Ep05A Turning Compost Piles with a loader

This episode shows footage of turning a compost pile or windrow with a wheel loader. This can be an efficient process and allows intensive use of available area - but turning a compost pile is more than simply load shifting. The objectives for turning include: breaking up clumps, mixing materials and distributing moisture, loosening and aerating materials to reducing the density of the reformed pile (to better enable air to penetrate into the pile), and to best turn the pile inside out so that materials from the outside of the current pile are relocated to the inside of the reformed pile where they can be subjected to pasteurising temperatures and adequate moisture for biological stabilisation. The process of turning is critical for the achievement of temperature pasteurisation, and for consistent and effective biological stabilisation of materials throughout the pile. Rapid load shifting is great, but only to the extent to which the purpose of turning the pile is not compromised. Angus Campbell Recycled Organics Unit