In our daily lives we all generate a huge amount of waste. Have you ever wondered how difficult it would be to start composting your household's organic waste? We had a go - made the least effort possible and came up with some rather luscious-looking compost! Find out how.

1. Find/buy some simple netting and wrap it around - fastening the ends to each other and voila! you have a very rudimentary compost heap. You may want to tie the netting to a fence or to insert a stick for stability. Place the compost contraption somewhere reasonably far from your house (preferably on a soil or grass surface in order to encourage critter-participation) and start the fun.

2. Find/buy a simple bucket with a lid (keeps the smell "locked in" while also keeping the fruit-flies and other critters at bay) and keep it in your kitchen.

3. Before you start, add some crunched up newspaper, cardboard or old papers to the bin. This will assist ventilation in the compost heap at a later stage and will also make it easier for compost critters to move around.

4. On a daily basis add your organic waste (fruit pieces, tea bags, bits of bread and rice etc) to the bin. Avoid slow-decaying items such as citrus peels and egg shells and also avoid adding meat - we don't want to attract our rodent-friends! If things are getting messy in the bin then add more crunched up paper in order to absorb excess moisture.

5. When necessary, empty the contents of the bin into the compost contraption and rinse the bin. Repeat steps 3-5.

Aside from the obvious benefit of getting rid of your organic waste, in around 6 months or so (assuming you live in a warmish climate similar to the South African climate) you will end up with rather luscious-looking compost in the bottom of the pile. Not bad considering you don't even have to turn the compost!

Note: We have since found that the more the compost dries out the longer it will take, so if you live in a very dry area or have a dry season you would have to water the compost heap every now and then. To avoid this we recommend using something to keep the compost less breezy than simple netting, such as the big plastic bags that maize and rice is sold in (sometimes also firewood) or other thick plastic or natural materials. A lid would also help, but remember that you probably want to have rain coming in.