes they shift around and find their own seasons.

At present, we're seeking to live more responsibly on the planet. We're seeking to steward well our financial resources through careful budgeting, we're trying to cut down on our utilities and car usage, we're eating pretty healthy, and we're doing more subsistence-style gardening.

A few things collided together last weekend to form the basis of another way of reducing our footprint. One was a whole lot of excess recycled timber sitting in the shed that I was recently given (most of it Aussie hardwood, with some nice screws in it), and then there was the excess of lawn clippings and vege scraps, and the huge amount of paper waste that comes through our mailbox.

The trend towards gardening has been pushing me to consider buying a compost bin. But a decent rotating bin isn't cheap.

Finally, the cogs turned over in my head, and I gave myself an afternoon project. The idea of a rotating bin wasn't original; it just needed a little tweaking so it could use up some odds-and-ends.

The bin was easy to construct, and I lined it with some excess flywire we had lying around - I'm all too mindful that most compost ends up becoming loaded down with moisture and not enough air, and this leads to anaerobic decomposition, which is not what you really want. So I've made this one with plenty of aeration.

So now we have a rotating compost bin, I have less junk in the shed, we have a place (besides landfill) to get rid of all our paper and clipping and fruit scraps - and we have compost for the garden.

Everyone wins.

(Many thanks to Scott from Shellharbour for some inspiration - a top bloke with some great ideas!)