There is a black cone inside the green cone. Made of plastic, has a cone-shaped top and an attached basket that gets buried underground below the cone. You dump food scraps into the top, via a hinged lid, and they fall down into the basket. There, the food waste is broken down and consumed by bacteria, fungi, microorganisms, worms, and insects. Over time, as much as 90 percent of the volume inside the Cone will get absorbed into the surrounding soil as compost water.