[Stainless Steel Kitchen Compost Crock from Real Goods]

Just because you don’t live on a farm, or even somewhere with a small yard, doesn’t mean you can’t compost. No matter your size of home or land, you can compost easily with a basic kitchen compost bin – even if you live in an apartment in the city. Your local parks or community gardens, or your own potted plants can use the compost. Bonus; in recent years, kitchen compost bins have even gone down in price.

Composting basics:

• Composting is simply allowing organic matter to decay and return to the soil, rather than tossing it in the garbage.
• Composting can reduce household waste (i.e. what ends up in your trash can) but plenty – up to 30% or more.
• If you have a  yard or even potted plants, compost is the perfect natural soil additive. Composting (adding compost to) your plants will reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers and can even be used as mulch.

Items to compost:

• Produce -veggies and fruit scraps or produce that’s gone bad
• Coffee grounds
• Eggshells
• Fireplace ashes
• Yard clippings, and cut grass
• Bread, pasta, old beans

To learn more about what can and cannot be composted, visit Compost Info Guide or Composting at the EPA.

Now about kitchen compost bins…

The Stainless Steel Kitchen Compost Crock above is one small solution to composting. The one-gallon interior will hold a week’s worth of scraps. Also, there’s a six-month activated-carbon-filter lid to trap odors and circulate air (for rot prevention).

Other ideas:

NatureMill Automatic Indoor Composter also from Real Goods: This kitchen bin can handle even meat, fish and dairy. “The NatureMill automatic composter achieves true “hot composting” temperatures for odor-, bug- and worm-free composting of up to 120 lbs. of food waste per month.” You can even use this outside. One batch of compost made in this bin will feed 10-40 square feet of lawn or garden.

Bamboo Compost Pail

Compost Pail

Green Stoneware Compost Crock

Garbage disposals keep trash out of landfills. You may think, well, it’s just old food, but stuck at the bottom of a landfill, old food can still take a while to decompose and it also is one of the major factors contributing to the smell at the dump.

Garbage disposals are fast, meaning people are more likely to use them, which in turns means less trash tossed.

Garbage disposals help you to recycle. If you toss cardboard or an old can in the trash, then later realize this, are you more likely to dig it out if the trash isn’t full of icky wet tossed food? Yeah, you are.

A side benefit of the garbage disposal is that it makes your whole kitchen smell better – no gross old food rotting away in the can.

Your other option when it comes to food scraps is a compost pile outside, or a kitchen compost bin inside. Both are great options, especially if you’re an avid gardener, but overall, for non-gardening folks, a garbage disposal is a great green tool. Make sure your next kitchen comes equipped with one, or if your current kitchen is missing one consider installing a new disposal.