Nazahat

10a
Indoor compost project

Design portfolio

Inquiring and analysing

Need- Compost is organic material that can be added to soil to help plants grow. Food scraps and yard
waste together currently make up about 30 percent of what we throw away, but can be used as compost,
which provides many essential nutrients for plant growth and therefore is often used as fertilizer. Not only
that, but keeping these materials out of landfills prevents releasing methane, which is a potent greenhouse
gas. Compost also improves soil structure and texture, which would be helpful in a world of unsustainable
agriculture, which usually ruins these features of soil. Composting reduces the need for chemical
fertilisers, and has a much cheaper cost for soil improvement too, as food scraps cost nothing and also
helps produce humus, which fills the soil with nutrition. Rather than just reducing the amount of total
trash, it plays a much larger role in helping the environment, as it reduces methane emissions from
landfills and lowers your carbon footprint.

Research-
 There are 2 kinds of composting. Bin/pile composting and worm composting.
 All composting requires 3 ingredients: browns (materials such as dead leaves, branches, and
twigs), greens (materials such as grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee
grounds) and water.  
 A good carbon to nitrogen ratio is what will keep the compost healthy. A simple rule is to use one
third green (nitrogen) and two thirds brown (carbon) materials.
 While composting, one should avoid eggs, meat, oils, pesticides and pet waste.
 It should take around 2-5 weeks for indoor composting.
 When composting, the compost pile should be periodically mixed, and built in around 3-4 inches
deep.
 The result of the composting process, a nutrient filled dark humus, can be used for soil
amendment, mulch and potting mix.
 Here are some easy steps to composting:
 Choose a type of backyard composting bin.
 Choose a location. It is best to choose a location that is convenient, flat, well drained and
sunny.
 Keep alternating layers. Start off with course materials such as twigs, then add a layer of
leaves, and then alternate between your green and brown materials. Alternate between
moist and dry layers too.
 Add kitchen waste and yard waste as they accumulate. Be sure to top it off with a layer of
browns, or else the compost will be wet and break down more slowly. 
 Keep adding layers until your bin is full. The contents of the bin will shrink when it
begins to decompose.
 Maintain your compost bin properly. A few proper steps to do so would be to mix in your
fresh layer with lower layers, make sure your materials are as wet as a rung-out sponge
(you can add dry materials or water to achieve this) and to mix or turn the compost once a
week.
 Harvest your compost. At the last stage, your compost will be dark, crumbly and smell
like earth. The finished product is at the top of the compost bin. Remove the finished
product from the bin, while leaving unfinished materials to finish decomposing.
 However, if the decomposition process isn't complete in the compost, its microbes could
take nitrogen from the soil and harm plant growth.

Sources used: 
 “Composting At Home.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 16 Oct. 2018,
https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home.
 “Composting At Home.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 16 Oct. 2018,

https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home.

 “Composting At Home.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 16 Oct. 2018,

https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home.

 “7 Easy Steps to Composting.” 7 Easy Steps to Composting | City of Leduc,

https://www.leduc.ca/composting/7-easy-steps-composting.

Analyze existing products:

DIY compost bin-

https://www.younghouselove.com/younghouselovedotcompost/                                                                     

This website showed a simple step-by-step procedure of creating a compost bin, along with the composting

process. It requires very few materials needed for the bin itself, as it would only need a plastic bin with a

tight fitting lid and a drill. This project is completely basic and doesn’t  require any additional technology or

gadgets in order to do any of the work, and can be easily customizable in several factors, but needs to be at

least about 24 inches high or taller. However, due to a more primitive style, it would be more labour-

intensive and wouldn’t have any special features. Although, this style would be a lot more cost efficient, as

it wouldn’t really cost anything but time and some effort.

DIY compost barrel tumbler-https://www.familyhandyman.com/garden/diy-compost-tumbler/

Unlike the first project, this one is a lot more different, and requires an abundance of materials and tools, as

seen in the original site.Even the smaller barrel tumblers have a large size, so they wouldn’t be efficient for

indoor use, and would take up a lot of space. The system involves spinning the tumbler daily, which,

although may drain strength, is quite effective and most likely less time consuming and won’t require extra

tools for mixing. Creating a barrel tumbler, however, is very expensive, as it may cost a couple hundred

dollars, but still would require time and labour in order to create it, so unless this is for a larger group of

people who compost regularly, project such as this would be a waste of money.

DIY indoor compost bin-https://www.backyardboss.net/how-to-build-indoor-composter/

This project, despite being overly simple, remains very useful and efficient, especially as it is especially

designed for indoor use and cost-effectiveness. This project requires very basic materials, excluding the drill

and disposable charcoal filter. Generally, this project would be quite cheap to make too, as other than those

two materials, most of the others would usually be at someone’s home. This project is remarkably small too,

so it would be good for modern use, as it would occupy less space and therefore not need as many materials

to create huge amounts of compost at once. This also uses the basic composting system and doesn’t have

any special gimmicks to do the work for you, however. As the majority of the materials needed would be

around, or inexpensive, this project saves a lot of money whilst also doing its job properly. 

Homemade worm compost bin- https://www.worm-composting-help.com/homemade-worm-compost-

bin.html

Not taking account of the tools required to build and assemble this project, there aren’t too many materials

needed, or any that would be scarce or hard to find. As the only part of the size that matters would be that all

3 bins were of equal size, one could easily create this bin in a larger or smaller size depending on the plastic

bins that they’d buy. This bin would work exceptionally for a worm compost bin, considering that it took
the factors into account for letting the worms breathe and not allowing something like a flood from

happening inside it. Considering that one would have the right set of tools in order to build something, the

price could also be relatively inexpensive depending on the size or quality of the materials they buy. 

Composter (drum style) - https://www.instructables.com/id/Composter-Drum-Style/

This project includes a range of materials that, although they may be easy to find, need many specifics in

size and shape. It doesn’t really require too many specific tools, but may need a few due to making sure the

materials would be shaped to fit and work properly. The composter is quite large, which would make it

suitable for backyards and outdoor places, rather than an indoor machine or bin. This composter rotates and

despite its look, emphasises more on functionality rather than aesthetics. It costs very less for the materials

too, and shouldn’t take too much time to build. Personally, I would want to go with a project like this with

only alterations to make it suitable for indoor use.

Citations (MLA): 

 Petersik, John. “HOW TO MAKE A DIY COMPOST BIN.” Young House Love, 21 Mar.

2014, https://www.younghouselove.com/younghouselovedotcompost/.

 “DIY Compost Barrel Tumbler.” The Family Handyman,

https://www.familyhandyman.com/garden/diy-compost-tumbler/.

 Osmond, Candace, and Nocole. “DIY Indoor Compost Bin - How To Build Your Own In 4

Easy Steps.” Backyard Boss, https://www.backyardboss.net/how-to-build-indoor-

composter/.

 “Homemade Worm Compost Bin.” Worm, https://www.worm-composting-

help.com/homemade-worm-compost-bin.html.
  Instructables. “Composter (Drum Style).” Instructables, Instructables, 11 Nov. 2017,

https://www.instructables.com/id/Composter-Drum-Style/.

Design brief-

In order to create a successful project, i would have to consider certain points and make sure my

design plan includes some factors that would help make it useful and captivate the audience. As

this is for indoor use, and would most likely have bangladeshi people as the target audience, I

would have to make sure that my project is not too expensive, small, and efficient, so that they

wouldn’t have to do a lot of the dirty work. Judging from the projects that I have seen, it would be

nice to have a self-mixing bin, or a spinning tumbler, however, i would still have to keep in account

that the project can’t be too big or expensive. As part of the goal of composting is to help the

environment, I would want to create a product out of materials such as wood, so that they’d remain

sturdy but wont have the harmful effects of plastic. From what the shape and size would be as an

indoor compost project, I'd like it to have the bin-like shape and stature, but something gimmicky

in order to part of the composting work. It would be nice to have some colours or decor in order to

gain more customers, as looks would always play a large role in whether someone would be

interested in something or not. In order for that, my project should be smooth instead of scrappy,

and perhaps go with either a rustic look or have colours. With all of this, however, from the

projects i’ve analysed, there are some do-nots for my design. I’d say I should avoid making the bin

too big, try not to make it overly complicated and make sure it has something to make sure it seems

intriguing and makes the customer not scared to compost or confused.

Designing ideas

Design specification-

Aesthetics/colour So far, I'm planning on just the wooden box look. I might add some
colours like green, purple, blue or whit for some decorations or
patterns.

Cost Depends on the materials. Can’t be too expensive since wood is

majority of it, along with some other tools.

Customer/preferred Bangladeshi people who live in apartments and need indoor

audience composters in order to compost, since that is the goal of this project.

Size Around the size of waste bins.

Function/use To compost efficiently and properly within a smaller size and be

suitable for indoor use.

Special features of Being an indoor composter, there will be a wheel (or pedal-like)
product object inside to spin the compost and provide aeration, in order to
prevent any bad scents and make mixing the compost pile easier.

Materials needed Wood, some tools and (for crank).

Overall design A simple compost bin (with something to cover the top but still
provide some aeration. Wheel-like object with pedals to move
compost around that could be spun from out of the box (by crank, for
control).

Developing ideas-
I took inspiration from all of the simple composters and planned on making just a plain DIY
project, however, I thought it would be a bit boring and plain, so I started to think of a gimmick or
special feature that I would find cool. Seeing all of the outdoor spinning composters, I decided
that I wanted to make a composter that had a feature to easily mix around the compost. I
wanted to make it simple, in the way that in the end, you would have to spin it by yourself (but
like in the barrel tumbler, in which there were handles to spin it. As I wanted the shape to still be
like a regular dustbin, I thought that if I had some mixer on the inside, which, preferably was
manually controlled, then it would still be good for indoor use and be more efficient, rather than
having to gather tools or sticks all the time to mix the pile of compost. When thinking of mixing
materials, I, for some reason got reminded of something similar to a revolving door. I thought of
a circle (like a ferris wheel), with pedal-like objects to mix it. At first, I wanted to make a crank on
the side, so that spinning it would make the wheel spin, which would turn the compost, however,
when trying to sketch the idea, I noticed that considering the shape of the bin, it wouldn’t be
possible unless the crank was at the front, which I decided to go by, mainly because it would still
work properly and only have a slight change in looks. I decided that the spinning plates (almost)
should be like pedals, so that they’re always facing upwards, no matter which area it’s in (in
order to turn the compost properly. They would also have to be big, but not take up too much
space, to mix the compost almost completely but not block it and keep it in compartments, and
also thick and sturdy, so that they wouldn’t break. Another plan I had was to make like an
upwards cylinder, with almost blades (more like pedals in the first plan) sticking to a spinning
stick all over the cylinder’s area. There would be a lid with a hole in the middle for the stick, so
the person would be able to spin the stick and mix it. However, I decided to stick with my
original complicated plan, as the next method wouldn’t thoroughly mix the compost, but only mix
it sideways.

Presenting chosen design-

As my finishing plan, I had a regular bin-shaped compost bin with a lid (to keep it closed) and an
almost ferris wheel-pedal hybrid inside linked with a crank, to spin the compost from the
outside.             
                                                                     ‘’’’’’’’