Recover a putrefied compost

A neighbour is going to move to another house soon, and has asked if I would like the contents of his compost bin, obviously I jumped at the chance and said yes.

On inspection I found the plastic bin was full of grass and cooked food and it stinks to high heaven. Is it recoverable or would I contaminate my well tended compost?

Smelly means anaerobic digestion is going on in there. It needs to be turned and layered with something to let the air in. Cooked food is bad as it attracts pests like mice and rats, but is not inherently non-compostable. I'd be pretty wary about mixing it with my well maintained bin.

Only thing is rotting bread may attract mice and rats. If there is cooked veg large amounts of this will be rotting quicker therefore smelling and again may attract pests. Hopefully they haven't put any meat in there!

Hole in the ground, I like it. :happy:

It certainly is recoverable.  Just by moving it and spreading it you'll aerate it.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it being contaminated with bread or food scraps.  Rats will get into the heap whether or not there's edibles in there.  For nesting and over-wintering.  Live and let live.

I like your use of hedge clippings for aeration.  Your neighbour's stuff will help break them down if turned into your heap.  It'll act as an activator.

Or we could just go and buy a consumer product to do the same job from a Garden Centre...

Best wishes, whatever you decide.

Tom

You can always use it as an opportunity to create a wormery.  I have one which I use to produce potting compost.  It doesn't create huge amounts, but my system is a fairly small one.  You can use stackable storage containers - just look on Youtube for similar projects.  You can buy in the live tiger worms required from fishing shops (more cheaply), as well as online (bit more expensive).  My children find my wormery bin fascinating and help me sieve the compost (in fact, it is all I can do to stop my little boy filling his pockets with his "pet worms"!