plastic-free bokashi?

Bokashi composting is an anaerobic process that converts food wastes into an amazing soil amendment.
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PeasIntheRain
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I'm hesitant to purchase and use plastic for bokashi-style compost production, given the multifold environmental impacts of plastic.

Given bokashi is akin to silage, can we effectively create the desired anaerobic conditions with other materials or in another way? I'm thinking of options like traditional fermentation pits, scrap-built bins like for silage, maybe creating a semi-sealed layer with wet leaves or akin... I'd happily sacrifice some speed or processing of the edges if it meant I could avoid buying a plastic bucket.

Does anyone have experience and advice they could share for recommended methods and materials? Thanks!
Rtdowdy
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I think theoretically you could do it in a large ceramic crock if you used the air vac lid I would think. Those are pretty expensive but are a more traditional fermentation container.
TomF
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You could also loot into stainless steel pails or vessels for home brewing. But they are spendy. If you are concerned about plastic waste, you could recycle$ pails for free and that way you save $ and reuse a single use plastic item. You can get 5 gallon pails from restaurants and know you have a food safe item. I think you really want portability with whatever you chose as that is one of the most beneficial reasons to use bokashi, besides the ease, lack of rodents, ability to do it indoors, and the inputs like bones and meat.
PeasIntheRain
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Hmm, thanks. I appreciate the concept of re-use and if we had sources of secondhand plastic buckets, I'd be open to that. (But not buying a specific lid...) The thought of using a glazed ceramic crock makes me gasp at the thought of sacrificing tasty fermentation space :D but if I find a lonesome pottery crock with no other relevant purpose, I will give that a try as even porous vessels may have been traditionally used: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/716610

I was hoping others might have tried gear-free methods. For instance, mimicking the leaf-lined fermentation pits used in Polynesia and Micronesia to ferment breadfruit; a la https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02858803 and https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 19-00110-x There are other examples, like the fish fermentation pits used in Scandinavia but those used seal or boar skins for the outer layer which is less practical for me....! (https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-a ... mentation/) Honestly, though, just using a composting trench without the bokashi process would be simpler and accessible here, as the ground doesn't freeze through the winter. We already do that for certain rat-/raccoon-attracting wastes.

I'll give it a go and report back!

(Just a reminder, if those article links go behind a paywall for you, you can always contact the corresponding authors. In almost every case, they'll be able to send you a free copy of their research.)
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Andrew
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PeasIntheRain wrote: Wed 05-Jan-2022, 10:43 I'm hesitant to purchase and use plastic for bokashi-style compost production, given the multifold environmental impacts of plastic.

Given bokashi is akin to silage, can we effectively create the desired anaerobic conditions with other materials or in another way? I'm thinking of options like traditional fermentation pits, scrap-built bins like for silage, maybe creating a semi-sealed layer with wet leaves or akin... I'd happily sacrifice some speed or processing of the edges if it meant I could avoid buying a plastic bucket.

Does anyone have experience and advice they could share for recommended methods and materials? Thanks!
You can bokashi in any vessel. If plastic we recommend HDPE (food safe). You can even bokashi building a pile on the ground and covering with a tarp or compost so the inner part goes and stays anerobic (this is very easy to do since its the #1 problem for composters!)
PeasIntheRain
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Andrew wrote: Wed 12-Jan-2022, 09:13 You can bokashi in any vessel. If plastic we recommend HDPE (food safe). You can even bokashi building a pile on the ground and covering with a tarp or compost so the inner part goes and stays anerobic (this is very easy to do since its the #1 problem for composters!)
Thanks, Andrew. That's what I was figuring: something like a leaf-heavy layer over an unstirred pile. I'll try it out.
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