One of the easiest composters is a worm bin. You can use your egg shells best there. I do several types of composting from easy to - more work. Build a worm 2-story bin - using a couple of plastic totes - (Home Depot?). Heat an ice pick and make 16 or so holes in the bottoms for drainage. Then add shredded newspaper as bedding in the top bin. Buy some red fishing worms to inhabit the bins. They love coffee grounds, egg shells, any veggie, fruit rinds. I know some folks who even get coffee grounds from Starbucks, etc. Tea bags are OK, but as other posters note - forget the oils, meats, cheese, grease - it will attract ants. Larger bins of this type are also good for folks who have orchards with dropping fruit - as it can help prevent fruit fly infestations. I have a large box that catches all of my orange or citrus droppings. The worms will digest all of this material, including paper, and leave worm castings - that can be added in and around your plants. I personally use it for my fruit trees mainly. Another easy composting method is leaves and grass - just pile them up - a nice 2 foot pile heats up nicely. I cover mine with a black tarp, after watering well, as it helps to get it "cooking" - then turn it whenever you think about it, and it will break down into nice black compost in short order. For heavy duty composting - it is nice to have a good sturdy shredder. Unfortunately, they are expensive, but with my large yard, I try to compost almost everything that grows if possible - except Bermuda grass. My shredder will grind up heavy prunings from trees, etc., up to an inch thick if I want, and makes a nice "mash" that breaks down easily. One of the best combinations is dry bamboo leaves and other green fleshy material - make a good combo. It only takes a month or so to break down when it is ground up that fine. Soo - visit the compost forum for other good ideas, but whatever you do "start your pile" and good luck. Bejay

The paint thinner will evaporate  I think without leaving anything behind, like Grayentropy said. But the pigments or other crud in that solvent (from the paint) will not. Whether these pigments are safe to leave in the soil depends on what materials are in those pigments. If you are talking new latex house-paint, it may not be a big deal to leave it in the dirt (but probably a good idea to dump that dirt off in a corner somewhere instead of gardening with it). If youÂre talking artist-grade oil paints, full of heavy metals such as cadmium and cobalt, then scrape your pile of contaminated dirt into trash bags and take it to your townÂs hazardous waste disposal location. When you hand the bag over, tell them what was dumped in the dirt. But this is all rather moot, I suspect, since youÂre talking such a small quantity of paint thinner. Mmm, turpentine fumes. . . youÂre making me miss my oil paints! Tell your boyfriend that he needs to store his used thinners in sealed jars until the town has a hazardous waste collection day. He can also recycle it by letting the particles settle to the bottom of the jar, and then pouring the cleaner thinner off into its own container. By doing this, I had only a small amount of sludge to take to the hazardous waste day, even after months of painting. I'm glad to hear that he knew better than to pour the stuff down the sink, at least!

The primary reason you are told not to compost dairy products is the fats in those products which can slow the digestion of the material you want to compost. Some people that do add dairy products, in relatively small quantities, will tell you there is no problem with doing that forgetting that is the volume that determines whether it would be. If the dairy products you add to your compost pile comprise less that 10 percent of the volume you probably would not have any problem, but if the amount you add would be around 25 percent that would be a problem. If your compost pile is 6 x 6 x 50 you could add much more dairy waste than you could if your compost pile was 4 x 4 x 4.

How long from start to finished compost depends on many things, the right C:N ratio, just enough and not too much moisture, and turning at just the right time. You could have good compost in as little as 14 days (link below) but that is a lot of work and you cannot compost diseased plant tissue in this since there is simply not enough time for immunities to develop. There are those that get finished compost in 3 or 4 months by closely monitoring the process and turning the pile at the right time so that the material on the outside gets into the center where the bacteria that digest that material are most active. This too is a fair amount of work. Many of us use a more lassiez faire approach and allow our compost to work as it will and most usually get finished compost in about 1 year. In your 3 x 3 x 3 pile those PVC pipes for aeration are unnecessary and may cause a lower temperature than some of the bacteria that digest your material find they can work in slowing down the process. Compost piles smaller than 6 x 6 x 6 do not need aeration aids, unless you soak the material that goes into that pile so air infiltration will not take place. Here is a link that might be useful: Compost in 14 Days