HOTBIN Composting Case Studies

Featured Case Studies/Reviews

The HOTBIN has been reviewed by a wide variety of people from journalists, keen gardeners and places such as school and catering environments.

Want us to add your story? Please contact us.

Adam Pasco Reviews HOTBIN

 

Adam Pasco
Experienced Gardening Journalist

Been using HOTBIN for 4 years to recycle every compostable bit of waste. Adam is the former editor of Gardeners World magazine for over 20 years and claims he has never come across a composter quite like the HOTBIN in over 30 years of being a gardening journalist.

Read more

 

 

Robert Barker
RHS Gold Medal Winning Garden Designer

Keen composter and gold medal winning garden designer, Robert Barker purchased the HOTBIN following a diagnosis of arthritis. Find out how he got on with the HOTBIN. 

Read more

Composting in a Small Household

Ben
Composting in a Small Household
 

Composting in a small 2 person household can be challenging, here we see how Ben has been composting with a small amount of waste.

Read more

How HOTBIN Replaced Council Food Waste Collection

 

Jane Green
Amateur Gardener, Hertfordshire

Following the local council issuing kerbside food waste bins in 2013, Jane was worried about rotting food at the kerbside attracting rats and foxes and so started to look for better alternatives.

Read more

Hendrix and Diana Barker

Diana and Hendrix (A Gingernut Ranger)
Allotmenteer and Passionate Chicken Keeper


A unique and amusing HOTBIN composting experience from a chicken’s point of view where Hendrix explains all about how her Mummy composts chicken waste and other matter using the HOTBIN.

Read more

 

Dave Finkle's HOTBIN Review in Grow Your Own Magazine

Dave Finkle
Grow Your Own Magazine Contributor and Farmer
 

Dave Finkle, farmer and regular contributor to Grow Your Own magazine tests out and reviews the HOTBIN Composter.

Read more

Collingwood School HOTBIN Case Study

Collingwood School
Morpeth
 

Following an incident with a wasps nest in a dalex, the school have since changed to using a HOTBIN. The aim is to teach students about recycling and how to use compost on the school garden to grow vegetables - safely of course.

Read more

HOTBIN Compost Helps to Grow Great Onions

Mr Beaton
Keen Onion Grower
 

Using the HOTBIN for over five and a half years, Mr Beaton has found it to be an effective way of producing high quality compost from kitchen and garden waste. The compost has done wonders for his onion growing!.

Read more

Permaculture HOTBIN review

Maddy Harland
Editor, Permaculture Magazine
 

Mainly used for composting food waste, the experts from Permaculture review HOTBIN.

Read more

Old Church Cottages Composts Food Waste from Guests

Marilyn Framrose
Owner of Old Church Cottages
 

Using HOTBIN since 2012 to compost food waste from holiday guests, Marilyn covers her experience with controlling large amounts of food waste from guests.

Read more

Janice Shipp from Which Magazine Reviews HOTBIN

Janice Shipp
Which? Magazine
 

Tested HOTBIN as a new product in 2012 and updated in 2013.

Read more

Composting Vegware Biodegradable Food Packaging

Vegware
Biodegradable Food Packaging
 

Approached by Lucy from the Food Waste Network/Vegware in 2012, we trialled composting a range of biodegradable food packaging in the HOTBIN.

Read more

Roots and Shoots Team Alnwick Reviews HOTBIN

 

Kevin Dowd
Roots and Shoots Team
 

Located in the Roots and Shoots area which is part of Alnwicks charitable work to educate schools amongst others about gardening.

Read more

HOTBIN Blog Reviewers

Eli Donald

Growing veg, brewing beer and making bread, see how keen blogger and YouTuber Eli got on with her HOTBIN.

Garden 59
A little kitchen garden with big ambitions

On this blog Matt shares his experiences as an apprentice gardener in Worcestershire.

www.garden59.co.uk

The Compost Bin
Sarah The Compost Woman

Musings on living a different, more self sufficient life with Compost Woman and Compost Man.

www.the-compostbin.com

Freds Shed Working hot, read Freds review on Fred Sheds website.
Garden and Gardener

Allotmenteers Sarah and John write about their experiences with their plot and the latest products of interest to gardeners - the HOTBIN being one of them.

Queen of Easy Green

The essential everyday guide to helping families save time, money and waste the easy green way.

Urban Turnip

In a bid to lead a more sustainable lifestyle, Urban Turnip offers a great read following the successes and failures of small-space London veg growing. A review of HOTBIN alongside other small-space composters is offered.

Professional Gardeners and Journalists

Constance Craig Smith
(writing for the Daily Mail)

"What a rotter! Nothing turns food and garden waste into compost quicker than a HOTBIN, and it even takes bones!"

Read what else Constance had to say.

Adam Pasco (Former BBC Gardeners World Magazine Editor)

Adam has been a leading gardening journalist in the UK for over 30 years, successfully launching and editing BBC Gardeners' World Magazine for 22 of these. He now runs his own company.
Adam has had his HOTBIN unit since 2011.

Alys Fowler (The Guardian)

Alys Fowler is a renowned  urban gardener. She tested the HOTBIN in 2014 and deemed it to be "sleek and sexy". Her post and her blog on The Guardian's website is a good read.

Maddy Harland & John Adams (Permaculture Magazine)

Maddy is the editor and co-founder of Permaculture magazine designed to promote ideas for sustainable living.

Tom Pattinson (Morpeth Herald)

Gardening correspondent for the Morpeth Herald, Tom has had his HOTBIN since 2011.

Jane Perone (The Guardian)

The Guardians Gardening editor, Jane briefly reviewed the HOTBIN.

Francine Raymond (Telegraph) (& Kitchen-Garden-Hens.co.uk)

Covering the best way to compost, Francine writes about her new "elegant" HOTBIN and the magical process of taking kitchen waste and turning it into crumbly compost.

Weekend Jobs: The Joys of a Winter Compost Heap.

Hilary Scott (Freelance)

Freelance journalist located in Northampton. Hillary Scotts Blog

Janice Shipp (Which?)

Janice Shipp, trained horticulturalist and writer for Which? Gardening magazine reviewed the HOTBIN as a new product.

Jane Griffiths and Ryton Garden Team (Garden Organic)

Jane Griffiths (Sustainable Waste Manager) Undertook Scientific comparison and tested HOTBIN.

“The HotBin processed a very challenging food waste mix into compost after 90 days. During the trial we were really impressed that when checking the temperature it read 60°c when the outside temperature was around 10°c.”

Oxonian Gardener - (Petra Hoyer Millar)

The Oxonian Gardener talks about the battle her garden has faced this Summer with the heat wave and also the use of her Hit HOTBIN.

The Sun Newspaper 5 Best Compost Bins - Read more here

Fellow HotBinners (You, Our Customers!)

Mr Beaton
(Keen onion grower!)

I have used a Hot Compost Bin for around two years and have found it to be a very quick and effective method for producing high quality compost from kitchen and garden waste. read more here.

Media Appearances and Recognition

Alan Titchmarsh Show

Reviewed and presented on ITV television show

No longer available - on ITV player.

Alys Fowler and Jane Perrone (The Guardian)

Discuss composting and Alys talks about her love of her HOTBIN in the Guardians Sow, Grow, Repeat podcast.

Listen to the podcast

Beechgrove Garden            

HOTBIN featured on Beechgrove garden with talk through of product by Jim McColl. 

Programme factsheet available.

Grow Your Own Magazine

Awarded by readers as Product Year (Nov 2012)

Best New Veg Product - third place. The only compost bin to win an award in the Grow Your Own "Great British Growing Awards".

Published in November's copy GYO Magazine.  Read copy here

James Martin Saturday Morning 

David Domoney and James Martin review home composting options claiming the HOTBIN to be the "Ferrari of the Compost Bin World"

Watch the ITV clip 

Radio 2 Drive Time Show
Simon May and Liza Tarbuck

Tony Callaghan featured in a slot on Innovation, hosted by Liza Tarbuck.

No longer available - on BBC iPlayer for 30 days only.

The Telegraph

Noted as one of three top compost bins

Follow link to Three of the Best Compost Bins

Commercial Settings

Clares Cattery

Clare owns a modern cattery located in North Norfolk. This case study looks at how the business goes about composting cat, chicken and even alpaca poo.

Vegware Ltd

Lucy from Vegware Ltd was curious as to wether the HOTBIN could compost compostable cups, tableware and food containers.

gNappies

Composting nappies from gNappies and the "pad and pant" system to common disposable nappy systems.

Council Owned HOTBIN's

Buckinghamshire

1 unit with Waste Recycling Officer and 1 unit at Green Dragon Rare Breeds Farm and Eco Centre.

www.greendragonecofarm.co.uk

Durham

4 units, 2 with Master Composters & 2 with Recycling Team

Herefordshire

1 unit with Master Composter - Sarah, aka 'Compost Woman'.

Follow Sarah's review blog here

Northamptonshire

One unit at Brixworth Park.

Yorkshire

2 units on display at York Rotters

http://stnicks.org.uk/

Scotland (Zero Waste)

Waste Recycling Officer

Schools / Colleges

Collingwood (Morpeth)

HOTBIN acquired to replace the plastic dalex compost bin after students had a close call with a wasp nest.

Read full case study

Durham Agricultural College

1 HOTBIN for HNC students following a hot composting talk by Tony Callaghan.

Imperial College

4 Units for sustainable Agriculture centre. Feedback awaiting.

Allotment Associations / Communities

Waldringfield Community

Community keen to reduce their carbon footprint purchased 12 HOTBIN's, 7 of which went to Waldringfield Primary School. Videos about the composting community and their progress can be followed up here.

YouTube Channel and the Waldringfield Community Website

South Gosforth

Gill from Gosforth allotment - HOTBIN works quickly, few
odours and is easy to use.

Morpeth

Karin from Morpeth allotments - good quality compost and several batches a season.

Trimdon Community Allotment

Mary from Trimdon allotments - The number of worms in the bin is phenomenal.

Newcastle Allotments

Mike does a write-up on the HOTBIN for Newcastle Allotments.

  More information for allotmenteers considering a HOTBIN.

HOTBIN On Display

Ryton Gardens (Garden Organic)

Ryton Gardens
Wolston Lane

Ryton on Dunsmore
Coventry, CV8 3LG

http://www.rytongardens.co.uk

Green Dragon Rare Breeds Farm and Eco Centre

Claydon Road
Hogshaw, MK18 3LA

www.greendragonecofarm.co.uk

 

Please Note: To the best of our knowledge these locations are up-to-date and the HOTBINs are actively being used.

We do however advise that if you are making a special trip to see a HOTBIN to call ahead to make sure it will be possible.