Composting has been the realm of the gardener in the past, and that is the perspective that informs the "why bother with such an expensive and fancy gizmo." With renewed attention to landfills, "green" behaviors, etc., there are a growing number of people who are composting primarily to reduce the volume of trash (and methane produced in landfills), reduce the amount put down the disposal, and are only secondarily interested in the compost that results. They may not even be gardeners, to speak of. I know people who are composting in NYC on an apartment balcony, and in the small fenced in area behind a garden apartment. It is to these folks, and to the "casual" gardener that this type of composting appeals.

dalton thanks for the pics. I have been talking to my husband about making a bin. When I saw your pallets I knew that was the bin for me. Maybe because I can get the pallets free and it does not look hard to do. Swanz that is a very nice bin my hats off to you. I tried to do that once and my daughter just laughed at the finished product and my family threw it out. Oh well so much for building things.

Thank you all for your information. I'm going back to the drawing board, I guess. I'm impressed, now, with looking at the open bin systems. If they really aren't too smelly, then maybe it won't be a problem here. Do mice get into these, though? The thought of mice dying in a compost pile or bin is kind of icky. Regarding the tumbler, I, too, was wondering how it would work if we're just putting in daily scraps. I'll take a look at the Envirocycle suggested by Motria - but, it sounds like you have to pay more attention to this type of composting than with a bin or pile system. I had never even considered vermicomposting - I will certainly look into that now. I grew up with my parents composting in the 70s, but they never got dirt out of it. It was a big pit in the backyard, and we would lift a sheet of plywood to dump the kitchen scrap bucket into. I want the dirt, because I do both vegetable gardening in the yard and greenhouse vegetable container gardening. Currently, I'm recycling dirt, but would obviously like to supplement that with the homemade compost. I may be back with more questions - vermicomposting - so intriguing!

You may live near a saw mill, a wood-working or cabinet shop, or another business which produces clean sawdust as a waste. Many people use tree leaves. When shredded (passing over them with a lawn mower for instance,) they are excellent sources of quickly-deteriorating 'browns'. Wood chips from tree trimmers work well. They are often more bulky than just a small tumbler will need, but on the other hand, if you have a small section of a yard where you can keep a pile, they decompose quickly on their own also, and make a good mulch material.