Patent ID: 8298312

Claim:
A method for composting a whole object, the method comprising: providing a housing having a composting chamber arranged to receive the whole object therein; providing a grinder supported in the composting chamber at the bottom end of the composting chamber; and providing a mixing member supported in the composting chamber above the grinder for rotation about an upright axis relative to the housing in which the mixing member is open and unobstructed along the upright axis member in the form of a sweep arm which spirals upwardly in a direction sloping away from a direction of rotation of the sweep arm from a bottom end of the sweep arm adjacent the grinder at the bottom end of the chamber to a top end of the sweep arm spaced above the grinder at the bottom end of the chamber such that the sweep arm is in proximity to a wall of the composting chamber throughout a full length of the sweep arm between the bottom end and the top end of the sweep arm; providing the grinder with a first grinding element and a second grinding element rotatable relative to one another about the upright axis of the mixing member in which; the first grinding element comprises a rigid member including a slot formed therein which extends fully through the rigid member from a first side to a second side of the rigid member and defining first edges at a periphery of the slot; and the second grinding element comprises a lug defining second edges which closely fits within the slot and which is arranged to pass fully through the slot from the first side to the second side of the rigid member as the grinding elements are rotated relative to one another; inserting the whole object into the composting chamber along the unobstructed upright axis of the mixing member to the grinder at the bottom end of the composting chamber; grinding the whole object into a ground material at the bottom end of the composting chamber by fixing one of the grinding elements to be stationary relative to the housing and rotating the other grinding element relative to the housing such that the first edges of the first grinding element are rotated in close proximity past the second edges of the second grinding element so as to produce a shearing action between the first and second edges; and mixing the ground material in the composting chamber by rotating the mixing member such that the sweep arm moves about the composting chamber in a sweeping motion adjacent to the wall of the composting chamber to urge the ground material from the grinder at the bottom end of the composting chamber upwardly along the wall of the composting chamber.