Composting is being used more and more frequently to convert tons of waste of all types, including solid wastes, leaves and sewage sludge, into valuable soil conditioners and soil amendments. Equipment is available for treating such wastes and windrowing the mast material. These rows of composted material utilize the naturally occurring bacterial action of biologically digesting the organic materials. Since this natural process is aerobic, the composed material must be regularly mixed and aerated in order to avoid anaerobic cores that would otherwise form in the composted rows of material. If the composted materials are properly and periodically mixed and aerated, the waste materials will break down naturally and be converted into a finished material that is stable and relatively odorless and which can be used as soil conditioners and soil amendments.
There are available a variety of different machines for aerating and mixing compost piles, especially those stored in windrows. These machines commonly use a rotating drum with flails that will turn, mix and aerate the compost. There is also known a machine that has a single elevating conveyor that utilizes a double auger than feeds the material onto an elevating conveyor which elevates all of the material and re-deposits it. However, in none of these prior art machines can positive inversion of all of the material occur. In order to produce a finished usable material that can fully utilize the natural bacterial action, the material in the compost must be not only mixed and aerated but it must be completely inverted so that the material inside the compost can be positively exposed to elevated temperatures thereby effecting pathogen kill. Unless all of the material is properly mixed, aerated and inverted on a regular basis, the bacterial action, which requires the oxygen in the air, will not be as rapid or as complete as need be to produce a usable, final product free of pathogen kill.
Also, prior art machines are relatively expensive, and require a considerable amount of maintenance, and some of them are difficult to clean. There is, therefore, a need for a simple machine that is easy to clean and which will have a long, useful life with a minimum amount of maintenance problems.