Yes very heavy plastic, extremely good quality material and construction. I have not had 1 problem with them. They will outlast you perhaps, lol.
I have since lifted them off the ground with cinder blocks to accommodate the manufacturer's tea catchers, which are a little odd design but do the trick. You could perhaps make your own tea catchers with an oil recovery container from an auto parts store and some fittings from the hardware store. 1 is not too expensive but for three, when I got them I was like.. aargh I could have pieced these together myself and saved $100.
The black color attracts heat and they compost material pretty fast, you will probably be impressed. Put it where sunlight hits it and in just a few days your material will be cooked so hot and broken down pretty well. Good compost in perhaps a month or two. I'm always running different batches. One for new material, one for finished material I use, and one I don't touch because its going to be the next for finished material. I rotate between which I fill and which I use, like an assembly line.
Get a few pails to take scraps outside, I mounted a pail under the sink and interchange with clean ones often. Two or three pails is a smart investment, when they get dirty and you are in a rush to replace it with a clean one, you will realize the need for a couple pails. I use this exact model:
http://www.gardeners.com/Odor-Free+C...efault,cp.html
We were at IKEA yesterday and saw something similar for $6 each so if you have one near you perhaps check into that too.
Any more questions, lmk! Happy to help because I wish everyone composted.
http://urbangardencenter.com/product...ct9/index.html