Grab a shovel and Get the Scoop on Composting
Apartment Composting
Apartment composting is possible even with a little space. If you live in a warm climate compost on the patio or balcony. During those freezing winter months, compost in the space under the sink, next to the washer and dryer, or on top of your fridge. You can compost in your apartment and you don’t need a large bin and large tools to compost. Besides, if you live in an apartment you don’t need a truckload of compost anyway. You likely have a small balcony garden and a few indoor plants. A small apartment compost bin is all you need to create nutrient rich soil and save money on fertilizer.
My favorite way to compost in an apartment is with a worm bin. Getting started with an apartment-sized worm bin is simple and cheap. If you know a friend with worms then the only real cost is the plastic bin. Even if you need to buy worms you can find them for 20 dollars or less. Check on craigslist for some near-by worms. Often times you’ll find worms and meet a fellow worm compost guru that can offer good advice.
Ferment your food waste with a Bokashi composter. This is an alternate way to compost indoors with an airtight kitchen compost bin. Many of these airtight compost containers work faster with a bran-based material that naturally helps waste ferment with microorganisms. The bran material is called Bokashi and it helps break down your scraps. The airtight container will have no smell at all and can produce high quality compost quickly. Let everything ferment for two weeks, then place the material in your garden or place in a container to complete the process (Thanks Bokashi Man AL!). If you allow the process to continue in an second container, you should be able to feed the rich compost to your plants in two to four weeks.
Electric compost systems are the size of a regular household trashcan. These devices and can be placed in a standard cabinet. The electric composters mix, heat, and aerate food scraps, before transferring them to a lower chamber, resulting in fresh, garden-ready compost every two weeks.
| This entry was posted by Compost Scoop on 2010/03/13 at 14:03, and is filed under Composting. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 5 months ago
“The bran material is called Bokashi and it helps break down your scraps. The airtight container will have no smell at all and can produce high quality compost quickly. Let everything ferment for two weeks, then feed the rich compost to your plants.”
Not exactly.
After two weeks, the food waste will not breakdown or decompose into “black gold” aka compost, inside the bucket. Putting the bokashi fermented food waste into the ground, compost bin or large planter is required to complete the process. This finished material could be ready in as little as two weeks. I usually wait a month.
If you do apply the unfinished bokashi waste directly to your plants, the high acidic content [like a pickle] will burn them.
about 5 months ago
Oh, looks like I misread. Thanks Al! So after two weeks you are done with the indoor process. After that you still need to take it outside? So, this method is good for reducing waste, but maybe not perfect for a tiny apartment since you need an additional place to put waste to “finish off”?
about 5 months ago
Correct. The good news is that the bokashi food waste stores well. You could transfer a full bokashi bucket to a larger container and re-start using it. I encourage people to find others with a compost bin and ask to make a contribution. As I said, a large planter will work too. Some people have buried the waste in their local park.
BTW, almost everyone I know who has used a NatureMill in their kitchen eventually moved it on to their balcony or into their garage because of the smell.