14 Hacks to Make Compost Faster & Better—Free Course

Want to learn how to make faster, better compost with no extra effort?

While it’s important to learn the basics first, once you’ve mastered those, you can use one or several of the hacks below to get better quality compost faster.

Do note there is a lot here AND I regularly update this article as I run across new studies or run my own experiments. So do bookmark this page using the widget on the side!

Let’s get started…

I stumbled across this recently in a study in Nature.com which tested different bulking materials. The study found that shredded leaves not only lead to super-fast composting (from starting to germinating seeds in 31 days), it also led to improved germination rates and healthier seedlings (1). 

This hack is super simple, although it does take a little time. Collect leaves and store them until you want to use them. Then shred the leaves (the ideal size is 1-3mm) and use them as a bulking material. If you don’t have a shredder, you can pile the leaves up in a row (it’s messy, but it does work).

Confidence level: 9

This absolutely makes sense. The problem with sawdust, while a great bulking material, is that it takes a long time to break down. It’s true that leaf mold takes a long time, but that’s when they’re not shredded or mixed with a high nitrogen material.  However, leaves, when shredded and mixed with grass, make great compost. 

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A Japanese study found that adding cooking oil can reduce nitrogen loss, reduce emissions and increase compost heat (2). 

When I queried the researchers, they weren’t sure if it sped up the process. However, as heat signifies increased bacterial activity, I’d be very surprised if it didn’t. 

However, even if it doesn’t speed up the process, you can be satisfied that you’re improving the quality of your compost and reducing emissions. 

You don’t need a huge amount of oil either!

The study used just 3% cooking oil, and used cooking oil is fine. 

Confidence level: 7/10

The research seemed solid, and when I queried the researchers they were pretty confident it would work in home composting as long as the compost heap was hot.

Obviously I had to try this method myself immediately. I bought a bottle of cheap cooking oil and mixed it with compost in a home-made trash bin composter in my polytunnel. While I can’t be 100% certain if it was cause or correlation, the temperature did increase several degrees!

I think this hack is best used with compost bins rather than large piles – unless, of course, you happen to have access to a large stock of cooking oil! If you do try it, make sure there is enough dry bulking material to soak up the liquid before using it. 

Learn more: Researchers Discover Used Cooking Oil Can Reduce Nitrogen Loss, Increase Compost Heat

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Before European diseases wiped most of the natives out, there were millions of people living in the Amazon. These Amazonians used low intensity fires to clear ground. Over centuries, this practice led to a dark, rich soil called terra preta or Amazonian dark earths (ADEs).

I’m not suggesting you start setting fires to your vegetable patches, but the quality of the soil has inspired dozens of studies into biochar. Benefits these studies have found include: 

• Increased composting speed
• Reduces nutrient leaking from compost, 
• Reduced odors
• A decrease in the availability of heavy metals. (3,4)

One of these studies found that the amount that needs to be added is just 3%. 

Confidence level: 9.5

There are multiple studies that show biochar is beneficial for making compost, which means we can be more confident of the results. 

Learn more: How Biochar Can Improve Composting

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Ash carries many benefits for composting. 

One study found that these benefits include: 

• increased oxygen levels
• increased heat
• reduced nitrogen loss
• reduced Hydrogen sulfide (H2S)
• increased decomposition speed
• better plant growth in ash-amended compost (5)

Adding a lot of ash can make compost too hot – a good rule of thumb is to max out at about 10%. 

Confidence level: 8

I’ve several studies which have found Ash is beneficial for compost. It’s true that ash is alkaline, and might not work well with alkaline soils, but unless you are using large amounts this is unlikely to be a concern. (Also, make sure you use wood ash, as ash from other sources can contain heavy metals.)

While I have used ash in compost, I do sparingly, because I have two more even valuable uses:

1. As an ingredient for homemade fertiliser (see below).
2. As a ring around young plants to protect them from slugs.

Learn more: How to use Ash in Compost.

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Humanure, including urine, has been used as a fertilizer for thousands of years. 

It contains essential nutrients for composting and for plants. 

In fact, last year I experimented with using urine, mixed with ash and diluted with water, on half my garlic plants, leaving the other half to grow in compost. 

After a few weeks, the plants treated with my homemade fertilizer were so much bigger I stopped experimenting and applied the mixture to all my plants. 

The results, hanging from the ceiling of a polytunnel. 

Urine is also a superb activator for compost heaps, especially if your heap is slow or is high in browns. Because it’s hard to generate a lot at one time (let alone get the rest of the family involved) it works better for small compost bins than for big compost piles. 

Confidence level: 10

As long as your compost doesn’t already have too much nitrogen, it makes absolute sense to add urine.

Urine is high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and research by the Rodale Institute (mentioned in their book on composting, although I don’t have the link to the study) shows that it speeds up the composting process. I’ve also used it extensively (please don’t tell my wife) and the results have always been good.

However, some sources suggest you should avoid using urine from people who are ill or who have a urinary tract infection.

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6. This Alternative to Toilets Creates a Balanced Compost Material

Hat tip to the UK’s National Trust for this one. The charity put bales of straw outside their properties, and encouraged their employees to pee on the bales instead of going to the toilet. 

The trust eventually spread the bales on the fields, but an alternative is to use the straw as a material in your compost heap. 

More recently, a French company has even designed a plug in funnel to allow festival goers to pee into the center of straw bales!

Confidence level: 10

The tricky bit with this is persuading people to pee outside rather than whether it actually works! Straw is a high carbon material, pee is a high nitrogen material, so combining the two makes sense. (I know from experience that straw from stable horses, even when not mixed with manure, makes a great compost material.)

Also see: An Introduction to Humanure. 

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Many composters, including some professionals, add layers of compost or soil to their compost heap. 

The idea here is to ensure that a large amount of the right types of microbes are introduced. An easy way to do this is to include a small layer of  soil or compost in between your layers of Greens and Browns. 

Confidence level: 8

One of the reasons I included this here was because this has been a source of controversy for years. However, now we are starting to see research to back the use of this up.

For example, one study found that adding mature compost can speed up the composting process. Biocycle, the online magazine for professional composters, also concluded that adding mature compost increased composting speed. 

I certainly add some soil or mature compost to my bins – it’s free and takes very little extra effort to add!

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8. Get This from a Beach for Water Retention and Compost Quality

Adding seaweed to your compost may help improve the quality of your finished compost. 

Seaweed may be low in nitrogen, but it contains both beneficial trace elements and hormones that can help plants grow.  One study found that seaweed increases the ability of compost to hold water AND improves the growth rate of tomatoes. 

Against this, another study by Cole et al found that only composts that contain high levels of seaweed and had a low carbon-nitrogen ratio can accelerate plant growth. 

Confidence level: 6

Seaweed does seem to improve the compost quality. However, as we saw one study suggests you need to be very precise in the amount of seaweed you add. 

However, that study used green seaweed, while other sources state brown seaweed provides more value.  

While I do collect seaweed for the garden, I tend to use it straight on the vegetable garden, where it also makes an excellent slug deterrent!

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Aeration Hacks

Turn the compost? That’s so 1980s!

Nowadays, we have a complete toolkit of methods to aerate the compost heap without having to turn it every other day. 

Here are a couple of them…

9. The passive aeration tip

By being smart, and investing a few minutes of work, we can slash the amount of turning needed to make compost.  

Let’s face it, turning compost is hard work. A pallet bin can contain a ton of compost, and I often find I have to split a turning session over two days. 

In contrast, drilling a hole in a PVC pipe takes just minutes. You then create a hole in the middle of the compost pile, insert the PVC pipe and hey presto – you have some passive aeration going on!

Confidence level: 7/10

In my experience, this works better with large compost bins. 

I’ve tested this with a DIY garbage bin composter. While the compost stayed aerated and the compost showed no sign of anaerobic (without air) composting, the compost didn’t get above 35C. Meanwhile, my pallet bin pile, with the same materials, reached 63C. 

I think that in a small composter, with its small volume, a PVC pipe that extends through the bottom of the bin provides so much aeration that the heat escapes. 

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10. The combined hack: Aeration, Nitrogen and Water

Here’s one hack I ran across recently on the One Yard Revolution You Tube channel.

You simply make holes in your compost heap with a rebar, and add water and a high nitrogen material like grass or urine.

You can see the full explanation in this video.

Confidence level: 10

This method makes perfect sense, as it adds three crucial ingredients – nitrogen, air and water. Of course, all three should only be applied if your compost has a lot of brown materials and is rather dry.

You can also choose to add water and high nitrogen materials while you remix the compost. I’ve found this to be highly effective. In fact, when I added some grass to my garbage bin composter it increased the temperature by 10 °C in just a couple of days.

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Insulation hacks

11. Kick start your compost with this bottle trick

Hat tip to the people at HotBin for this tip, which I learned when I used my first insulated compost bin. 

It’s super simple. After putting compost in a new bin (it should also work with a compost pile), fill a hot water bottle up with hot water. Bury it in the compost, and leave it. You may need to repeat once or twice. 

Confidence level: 10

This worked brilliantly when I tried it in a cool spring – although, do note it took a couple of refills before the compost started getting hot. It may not work as well if your compost is not insulated, or if you are not mixing brown and green layers together. 

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12. Keep your bin warm with this cheap, organic material

This one is very simple!

Pile up straw around the side of your compost heap. Every time you need to add more material, push the straw on the top to the side and add more straw as needed. 

Confidence level: 10

This is sound – we know that the more heat is trapped inside a compost heap, the quicker thermophilic bacteria will break down the compost. 

I’ve also personally found this to be a highly effective method. I mostly use it at the end of winter or in early spring, and found it a great way to keep compost warmer for longer before the weather warms up. 

As the weather gets hotter, I find there’s less need for it. 

Learn more ways to insulate the compost heap. 

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Compost worm magic

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13. Worm bait

Some composters purchase worms to add to their compost heap. This can be an expensive way to compost, especially when worms will usually find their own way to the heap as it cools down. 

However, if they are being a bit slow to arrive, you can attract them to your compost bin with coffee grounds. Cornell Composting suggests adding a layer of coffee grounds to the bottom of your compost pile to do this. 

Worms also like damp cardboard, so adding some of this into your compost heap is another way to attract them. 

Confidence rating: 7/10

While the worms in my bin love coffee grounds, it’s hard to know for use if coffee grounds attract the worms into the compost sooner, or whether they would have arrived anyway. 

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14. Add worm cocoons

Most composters use live worms to break down compost material, but some composters simply add worm cocoons to trenches.

For details on this one, I am going to refer you to a more in-depth post! 

Red Worms Composting does a great job of describing how they created a trench with straw and food scraps before adding cocoons. 

Confidence level: 7

While I would love to try this hack, I simply can’t find worm cocoons for sale in my area. 

However, it does seem to make sense. I am planning to experiment with live worms when I have some bare space in my vegetable garden for more trenches!

Learn more: 6 Trench Composting Methods

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Thank you for reading!

Finally, thank you very much for reading. I’ll be continuing to monitor research and other sources for interesting new hacks, and I’ll be sharing them via this website and on the CompostMagazine Facebook when I find them.

Until then… happy composting!

Sources

1. Mussa, Sania, et al. “Exploring the Utility of Different Bulking Agents for Speeding Up the Composting Process of Household Kitchen Waste.” Scientific Reports, vol. 15, 2025, Article 2488, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-85433-0.
2. Kuroda, K., Tanaka, A., Furuhashi, K., & Fukuju, N. (2023). Evaluation of ammonia emission reducing effect by adding waste cooking oil in pilot-scale composting of dairy cattle manure. Animal Bioscience. doi: 10.5713/ab.23.0027. PMID: 37170507.
3. Awasthi, M. K., Duan, Y., Awasthi, S. K., Liu, T., & Zhang, Z. (2019). Effect of biochar and bacterial inoculum additions on cow dung composting. Bioresource Technology, 122407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122407
4. Wang, Z., Xu, Y., Yang, T., Liu, Y., Zheng, T., & Zheng, C. (2023). Effects of biochar carried microbial agent on compost quality, greenhouse gas emission, and bacterial community during sheep manure composting. Biochar, 5(3).
5. Koivula, N., Räikkönen, T., Urpilainen, S., Ranta, J., & Hänninen, K. (2004). Ash in composting of source-separated catering waste. Bioresource Technology, 93(3), 291–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2003.10.025
6. Yang, W., & Zhang, L. (2022). Addition of mature compost improves the composting of green waste. Bioresource Technology, 126927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126927
7. Coker, C. (2019, February). Composting and microbial inoculants: Adding microbial inoculants to improve temperature gain in a compost pile is examined. BioCycle.
8. Eyras, M. C., Rostagno, C. M., & Defossé, G. E. (1998). Biological evaluation of seaweed composting. Compost Science & Utilization, 6(2), 74–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/1065657X.1998.10701943
9. Cole, A. J., Roberts, D. A., Garside, A. L., de Nys, R., & Paul, N. A. (2016). Seaweed compost for agricultural crop production. Journal of Applied Phycology, 28(1), 629–642.