Here is a straight forward design for a big composter that you can make from pallets, and a few more materials. Before we start, here is a picture of the composteira in situ, looking beautiful in the hills of Cardinot, Brasil. It took a couple of volunteers a couple of days to build this. All were relatively novice woodworkers.
So what are you going to need…
- Bricks or stone for the base
- 7 pallets
- 6 eucalyptus posts
- 2x4cm or other cheap wood
- Plastic or other suitable material for roof
- Post hole digger or spade
- Screwdriver, drill and screws
- Spade, and hoes help
Start out by making the ground flat where the composter will be. You want to level the area slightly larger than the two pallets lying down so you have space round the outside for the roof supports. We used a layer of natural stones as a base because it is quite wet here so we wanted to keep the pallets off the ground. You could use old bricks or whatever will hold the pallets off the ground a bit. You want any water from the compost to be able to drain away too.
Once again, apologies for the lack of photo instruction but I was not present for the most part of this build, but you can see here that it is a pretty straight forward construction. Just make your base pallet nice and level first, then secure the 5 walls in place.
Next, put in your vertical pillars which will hold your roof up. We used eucalyptus, and dug 60cm in to the ground. Use something heavy to bash the earth in around the pillar to make sure it stays in place.
Attach a roof as you want to keep the rain off your compost. We linked the eucalyptus pillars with some cheap stake wood, and attached the plastic on top as shown below.
And there you have it, a beautiful two-compartment composter made from pallets
Mediterranean Permaculture 