Last Updated on April 12, 2024 by Real Men Sow

8 Compost Bins for the Best Nutrient Rich Compost

Best Value Compost Bin

The Best Compost Bins For The Best Nutrient Rich Compost

Are you starting to cultivate your own garden or crops? Chances are, you’ve been thinking about compost. After all, even the easiest of plants and crops to grow will need the best start possible when it comes to quality soil and compost. You can’t, sadly, expect to just cast seeds into the soil and expect them to shoot up massively without some form of support! That’s why setting up a composting bin might be a really good idea.

In this guide, we will be looking at the best compost bin systems available for you to buy online right now. To make your own compost at home, it might be as simple as just setting up a composting bin and casting in your kitchen waste and food rubbish to decompose. Overall, a compost bin system should be easy to use, as composting is a natural process which won’t need much from you than to add a few things in here and there.

Without further ado, then – let’s start looking at compost system choices you might want to consider for your own garden.

The Best Compost Bin Systems

Many gardeners swear by a composting bin when it comes to serving their crops and plants with nutrient rich soil. You can buy compost outright in bags, too, but over time, it might just be cheaper and more efficient to use compost made from recycled waste.

The following compost bins are the absolute best picks we’ve found across our online travels and research. However, the ideal fit for your garden may vary! If you really want to reduce the waste you send to landfill, it might be time to look deeper into the home composting process.

Check out individual verified buyer reviews for the following products, too. If you are completely new to composting bins and the decomposition process in general, it’s a really good idea to see what other gardeners think are worth the money. Some are wooden, some are plastic – all will help you ensure your kitchen is clean, and move that kitchen rubbish somewhere better than the town dump.

In This Review

Best Value Compost Bin

Garden Composter – Made in Europe 300l

This simple, effective compost bin more than does the trick if you have plenty of lawn trimmings you need to store away or otherwise get rid of. Impressively affordable, this is a resilient unit with lots of ventilation. This means temperature management for your compost should always be a doddle to manage.

This is a great all-around compost bin, as it simply requires you to throw food scraps, garden waste and otherwise into the top of the unit. The hatch at the bottom is easy to access, too.

Features

Dimensions: 60 x 60 x 83cm
Weight: 4.7kg
Volume: 300L

Best Looking Compost Bin

Blackwall 330 liter Green Compost Converter

One of the niftiest looking compost bins on the market right now, this 330L model offers a fantastic 10 year guarantee. As with other compost bins available right now, there’s a nice hatch towards the bottom that’s easy to access, and it’s one of the best compost bins for simply casting in food scraps and garden trimmings. You can pretty much leave it to its own devices.

This composting bin should work well with most types of composter, and while it’s not as fancy as a worm composter or a tumbler, it really does the business.

Features

Dimensions: 100 x 80cm
Volume: 330L

Best Budget Compost Tumbler

Gro Garden Products Dual Chamber 70Ltr Tumbling Composter (140Ltr) With Aeration Mixing System.

Amongst the best compost bins on our list, there was always going to be a tumbler or two you should check out! This is a real boon to the composting process, as all you will even need to do is turn the bins to accelerate how quickly everything breaks down. That goes for all types of compost as well as any food scraps you might throw in here, too.

It locks easily and really looks the part. It’s nice and strong, and is one of the best compost bins purely for the functionality and for the good value price tag.

Features

Dimensions: 95 x 60 x 82cm
Weight: 9Kg
Volume: 140L

Blackwall 220L Composter Converter – Green

Look familiar? This is actually the smaller variation on the 330L model from Blackwall listed above. It’s still one of the best compost bins online for the price, and it’s likely to be a great pick if you’re unsure you’ll need that much room.

Again, it’s not as fancy as a worm composter and it’s not as functional as a tumbler, but it looks great and it’ll work with most types of compost.

Features

Dimensions: 74 x 74 x 90cm
Weight: 4.1kg
Volume: 220L

Lacewing Easy-Load Wooden Compost Bin

This is a bit of a different entry in our list of the best compost bins – it’s an open compost bin, and it’s made from wood! This might not always be the first choice for every gardener, but open compost piles tend to do better as they are in the free air. However, keeping everything in place with a wooden cage helps you to secure the pile and easily rake it all out when you need it. This is a solid bin and one we highly recommend.

Features

Dimensions: 92 x 120 x 65cm
Weight: 11.79kg
Volume: 718L

Draper 07212 180L Compost Tumbler

This nifty-looking composting unit is great for any outdoor space where you’d normally cast garden or food scraps away. It has a bit of a look of a cement mixer about it! Thankfully, this master composter is a fair bit lighter than your average mixer. Many composting fanatics will love the design and even the process of getting this composter to work. That said, there’s not much of a process!

This is a large composter tumbler, which means that it offers a hefty 180L of composter space. It’s made from sturdy plastic material to weather outdoor use, even during bad and cold weather. Simply throw in any food or garden waste you like and this rotating behemoth will keep everything twisting and turning around. It comes with a bit of a big price tag compared to other bins on our list, but it’s one of the best composter picks for tumbling.

Features

Dimensions: 78 x 77 x 49cm
Weight: 10kg
Volume: 180L

Easipet Wooden Compost Bin 328L in Bee Hive Style 337

Of the best compost bins in our list, the wooden ones really seem to be the most popular! This wooden composter is, like the Lacewing choice above, great for circulating air and getting that composting pile out in the open. This wooden composter covers the best of both worlds as it has a lid that’s easy to open and close whenever you want to hide the pile away!

Features

Dimensions: 74 x 74 x 80cm
Volume: 328L

UPP tumbling composter with 2 chambers each 105L

Looking for a composter to take care of your garden or food material but don’t want to do a large portion of the turning yourself? This composter says you don’t have to worry about that! This is a 210L outdoor composter unit, built in plastic and made to ventilate your compost in all weathers. Add in all the waste you need to get rid of and easily tumble the lot in this handy composter.

There’s a nice amount of room here, and it’s made for you to separate your piles in your composter in case you want to keep garden and food refuse separate. The design is nice and neat, and it’s a large enough composter for convenience without taking up too much space in your garden. Chuck out your kitchen waste like fruit and veg and start spinning as soon as you like!

Features

Dimensions: 95 x 60 x 82cm
Weight: 11kg
Volume: 210L

Are compost Bins Any Good?

Compost bins are great – they can aid you in reducing kitchen waste and household rubbish, and what’s more, you’re creating ‘black gold’ to share with plants and shrubs in your outdoor space.

Essentially, compost bins give you the chance to give a little bit back to the planet. Instead of throwing organic waste and everyday food rubbish out with the normal bins, a compost bin allows you to collect decomposing material and store it for use on your soil at a later date.

Using recycled materials from your own compost bins isn’t just eco-friendly, it’s also likely to save you some serious cash in the long run, too. One bin alone could cut down the need for you to buy composting bags and pre-made material for your garden.

A composting bin for your garden could help make things more efficient and healthier all around. Why throw organic matter into the landfill when compost bins could collect food waste and garden waste to build a fantastic compost pile and encourage future growth?

If you’re keen on becoming a home composter, one of the best things you can buy right now is a fantastic compost bin. They are built for use in the garden and will support you in collecting all the food waste and kitchen rubbish that would otherwise start piling up unhealthily elsewhere.

Treat your garden to some home grown compost – organic waste is going to really bring the best out of your soil and your plants, trust us on this!

What’s the difference between a Compost Tumbler & Compost Bin?

Believe it or not, the main difference between a compost tumbler and a compost bin is size! However, a tumbler can also spin, which means it saves you from having to turn and refresh the compost pile yourself.

Compost bins, whether built in plastic or otherwise, tend to hold more in the way of natural waste. If you really wish to go all out when it comes to composting at home, then a compost bin outright is the best way to go. If you are just getting started with composting food waste and other material, then an outdoor compost tumbler might be your best pick instead.

You can still use the same kitchen scraps and organic waste in a compost tumbler that you can in a compost bin. However, it’s easy to appreciate that not everyone will keep enough space to get a compost bin put in place. At least this is something you can work up to if you find you really get into the compost pile building game. A tumbler is also a great purchase if you really don’t fancy sticking a fork in and manually working the compost pile over yourself.

Whether you wish to compost tea, sandwiches or cereal, you’ll likely find a lower price on tumblers up front. However, over time, if you know you are going to generate a lot of food waste, a compost bin might just be the most cost-effective solution, regardless of space and material. Take a look through our list of top picks above and see for yourself!

How Do you Make Nutrient Rich Compost?

There are lots of great ways to make your compost that little bit more nutrient rich.

For example, why not use a worm compost bin or introduce worms into your compost? Compositing worms create little burrows in your compost pile to allow air to permeate more easily. While your worms eat through the organic pile, increased airflow means that conditions are more breathable for bacteria to persist. Believe it or not, you’re going to need the power of both the mighty worm and the lowly bacteria to help keep your compost breaking down – and to get those nutrients into your soil.

Otherwise, you should keep it nice and straightforward – composting worms are one thing – but you need to get a rich variety of different organic matter into your compost if you really want it to be rich in nutrients. The more ‘natural’ the produce the better. Therefore, things like digestive biscuits and battenburg cake probably won’t keep so well. You need to focus on composting fruit, vegetables, herbivore bedding and garden waste. These will all decompose naturally.

Things from your kitchen scraps or everyday bin that are unlikely to do well are more complex concoctions. Of course, anything like plastic, tin or card, you should keep on one side and recycle separately. These are not going to decompose properly in your compost bin, and therefore, you should really just add a variety of produce.

What Will Make Compost Break Down Faster?

To make your compost break down quicker, you’ll need a lot more carbon in your bin than nitrogen. The ratio is huge – for every 100g of nitrogen, there needs to be about 2000g of carbon!

But how do you know what’s breaking down into carbon, and what’s breaking down into nitrogen? Again, it’s all to do with focusing on organic material and produce. Yes, kitchen scraps and everyday food definitely have a place in your compost bin, but they are more likely to produce nitrogen. The more carbon you have in your compost pile and waste bin, the quicker it is going to start breaking down.

This means casting in dry vegetation, scraps from fruit and vegetables, and again, garden waste. These can all really tip the balance in the direction of your carbon.

If you are just throwing meaty or processed scraps into your compost bin, it’s going to take a long time to break down. Take it from us – you need to start focusing on the green stuff and the dried bits and pieces if you wish to turbo-charge the breakdown. many people have different ways of tipping the balance, but focusing more on greens and natural produce is the way to go.

What Ingredients Make the Best Compost?

All kinds of ingredients can go towards making healthy, nutrient rich compost. However, again, put simply – if it’s natural produce, it’s going to be chock full of the good stuff that your soil and plants are going to thrive on. Choose apple cores, dried flowers and grass, decaying vegetables – anything that breaks down after a few days is going to do really well in your compost.

Again – a worm or two is going to be a great compost ingredient, too! It might sound weird that you’d want to adopt a compost worm outright, but for the healthiest compost mix and therefore soil, this type of worm is going to do you lots of good. Keep in mind, however, that the compost worm is different from the earthworm you’ll see burrowing around in your garden.

Beyond that, try and focus on simple, organic ingredients. Your compost bin can and will hold all kinds of material, but the more natural you go – i.e. not man-made and not processed – the healthier your soil is going to be, and the quicker things are going to start decomposing. It really couldn’t be more simple.

Conclusion

If you’re really keen to start doing more for the environment, then an outdoor compost bin or composter might be one of the easiest and most effective ways for you to make a genuine difference! Even if you only have a small amount of debris and rubbish to get rid of at first, it makes sense to invest in a compost tumbler. This will help you to start building up towards a large bin that can hold all your natural disposable waste.

What’s more, the best compost bin, regardless of space, will cut down on the price you pay for compost bags, and will help to keep your plants healthy for years to come! A composter could be just what you need. Weirdly enough, composting can be quite fun!