It is desirable, but not essential, to occasionally stir or rake new waste into the active upper layer (10-20 cm) of waste in the HOTBIN.
This mixes the bacteria in active layer in with the new material, helping to increase the speed of decomposition. It also reduces the build up of wide air channels that can create pockets of dried compost.
Raking is very different from traditional turning and forking that requires a huge volume of material to be moved and reset as a new heap. You can read more about turning compost here.
Smaller pieces of waste compost faster so it is helpful to chop things up . You do not need a shredder - although these can be useful if you have a lot of woody material.
Top Tip
Where the HOTBIN is concerned, we advise chopping waste preferably to less than 2 cm but always less than 4 cm. Do not mash or pulp your waste!
