Compost Tumblers or Rotating Compost Bins – This type of compost bin makes aerating your composting material easy. It is generally a drum, held above the ground by a frame, which can be turned and so aerated either by winding a handle or simply rolling it over.

Such bins are usually thought superior to the basic static ones (though the aerobic designs are different again) as composting occurs quicker when the waste and organisms breaking them down get a regular burst oxygen. Indeed, spinning your compost tumbler every few days can give you nutrient rich plant food in less than a month. They are also sealed, which means that not only is your compost neatly contained in its tumbler, but pests such as mice and snakes can’t get in. Another big bonus is that any unpleasant odour that may arise as the waste decays is trapped inside the bin.

The disadvantage of these compost bins is that vegetable matter as it starts to break down becomes heavy. As a result, the size of a rotating compost bin is limited, as it has to be held up off the ground on a frame and also you have to be able to turn it over without injuring yourself. This means that the quantities produced using this method tend to be small batches. However, given that the process itself is comparatively fast, many gardeners simply make their compost more frequently, but in smaller amounts.

Bokashi Bucket – This is turbo charged composting thanks to the addition of the special Bokashi powder to the composting process. Basically, you put your food scraps etc in your Bokashi Bucket, sprinkle the magic powder over them and then leave it to do its stuff. The Bokashi powder is fermented bran and rice hulls which are packed full of effective micro-organisms (EM) and these EMs not only ferment the food scraps, but preserve them – making the resulting compost which forms like a kind of liquid fertilizer which is both comparatively odourless and easy for plants to absorb.

You can buy bokashi composting kits online or from a variety of hardware stores and garden centres and once you have the bucket, you can keep things going by either buying additional sachets of the powder, or making up a batch yourself – there are a number of recipes circulating on the ’Web.

All in all, it’s hard to fault the bokashi bucket – it’s smartly designed, making it clean and odourless, and it fits neatly onto the average kitchen work bench, which is great for reminding you to pop food scraps into it as you create them. There is also a tap at the bottom of the bin which allows you to pour the compost tea off as you need it.

However, the downsides are that this very much a kitchen wastes composting system which isn’t designed to deal with garden clippings etc. Also, it is more expensive than many of the other styles of compost bin, especially if you buy the bokashi powder rather than going DIY.