Composting is a great way to reduce the waste you produce in your kitchen. We find that we fill one garbage bag with kitchen waste each week when we compost. When we didn’t compost we created two bags per week. That is a lot of garbage reduction. The other bonus is that you end up with compost – premium soil for free which can be used in your gardens. Win-win.
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photo credit: mjmonty
I’ve tried a few different ways of storing kitchen scraps temporarily before it goes out to the composting bin outside, and I think the best approach is to use a SMALL container, preferably metal. Lee Valley sells a nice stainless steel compost bucket that has an aerated lid with a charcoal filter. I find the air circulation keeps the kitchen scraps from starting to decompose too much, and because the container is fairly small it fills up after just a couple of days (depending on how much cooking you do) and you have to empty it before decomposition really sets in. When I shared a house with a few other people we used a 5-gallon lidded bucket from the hardware store, but that was so big that it was easy to let it go too long and you got hit with a pretty hefty stink when you lifted the lid to put in more compost. Plus the plastic absorbed odours and stains.
Interesting tip on the stainless steel container Brad. Our plastic container stinks. Also, with just 2 of us, the composting starts well before I haul it out to the Vader Helmet. Mush / liquified fruits and veg is pretty gross. I’ll look into a smaller container and a steel one at that.
I’ve been working at this for a while, and I’ve found that the hardest part is storing the things in the kitchen befor taking them out. I think that brad has a nice thing going there, and all of the people that do save, they all use a small container – that way, once it’s full, you have to take it out.
I dont have a fancy one, I just cut a section out of a plastic milk jug and wait until thats full to take out the compost.
Ours is not THAT big, but it isn’t that small either. Def not 5 gallons!