Bokashi is a generic Japanese word for "fermented organic matter". Eco Organics ferments a large range of organic materials, such as grains, animal manures and vegetable materials, to produce different varieties of bokashi for different applications.

The bokashi used in our Bokashi Recycling Systems is crushed Australian grain (usually barley, wheat and/or rice mixture) fermented with our beneficial microbes and molasses. This material has a moderate nutrient value on its own, but is also teeming with billions of beneficial microbes which go straight to work when in contact with organic material, such as the food scraps in the bokashi bins, or the organic matter within the soil.

The microbes work in an anaerobic environment - i.e. with no Oxygen - so they don't produce heat or odours, there is no leachate problem, and no insects or rodents either.

Bokashi can be used for:

• recycling waste
• controlling natural odours
• conditioning soil
• septic tanks - increasing activity and clearing blocks
• treating animal droppings
• addition to potting soils and mixes, and seedraising mixes
• accelerating existing compost heaps and bins
• adding to worm farms
• farming and horticulture.

What is Eco Bokashi Fermentation, and why is it so much better than composting?

Fermentation is a process of treating organic waste which uses anaerobic microbes, rather than aerobic microbes. It is similar to the process of pickling - a pickled onion for example still looks like an onion, although inside it has changed completely.

The advantages of this process are many, including reduced greenhouse gas emission, a more nutritious end-product, and far easier management.

A comparison of the two processes is as follows:

Composting	Eco Bokashi Fermenting
Can produce foul odours	Sweet-smelling, or odourless
Can attract rodents	No rodents
Can attract flies and other insects	Does not attract any insects, including flies
Produces heat	Produces no heat, all energy retained
Requires mechanical and labour input	Done in-vessel and requires no turning
Produces significant amounts of greenhouse gases	Produces minimal greenhouse gases
Biomass is reduced by up approx 50%	Biomass is reduced by less than 10%
Takes up to 6 months to produce	Takes about 4 weeks to produce
Is unstable and reactive until complete	Is stable and storable immediately
Many nutrients and organic material lost in heating process	All nutrients, organic material and microbes retained.
Wastes leachate which can become an environmental hazard	Leachate is re-used, all nutrients retained
Some products are not recommended for composting	ANY organic material can be fermented

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