Wood Chips as Cover?

My wife and I have been considering doing a bucket setup. Currently we're on a septic. We have access to seemingly infinite quantities of ramial wood chips from the power company nearby. I've read that wood chips don't work great as a cover material in the bucket because the large size allows smells to easily rise through. The chips I bring onsite have quite a lot of leaves in the mix. I'm not sure what effect that has. Honestly I wouldn't mind dumping the bucket every couple of days. The compost bins would not be terrible far away from the house. Do you think if we used enough of the material we could keep the smell down?

I've heard that partially decomposed wood chips would be preferable. We could put a big pile in the yard and let them sit for a year first before starting with a compost toilet. I'm hoping there is some way the wood chips could work for us, because ultimately that's what's easily available, and infinitely replenish-able.  

I have always said, "Do as much for yourself as you can."

If you have a lot of woodchips, I would use them, and then maybe buy a bag of lime if the smell is too much and sprinkle some on for odor control. Lime is not great for composting, but you can always have a separate pile.

I think I may have figured it out. I can run the chips through a 1/2” screen, then an 1/8” screen and use whatever I get left over. I suppose I could go down to 1/16” if that’s advisable?

Rama Malinak wrote:I think I may have figured it out. I can run the chips through a 1/2” screen, then an 1/8” screen and use whatever I get left over. I suppose I could go down to 1/16” if that’s advisable?

That is an excellent idea, and I think you are right, that would work well. (Apples for you my friend!)

My first apples, thanks! I was sifting the chips in my hand yesterday and realized that a solid 25% of the material, if not more is ultimately made up of very fine shavings. I love finding solutions!