Currently Dave utilizes a Boston City promoted black composting dome barrel.  He has moderate problems with rodents, and very slow decomposition in his compost bin.

Problems: Slow compost action.  Rodents.

Below please find some options for improving your current compost system, or modifying it for optimum results. 

1. The slow composting is a product of a cool compost bin in a shady location without sufficient oxygenation and movement.

      Recommendations for improving this within the current system include:

1. Moving the bin into a warmer location.
2. Turning or stirring the compost bin on a regular basis to provide oxygenation that will aid decomposition.
3. Adding garden earth to the existing compost bin, including all of the decomposing creatures that aid in plant breakdown, will serve as a secondary method of speeding up the composting process.
4. Adding worms to the existing plastic bin is an unproven yet interesting option.  Provided the bin does not become too wet and soggy, worm addition could be successful, but if the barrel becomes waterlogged the worms could drown.

2. Rodents are attracted to the compost bin as a source of food.  Rodents live near the compost bin because major food sources, possibly open trash bins, are located near by.  Secondarily, the composter is located in a shady area with moderate foliage providing cover for scurrying rodents.

Recommendations for mollification of the rodent problem include:

1. Trimming the foliage and branches around the compost bin to eliminate foliage cover for rodent movement.
2. Turn or stir the compost bin regularly to promote quick decomposition, thus making the compost bin as a food source for rodents less likely.
3. Fortify the bottom of the compost bin at the rodent access points with hardware cloth to decrease easy access.

3. A possible all in one easy solution exists.  Trading in the existing black dome shaped plastic composter for a compost roller or spinner.  These are barrel shaped or round plastic containers that are elevated on legs or a stand.  They utilize a crank system, or nested roller system to spin, mixing and oxygenating the compost as the barrel is cranked over and over.
    
1. Utilization of a compost roller on legs would eliminate rodent access.
2. Frequent spinning of the barrel will allow for rapid compost decomposition.
3. The self contained nature of the spinning barrel will allow for placement in a warmer garden location, with easy relocation as needed.
    

Thanks for your interest in composting kitchen scraps in Allston. 

Your concerns about rats, roaches and bed bugs are valid!  I too live in Lower Allston, and have for more than 15 years, we have worked with our neighbors to discourage pest infestations.  Please let me mollify your fears. 

First and easiest, bed bugs do not eat kitchen scraps, just human flesh.  So composting will not exacerbate this issue. 

Second concern, the rats that have so recently invaded Lower Allston.  Rats always live within 100 feet of their food and water source.  So your best bet for having a rat problem is if you or your neighbor leaves his trash barrels uncovered.  Currently most people put their kitchen waste in these open barrels thus providing an inviting food source for the rats.  The best way to discourage rats is to eliminate all food sources and discourage or disturb active nesting cites. 

If all food were eliminated from our neighborhood trash barrels, and placed instead in sealed compost containers, the rats would be quite disinterested in the leftover plastic bits, paper scraps, and batteries left over.  Though rats and mice are known to eat paper, one can imagine it to be less preferable. 

Last, Roaches.  New roach infestations are often triggered by a resident unwittingly bringing them inside, in a shopping bag, moving box, or on the bottom of your shoe!  One pregnant roach can start a nasty infestation.  Roaches can feed on paper and glue, and like to live in moist wood under your bathroom plumbing, among other places.  As with rats and mice, when food waste is sealed out of reach and removed from the trash bins, it is no longer an attractive source of food.  With food waste no longer accessible, one might argue that rat and roach trouble could be REDUCED through proper food waste recycling!  This could be a goal, and a reason to encourage our neighbors to properly compost kitchen scraps. 

So when I compost your food waste, you will collect it in a 5 gallon bucket with a locking lid.  When I pick this up, the compost goes into a sealed plastic compost tumbler that is raised off of the ground and tumbled daily.  Inside the compost tumbler the food waste is transformed into loam within about 3 weeks. 

If you are interested in joining our composting effort, please visit our website at http://wormorama.com to sign up for the service, or mail in the signup form.  If you are interested in composting your own food waste on site, we have simple plans at our website that allow you to build a wire mesh based composter, with a lid. 

Feel free to reply, and we appreciate your interest!