RIDAN arrives

Today, we took delivery of a RIDAN hot composter system.  Dan Welburn (who designed and makes the unique composters) came with his family from Devon to deliver it to us!

The composter will allow us to recycle all the canteen food waste and produce lovely rich compost for the garden.

During lunchtime, some school staff and members of Ellon Resource Centre were introduced to the process and how the composter works.  Members of the Resource Centre are keen to volunteer to help us build and maintain our gardens.  This is great as it means someone will be able to tend plants during the summer holidays when pupils are away!  We hope you enjoy the gardens and come to feel that they are yours too!

Each day, we will put the food waste into the "chimney end" and add an equal quantity of sawdust.

The handle is then turned to mix the contents.  In time, as the handle is turned, compost will drop out of the other end into a bucket.  It then goes into a "maturation bin" for about four months until it is ready to use on the garden.

The system should reach temperatures of 50 to 70 degrees as the organic matter rots down.  Turning the handle is important to ensure that the material falls down into the composter properly as air can then be drawn up through the hole in the bottom and out through the hole in the chimney.  If we didn't turn the handle, the food and sawdust would block the chimney so air would not circulate properly, resulting in a stagnant and smelly mixture!

Pupils from the enrichment program and some small curricular classes will be responsible for filling the RIDAN and turning the handle each day.  We are thrilled to have this ability to make our own compost on site.  The funding was awarded as part of an "Access to Education" grant for us to create a composting challenge.  The challenge will involve other types of composting - set up as an orienteering task around the new site so watch this space for more as we build the different composting stations!