Bacterial Filter

Input

Pureed slurry formed from Kitchen Scraps .

Pureed slurry from paper scraps .

Output

Strained slurry mixture – about three parts paper to one part kitchen scraps in a damp, but not wet, slurry. This mixture can be fed to the tower vermicomposter, or can be used to start a hatching nursery in a one-gallon ice-cream tub.

Description

The Bacterial filter consists of a drip-tray taken from an old refrigerator. The drip tray is white plastic, about two feet by one feet, with a wall about two inches deep, and a sunken perimeter trough which has one drain hole about four millimetres diameter.

The drip tray sits on a table, and within the drip tray is placed a plastic mesh tray, secured from a nearby Garden Centre. The tray originally held small plastic tubs of seedlings.

The mesh is about one centimetre square.

Onto the mesh we pour the slurry of paper and kitchen scraps.

Excess water drains through the slurry, through the mesh, across the drip tray and exits by the drain hole into a twenty-five litre (five gallon) receiving pail. We call the water received here Bacterial Water because it is charged with bacteria in liquid suspension.

As such it provides a starter culture for fresh Kitchen Scraps , or for pre-soaking paper scraps . The Bacterial water can also be used for dampening down dry bedding in a bin, or for watering houseplants in which we have placed a culture of Red Wrigglers.

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