Where is YIMBY based?

We are based in Castlemaine, Vic, on Dja Dja Wurrung country, in the Mount Alexandra Shire, Vic.

I have registered to be a YIMBY composter what have I signed up for?

Firstly thankyou, your enthusiasm for compost and our project. Compost is food for our souls and soils!

A little more info about what happens next?:

  • we will review your submission and be in touch ASAP
  • we need to priortise applicants according to criteria that will ensure our trial is workable at this scale and will give us data that we need to progress to a larger scale
  • we will notify you ASAP (hopefully within a week) if we can include you in this trial and provide other options for participation and compost support if we cannot include you. We will also be transparent about why we were unable to include you at this point.
  • if you are one of our 10 selected households, we will invite you to a meeting to begin to engage with the detail.

What are the basics of YIMBY?

In its most simplest form, we are a locally based, neighbourhood composting system. We want to keep this resource local where it is needed and we want to avoid another big truck crawling through the streets and taking it away, but we do want to get it out of landfill where it creates nasty methane.

A team of community composters collect food scraps from 10-20 of their immediate neighbours and turn it into high quality compost, to be used, shared, traded.....

What does it mean to be a YIMBY community composter?

We will notify you ASAP (hopefully within a week) if we can't include you at this time we can provide other options for participation and compost support. We will also be transparent about why we were unable to include you.

How much time will I spend doing YIMBY compost work?

There will be several stages to being a YIMBY composter:

  • Introduction and establishment: one YIMBY community meeting, a site visit to evaluate capacity of your system.
  • Gathering neighbours to participate: this will be dependant on so many variables that it's difficult to estimate, for some people it may be a quick text to their close knit neighbourhood, for others it may involve door knocking and postcard delivery (supplied by us), we will support you all the way.
  • Once up and running: we anticipate it will be about one hour per week to collect filled buckets, add to your compost, rinse buckets, record data (how many buckets and temperature of compost).
  • We anticipate you will be turning your compost heap roughly every month, depending on how much help you have, this could take roughly an hour or two. We are pleased to say that we are developing ways of this supporting this labour intensive stage!
  • Collect and input how weight of food scraps collected and other info into our data collection system.
  • Other stuff: from time to time, we would love to hear your thoughts on how it is going, either through written words, maybe a short interview, or a gathering with other composters to check in and share knowledge and ideas.

Do I have to use a particular compost method?

We recommend using 3 bay hot compost layered system, it's simple, low maintenance and turns out high quality compost quickly.

However, if you have a highly functioning compost system that you think can handle the increased input, we are open to reviewing your system and going with it and any other system we may dream up that is efficient.

What support will I get?

  • Compost coaching/training.
  • We will supply labelled buckets.
  • We will supply a thermometre (if needed).
  • Occasional YIMBY composters gatherings.
  • We will supply carbon material (hay or straw - if needed).
  • We will monitor how you are going.
  • We will check in with you and help problem solve.
  • Do other stuff as required.

How much compost will I get for my garden?

We anticipate you will get more than you need - that is, assuming you are not running a market garden! Because we anticipate that it will be better than what is currently commerncailly availalbe locally, we anticipate it will have a high value and you will only need small amounts used on the garden.

What if I don't need any compost or I have too much?

We would love for our composters to be sharing, or getting together and thinking about how to solve this 'problem'. Perhaps it's a new small enterprise model, or simply sharing back into community, what a great problem to have!

I have registerd to contribute my scraps to YIMBY what happens next?

We aim to be in touch within a week (and we are human) to advise the next steps. We aim to link you with a composter in your immediate neigbourhood, however, if we cannot do this in the short term, we can offer a location where you can drop off your food scraps for some of our 'out of town' composters to collect.

What can go in my bucket?

The very basic idea is: if it's 'organic matter' we'll compost it. Having said that, some of you may want some more direction! If in doubt, ask us.

Our YES list includes:

  • fruit and vegetables, including citrus peel, in any form, preferably chopped up into smaller pieces
  • leftovers and cooked foods, including meat
  • bread, rice, pasta - cooked. or uncooked
  • eggs or egg shells
  • Coffee and tea (tea bags OK, unless its the 'silk' or pyramid type - they are plastic)
  • onions and garlic
  • small pieces of paper
  • nuts, old spices
  • lentils, beans, etc
  • compostable bags and packaging - PLEASE only if you have cut these into 1cm wide strips
  • cakes, biscuits
  • contents of vacuum cleaner (if mostly hair and dust)

No Thanks!

  • Anything plastic - including those little stickers on fruit - please remove them if you see them.
  • Large amounts of liquid.
  • Dog or Cat poo - other domestic pets, like guinea pigs, etc are welcomed.

When do my buckets get collected?

We will confirm this with you upon registration. We aim to pick up on the same day as the council bin collection service. This way you don't have an extra day to remember.

As our community composters are volunteers, they may have a varied schedule and an exact time of pick is not available.

Drop off options are avaialble 24/7.

Can I have more than one bucket?

Yes! Assuming we have the buckets, and the capacity. Just talk to us.

Where should I leave my bucket?

Please leave your bucket beside your gate, in an obvious place. Do NOT leave next to other council bins as the bucket is small and may become damaged by the large bins.

What happens if I miss the pick up?

Don't panic! It is ideal that weekly pick up happens, however we all make mistakes. Simply send your composter a text (or your arranged mode of contact) and they will endeavour to pick up as soon as possible. They will most likely have dropped a clean bucket for you anyway and can catch you the next week.

Alternatively, you can arrange to drop your bucket off to the composter directly.

Can I drop my bucket off?

Yes, simply negotiate with you local composter. YIMBY aims to be small scale and operating within your immediate neighbourhood.

What if I go away?

If you are going away, and you do not require your bucket to be picked up, please let you community composter know in advance

What happens to my compost?

What you give us will not yet be compost, it will be 'organic matter' that we will put into our compost system. We have developed small scale systems, enough to manage 10-20 households organic 'waste'.

All buckets will be weighed before being added to our system, this way we can monitor how much we are putting in, and how much is coming out the other end.

We will add straw and other material to get the nitrogen to carbon ratio right, moisture as needed and other organic material, such as cow, horse or sheep manure - whatever we need to get our heaps cooking and breaking down quickly into yummy compost.

Our community composters are passionate about producing high quality compost, to cycle back into food and/or plant growing. The YIMBY team will support them with scientific expertise to ensure we are getting a good mix going and are cooking all harmful pathogens, whilst not producing greenhouse gases.

How do I stop my bucket from smelling?

There are lots of ways to keep you bucket from getting smelly.

  • Ensure you put your bucket out each week - we will collect and deliver a fresh bucket back to you
  • Add some shredded paper or folded newspaper (or other organic absorbent material) in the bottom of bucket to keep bucket fresh.
  • Keep the lid off the bucket (for plenty of oxygen and to aid evaporation)
  • When a bucket is full, store it in your refrigerator or freezer till collection, or in a cold place, out of sun.

Can I get some finished compost for my garden?

It's surprising how little useable compost is produced after all the buckets are collected and processed through the system!

Much of what comes to us will have a high water content, thus it will take many many buckets of scraps to produce one bucket of useable compost!

There are many inputs (straw, manure, moisture, care and attention), then the work of turning, monitoring and tending the piles.

When all is said and done, what is produced will in the first instance be used by the composters.

Can I help?

There is much heavy work to be done, as well as 'light' work. What help required will differ from site to site and will be relational, i.e. by talking with us and your composter.Possible ways to help include:

  • dropping off buckets to composter, rather than getting it picked up
  • turning the compost (about once per month)
  • sourcing other materials, like animal manure (not dog or cat - these do not compost well!)
  • offering to wash your returned bucket
  • write to the local paper, or council and tell them how much you love this system, and why
  • share your story with us, take photos of anything relevant and them to us
  • financial donations gratefully recieved, we are currently operating on a lotta love and committment to a better world
  • get in touch if you want to contribute in other ways

What if I change my mind?

No problem! Just let us know, leave your bucket for us to pick up, and please give us some feedback. We are in genuine process of learning on the job.

Why does my home compost take so long to break down?

A compost heap is much more than a pile of kitchen scraps in the corner of the garden (although even this will be digested by soil and worms eventually - but this is not ideal)

A compost heap needs a balance of four ingredients: carbon, nitrogen, air and water. If these elements are out. of balance, then the whole process is slowed down, worse still, can create methane (80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide (and can be very smelly!)

By creating a community-scale compost solution, we can add larger amounts of materials together and get a pile 'cooking' more efficiently and effectively.

If you. are interested in doing better with your own compost, see our resources section.

Who are YIMBY?

YIMBY are a team of passionate composters who have come together to trial a small scale system that can be demonstrated to divert organic 'waste' from landfill.

We know that our council will be required to introduce a third bin system in the near future, which on the face of it is more 'sustainable' than the current system where many kitchen scraps go to landfill, we want to keep resources local and on a human scale.