Green Cone composting unit

In yesterday's post I mentioned a Green Cone composter. I bought my first one (left image) more than 15 years ago when we were living in a rental duplex, because the landlord wasn't enthused about me having a stand-alone, open compost pile out in the common yard. The Green Cone (also known as a Solar Digester) seemed like a perfect solution.

The part of the composter that holds the composting materials is actually underground. The photo to the left shows the laundry basket-like black section - this is the part that is put in the ground, and the green part attaches to it, above ground.

All of the moisture in the materials leaches into the ground through the holey basket, and the effect of the sun hitting the double-walled green part and creating air circulation eventually converts the organic materials into compost. Getting the compost out can be a difficult project, but fortunately it's not necessary to do it very often (less than once a year, depending on volume). Obviously, this unit is more designed to deal with organic materials in an environmentally sound way (i.e., not landfilling them), and has only a minor focus on producing useable compost.