Category Archives: composters
Illustrating Waste Management Techniques & Options
I’m working on completing a full illustration of Portland’s waste treatment plant and how it works for a series of posters I’m making about the past, present and the very hopeful future for waste management. If you’re interested in non-cartesian representations of physical processes drop me a line, I need all the advice I can [...]
DEQ permits Dirthugger
Dirthugger, a new Oregon composting company, just got their permit from the DEQ!. Congratulations!
New Monitoring System: easier, wireless, more reliable
Now we’re getting somewhere! My previous networked temperature monitoring systems were a little buggy. My first temperature monitor had its cable chewed up by a rodent and needed to be reset frequently. My second prototype failed on restart, making it problematic in low-power situations (a known issue for the Arduino’s Ethernet Shield), and eventually the [...]
Compost Pile, Modified
We eliminated the inner bin our our compost about eight weeks ago. The air gap between the thick wire and mesh bin channeled too much heat out. Now we have just a 4′ diameter mesh pile full of wood chips, with a 24″ column of vegetable compost in the middle, and temperatures pushing 60ºC in [...]
New Temperature Monitor
I’ve re-made the compost temp sensors to conform to our original design of stabbing probes. I was having difficulty choosing a non-conductive housing for the probes that could give accurate measurements along its length, until I remembered that my favorite plastic, polyethylene, is mostly transparent to infrared. Duh, that’s why I make solar balloons out [...]
New Composter Completed
Behold the new rat proof aerobic composter!
Monitoring Compost, pt.1 (what we’ve got)
There is no substitute for the complexity of human senses. Quantitative data is cannot stand in for direct experience with compost. But it does provide a means of directly comparing processes and feedstock mixes, as well as real-time feedback for control. Lacking grad students or interns we have only robots to exploit (for now…). To [...]
the internet of decomposers
I’ve just installed an Arduino-based temperature logger at five points in our compost pile, proving the obvious: it’s hotter on the sunny side and hottest in the middle. Details tomorrow, but check out these sweet dashboard widgets!
Composting Dog Manure
Some others who browse USDA documents and dream like we do! GreenDog Cleaning Company, a dog and cat waste composter that began operating publicly back in January. We’re excited to make contact- If the statistics in this Oregonian article are right, there’s room for 200-500 such businesses in Oregon’s 100 ton category. Fascinatingly, Green Dog [...]