u/Tricky_Animal_3747

TLDR bc I don't know brevity ; I would like a method using a non-plastic containment, sizable, cheap (or worthwhile cost), way of composting that will be secure against animals since I live in the woods. Not much sun, I do not garden, this is solely for environmental and convenience sake. I don't want disease carrying bugs to create a utopia in my yard (roaches, flies, etc.) bugs in general are friends and welcomed. Please advise or point to a book/blog/post anything.

New to composting and failed an attempt at it over the last month. Basically made a bucket of rot and flies. I know that primarily I went wrong with lack of browns, and I'm willing to try again but want to change how I'm doing it. We started with a Lowe's bucket thinking we didn't produce much in kitchen scraps and wouldn't fill faster than 4-6 weeks. Turns out that we do. So we kick the bucket. But the next step seems cumbersome and frustrating. All the beginner stuff I find is for starting small. That didn't work out, so I'd like to just jump to our best long-term solution and just trial and error with that. Direction to reading would help or personal experience.

Main concerns:

Plastic containment; both for leaching plastic into the environment unnecessarily and also I just want to not buy/produce more in the world. I personally would like to avoid it. This eliminates most of not all tumblers. It seems this is most everyone's method in one way or another.

Vermin; we already had raccoons get into our garbage one time and now have to keep it in the basement. We live among the wildlife, right with the woods, you name it, we've got it lurking. I believe that most methods such as pile, bury, or open container like GEOBIN or chicken wire cylinder/bin will result in a mess and disease brought in no matter how much brown we use. Also how can I keep from creating fly-topia?

Smell; speaks for itself but I'm willing to believe all the posts I've read that say how to handle this with correct ratios. But boy howdy did that Lowe's bucket REAK and I want never to smell that again. Makes me hesitant on methods like hardware cloth and chicken wire.

Heat; we are heavily shaded by giant oaks for the sun to ever help us. (As such, not much more than herbs will ever be grown in said compost) Will it still get hot enough? Zone 7b in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Cost; we aren't financially able to drop $70-150 on a tumbler or other commercial product I can seem to find. I think I could construct something but would like pointers for what type with the aforementioned issues. It seems most constructed bins are somewhat open, or they are for much larger scale than a humble family of 3 to use. Really if we have to spend, then I'd like the solution to not result in starting over again.

Size; I'm conflicted after seeing the rate that our food scraps built up in the bucket, and the tumblers I find commercially seem a bit too small for a 4-8 week period for us.