Ummm, let's say I needed to compost a large...carcass, say, I don't know, about the size of an adult.

theoretically of course.

How much brown material would I need to make sure there would be no odor that might lead to discov, er, I mean complaints from the neighbors?

And, ahhh, how long before there wasn't any...evidence, let's say, of what I put there?

I kind of need answers like, NOW.

Thanks in advance.

You need to get a good chipper/shredder. If you want to make sure it goes away, chipping is required.

Given your user name, I'm assuming the item you're trying to discard is pretty high in protein (spinach, even canned, is high in protein). You'll therefore need lots of high carbon matter.

Personally, if I had something like a dead sheep to get rid of, I'd probably open up a current compost heap and bury it in the middle, making sure it was completely covered by already rotting material full of the necessary bugs and microbes, then add as much horse manure as I could lay my hands on (it's nice and dense, helps keeps smells in) and then cover with something 'nice' like straw and do my best to maintain the right moisture level. I wouldn't stick long pointy compost thermometers in too deep, and I wouldn't turn the pile - just leave it for a year. Maybe I'd also stick a black plastic cover over it, weighted down with bricks, to mark it as 'do not disturb', and just take the cover off to water if necessary every now and then.

For interest, in Portugal they bury their dead for three years, then dig them up and if they are not completely decomposed they stick them back for another couple of years. This frees up the spaces in the cemetery. But presumably 'proper' composting would speed the process up a bit.

Happy Halloween!

The Bare Bones of Carcass Composting

Hey, some prisons have some pretty neat composting programs...I'm just sayin.

Good luck

Lloyd

For each large object, you need enough fresh pine sawdust to cover it to a depth of 2 feet.

Make a flattened pile of sawdust 2 feet thick that covers enough area so that when you place the carcass on the pile you have 3 feet on all sides.

Pile more sawdust onto the carcass until it's covered by at least 2 feet of the sawdust. Cover that with burlap and keep it moist.

Or, just rent the movie Fargo and watch how they do it with a wood chipper. Run pine branches or other tree parts through both before and after you run the the carcass chunks through - you need 4x (by weight) more vegetable matter. Stack it into a bin and turn weekly, keep it moist and it will be composted in a couple of months..

The DNA will degrade quickly, but spray down the wood chipper with bleach before you take it back to the rentalplace.

Lloyd