Rolypig Ltd is a design and development company, started in Following development of the Rolypig Composter, from first principles of compost-making, the addition of a user-friendly animal characterization, namely, the pig, was a natural step towards the goal of encouraging more widespread local composting activity. The kitchen compost bin is usually a basic vessel to contain the compost. But, unlike other composters, the Rolypig does bring the compost operation to life

2 Now Step 1. Find some dark topsoil from the top 6 inches of the garden, or the remains of an old compost heap that is black and crumbly, preferably damp. This dark material holds the soil bacteria and fungi necessary for starting/inoculating your new composter. Add about half a gallon/2 litres volume into the Rolypig. Step 2. Add whatever fresh waste you have, eg lawn mowings, food trimmings from the kitchen, plate scrapings etc. The gooey plate scrapings can go in as they come...but...leaves twigs and larger pieces of leaves should be shredded finely if at all possible.

3 Step 3. Add about 5 litres volume of waste, then add a few handfuls of fine dry wood sawdust. Step 4. Add a handful of finely-ground limestone. Step 5. Add a handful of nitrogenous fertilizer, ideally ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulphate. Step 6. The easy way to do steps 4 & 5 is to use the Rolypig accelerator mix, which is a mix of the above components ready to use. Step 7. Roll the Rolypig a complete revolution, returning the swivel head back upright. Step 8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 every time you have more waste to add to Rolypig.You only need the black topsoil/old compost when starting with a new composter.

Composting is all about feeding the mico-organisms in such a way that you get a hot mass of material that goes a dark colour within a few days To achieve this heating, there are some simple requirements. Available nutrients. This means shredding or liquidizing the food/green waste to get a large surface area where the bacteria and fungi can live, feed and multiply quickly. Oxygen. The waste should not be compacted, but loose, with plenty of access for air to get into the material. Turning by shovel, or using a tumbler-type composter are good options. Balance of nutrients. Brown/dead material has carbon-rich nutrients available to the bacteria. Green, young vegetative material has water- soluble nitrogenous nutrients available to the bacteria, together with sugars and other readily-fermentable compounds.A ratio of 25 Carbon to 1 Nitrogen (by weight) is best, so that the particular type of bacteria we want to produce heat, are fed properly.

Bacterial considerations. There are naturally-occurring populations of bacteria, of many types, that will start feeding on the nutrients we provide to them in our compost waste mixture. To encourage the ‘heating’ bacteria, we must provide them with their particular needs. As above, these ‘heating’ bacteria MUST have good access to the nutrients (so shredding is important) Oxygen is essential so that we get an aerobic fermentation that forms a sweet smelling compost. (Turning/aeration is very important) Balance of C:N in the material. Mix dry brown wastes with wet green wastes as you load your composter or heap. The moisture content should be around 75% (you can just squeeze water out of a handful of the fresh mixture) How to achieve a good working composting process. Commonly, we have lawn clippings through the summer. These are ‘greens’, with a surplus of nitrogenous nutrients, We really need to balance with dead dry leaves, shredded cardboard, sawdust, or shaken- up straw, if available. Heating will occur in a few hours, IF conditions are right. The material will then shrink by anything up to 90% of its volume! This reflects the loss of moisture and emission of gases from bacterial respiration.

Another common situation, is, a large volume of dead leaves in Autumn. These are ‘browns’ with a surplus of carboniferous nutrients. No bacteria will feed on dry dead leaves, alone...but if we add some ‘greens’, like kitchen vegetable trimmings, and the mixture is shredded, then hot composting will occur. In practice, the large volume of dead leaves will benefit from an an extra supply of nitrogenous nutrients, extra to that available from the usual kitchen waste. This is where a compost ‘accelerator’ comes into its own. An accelerator supplies available ‘nitrogen’ when mixed in with the predominantly brown material, so that the bacteria have the nitrogenous compounds they need to make bacterial proteins-essential for their cells. Inoculate your material with a handful of dark topsoil to provide the living bacteria or spores that will then go on to begin the composting. Especially important if starting off with a new tumbler composter that will be clean inside, and so have very few bacteria inside! Use a very finely ground limestone powder mixed into the fresh wastes to encourage the hot composting process.