Man Uses Old Wood Pallets To Create A Backyard Compost Bin With A Resourceful DIY

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Your very own backyard compost bin is the perfect way to upcycle kitchen scraps and yard waste into a nutrient-rich soil amendment to supercharge your garden. Home composting in your backyard is easy, you just need to have a place for it. The trouble is pre-made compost bins can easily set you back hundreds of dollars, and simply piling up scraps in an unused corner of your backyard will look pretty messy. But, if you're ready to DIY, you can use old pallets to construct your own compost bin to save money, keep your backyard tidy, and put your organic leftovers to good use all at the same time. That's exactly what YouTuber GrowVeg showed us how to do using some old wood pallets and a few basic tools.

Kicking off with four standard-size wooden pallets, GrowVeg joins three of them together using wood screws and corner brackets to fasten the walls. He cuts the fourth pallet in half using a basic hand saw and turns the two halves into swingable doors using hinges. A pair of latch hooks become the locks on the doors. And that's it! As far as function goes, your DIY backyard compost bin is ready to start breaking down organic material. But GrowVeg goes the extra mile, adding a few finishing touches to make it a bit more sturdy, like plate brackets on top of the corners, rebar spiked into the ground to brace the bottom, and a wrap of chicken wire to keep compost from spilling out. Let's see how much the basic and deluxe versions will cost to complete.

The most expensive components of this project are probably the wooden pallets. Luckily, there are plenty of places you can find free pallets for DIY projects. Just make sure, as GrowVeg points out, that they are heat-treated pallets with an "HT" stamp on them. Skip pallets that have an "MB" stamp, which indicates they've been chemically treated with methyl bromide, a toxic pesticide.

For your tools, you'll need, at minimum, a drill, a screwdriver, and a hand saw. Assuming you can grab some heat-treated pallets for free, and you have the tools handy already, all you need are the materials. You'll need four corner brackets (about $15 for a box of 20), some wood screws (about $9 for a box of 100), four metal hinges (about $11 for two pairs), and four hook and eye latches for the doors (about $6 for two pairs). You should end up spending about $40 or less to put together the basic version of this backyard compost bin, not including the tools and wooden pallets. If you want to really cut down on costs, you can always skip the door and leave the fourth wall wide open.

To go the extra-deluxe route that GrowVeg lays out, you'll also need some 2-foot rebar stakes for bracing, some corner plate brackets for extra stability on top, a roll of chicken wire for wrapping, and some wood staples to affix the chicken wire to the wood pallets. You can get rebar stakes, corner plate brackets, and a box of wood staples for about $5 each, adding about another $40 to your project budget. 

The chicken wire is where this DIY project gets pricey. A roll of chicken wire like this 1 in. Mesh x 4 ft. x 50 ft. 20-Gauge Galvanized Steel Poultry Netting at Home Depot will set you back about $70. At this point, your budget is approximately $150, which is still cheaper than some pre-made compost bins but about on par with this Greenes 173.92 Gal. Cedar Wood Composter. If you're still stuck on the fence, not to worry, you can always start off small by making compost in a 5-gallon bucket.