The compost

Here we have a picture where we see the members of my group - Gauthier and Josh - and behind there is a compost with leaves from the banana tree. Foto: Rachel Garcia-Gongora

Our compost at the school works very well, because all the kids leaves a lot of food waste. This is how we do it. 

By Joshua Age-Castagnoli, Gauthier Quemeneur and Rachel Garcia-Gongora

Here at Tahiti international school we have a loot of food waste. So we reuse the food for the fish and the most of the part on the compost. So we don’t have to throw the waste of food.

The composting process involves four main components: organic matter, moisture, oxygen, and bacteria. Organic matter includes plant materials and some animal manures.

How to make a compost
Where to Place Your Compost Stack or Bin. Build the battery over soil or lawn rather than concrete or asphalt, to take advantage of the earthworms, beneficial microbes, and other decomposers, which will migrate up and down as the seasons change.

Uncovered soil also allows for drainage. If tree roots are extending their roots into the pile.

Our composts
In TIS we have three different compost. Out of the tree kind, the easiest to make at home is the compost with the pallets of handling. Is for that we give you how to do.

1 - Dig the ground. The composter must absolutely rest on a bare ground to promote the development of microorganisms.
2 - Plant the posts to obtain a width equivalent to that of the pallets of handling.
3 - Now fix the pallet of handling on the 4 sides of the square by nailing them to the pegs.
4 - Place a geotextile membrane or a fine mesh so that it covers the walls of the composter. This will prevent the compost from spreading outside.
5 - Saw on one side the lowest horizontal board to create an opening. This will allow you to extract the compost formed without having to go to the bottom of the receptacle from above! You can if you want to.

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In this compost we place all the leaves that falls from the trees in the school.

This is a dry compost, that we call «the tower»-compost.