In our previous articles, we discussed the importance of recycling your organic waste and we proposed different alternatives for doing so. Among them was the consideration of automated appliances – including the Tero – that allow you to process your food scraps in just a few hours and use the final material as a nutrient-rich natural fertilizer.

In this article, you will learn more about how Tero turns organic waste into a natural fertilizer and the different elements that make the device the most powerful of its kind. 

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The Tero has a unique technology - currently patent pending - that makes it up to 200% more efficient than other devices that do not have this technology. Alternating drying and grinding, the processing cycle is fully automatic and will stop itself when the fertilizer is ready to be used.

The Grinding System

The Tero is equipped with a robust grinding system that allows organic waste to be cut into small pieces. Moreover, it is the fine particles of the fertilizer that allows it to be absorbed more quickly by soil and plants. It also allows you to disperse and spread the natural fertilizer easily in outdoor plants, lawns or vegetable gardens. 

Although some pieces may remain coarser at the end of a cycle (onion or citrus peels that are coarser and more difficult to grind), they are easily concealed outdoors and will remain just as beneficial to your soil. 

In traditional compost, foods such as corn cobs or eggshells remain virtually intact after several months or even years of processing. With the Tero, they are crushed in just a few hours. 

The Drying System

The Tero also has a heating element that provides a controlled heat input to destroy all pathogens in the food. This is why it is possible to dispose of raw or cooked meat and fish in it, unlike traditional compost.

To achieve a fully dehydrated material, it is essential that the Tero has an effective heating and ventilation system, since the food is made up of about 85% water. Once the processing cycle is completed, the volume of your organic waste will have decreased by 90% since all the liquid will be eliminated. The fact that it is dry also makes it easier to spread around green spaces.

It is important that the final natural fertilizer be 100% dry so that it can remain stable and not develop any mould when stored. It can be stored for more than a year in an airtight container, therefore the Tero can be used at any time, even when the gardening season hasn’t started. Depending on the number of people in your household, you will accumulate between 500 ml and 2 L of fertilizer per week, which is an ideal amount to prepare your garden for warmer weather.

The added value of organic waste

Soils

In an ecosystem like Canada’s, soils need organic matter that contains nutrients to feed and keep healthy. These nutrients improve the different characteristics that come into play for a good soil structure: moisture content, water retention, aeration system, etc. 

If we take the example of a forest, the soil structure will be able to develop with the various organic wastes that fall to the ground, such as dead leaves or tree fruits. 

In a green space such as an outdoor courtyard, soil and plants require the same needs and the absence of abundant vegetation does not fulfill those needs. That’s why a natural fertilizer made up of crushed, dried organic matter – therefore pathogen-free – will have a similarly beneficial effect on soil vitality and plant growth.

The food we eat daily is full of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc.) that are released when they come into contact with the soil and the microorganisms it contains. These allow the absorption and transformation of the nutrients before they are assimilated by plants.