In my days of youthful indiscretions I thought I could improve life
on Earth by civilizing high school youth through engendering in them
an understanding of history. I confess I almost completely failed
and gave up teaching after a few years. However, I personally
learned a great deal about history and the telling of history. I
read many old journals, diaries, and travel accounts. From some of
these documents I gained little while other accounts introduced me
to unique individuals who assisted me in understanding their era.
It seems that what differentiates good from bad reporting is how
frank and honest the reporter is about their own personal opinions,
prejudices, and outlooks. The more open and direct the reporter, the
better the reader can discount inevitable distortions and get a
picture of what might really have been there. The more the reporter
attempts to be "objective" by hiding their viewpoints, the less
valuable their information.
That is why before discussing those manufactured aids to composting
that can make a consumer of you, I want to inform you that I am a
frugal person who shuns unnecessary expenditure. I maintain what
seems to me to be a perfect justification for my stinginess: I
prefer relative unemployment. Whenever I want to buy something it
has become my habit first to ask myself if the desired object could
possibly bring me as much pleasure as knowing that I don't have to
get up and go to work the next morning. Usually I decide to save the
money so I do not have to earn more. _En extremis,_ I repeat the old
Yankee marching chant like a mantra: Make do! Wear it out! When it
is gone, do without! Bum, Bum! Bum bi Dum! Bum bi di Dum, Bum bi
Dum!
So I do not own a shredder/grinder when patience will take its
place. I do not buy or make composting containers when a country
life style and not conforming to the neatness standards of others
makes bins or tumblers unnecessary. However, I do grudgingly accept
that others live differently. Let me warn you that my descriptions
of composting aids and accessories are probably a little jaundiced.
I am doing my best to be fair.
Visual appeal is the primary benefit of making compost in a
container. To a tidy, northern European sense of order, any
composting structure will be far neater than the raw beauty of a
naked heap. Composting container designs may offer additional
advantages but no single structure will do everything possible. With
an enclosure, it may be possible to heat up a pile smaller than 1' x
4' x 4' because the walls and sometimes the top of the container may
be insulating. This is a great advantage to someone with a postage
stamp backyard that treasures every square foot. Similarly, wrapping
the heap retards moisture loss. Some structures shut out vermin.
On the other hand, structures can make it more difficult to make
compost. Using a prefabricated bin can prevent a person from readily
turning the heap and can almost force a person to also buy some sort
of shredder/chipper to first reduce the size of the material. Also,
viewed as a depreciating economic asset with a limited life span,
many composting aids cost as much or more money as the value of all
the material they can ever turn out. Financial cost relates to
ecological cost, so spending money on short-lived plastic or easily
rusted metal may negate any environmental benefit gained from
recycling yard wastes.