Murray Schollar - A Dedicated Master Composter

Murray Schollar was one of ten volunteers the City of Saskatoon sponsored to receive SWRC's Master Composter training in 1998.

In return for their free training, Master Composters promise to carry out 15 hours of composting education. Murray has certainly gone beyond this commitment Several of his neighbours bring their grass and leaves to him and some of them return the following spring to collect the finished compost. They have suggested that he charge for this service, but Murray feels that this work is his gift to the community. He also says that the exercise he gets from keeping the compost going (as well as the numerous other recycling and reusing projects which he always has on the go) save him money he could be spending at the gym to keep fit.

For a number of years, Murray has been taking apart shipping crates from snowmobiles to reuse the lumber. This started as a way to get free lumber to build fences at his daughter's acreage. He had so much lumber left over he looked for other uses. The long boards went to the fences, the shortest went to make salt boxes, which he sells for $10 each, and the end panels can be made into compost bins. He gives away the panels, along with instructions, composting info, and some sage advice.

Murray learned some important things at the SWRC Compost Camp. His trial-and-error compost piles had been working slowly. He learned that moisture and carbon (leaves) are needed to keep a pile active. Murray has tried deep watering his piles using an old lawn probe. He has also made holes in his piles to add water to the centre. He says keeping the piles wet enough is the secret.

Murray first started composting in Saskatoon in 1984. He had retired from farming and had an aversion to wasteful practices. He was not about to feed and water his lawn then send the results to the landfill. He figures each household sends at least one bag a week of lawn clippings to the landfill. Multiply that by 40,000 homes and 20 weeks of lawn cutting and you have a lot of wasted water, fertilizer and effort.

This fall Murray put his extra leaves through the shredder and then ran over them with the lawn mower. Then, he layered them with dirt and water. In mid-November he was getting heat which he measured with his probe thermometer. Compost Nuts like us find this exciting. He figures the trick is to shred the material and add lots of water and some soil.

Murray is a true teacher in spirit. He is always looking for new ways to get people hooked on composting. A simple way he thinks might work is for people to get started is with a cardboard box for a bin. Given his tendency to experiment, we're sure Murray will be able to report on whether this works in a few months. We look forward to hearing about Murray's future projects.

(Source: March 2000 WasteWatch)

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