Best Home Composting Method For You
Simply put, the best home composting method depends on you! It depends on your household size and your space, whether you live in an apartment, a townhome or a house with a backyard. It also depends on how active you want to be with your compost and the amount of time you realistically have for it. A single Gen Z-er who works a 9-5 job will have a very different composting set-up than a work-from-home Millennial who has 2 kids and a garden out back. But regardless of who you relate to the most, each person’s composting method will be very different. So we say - just start, have fun, be open and flexible to figure it out along the way.
If you live in an apartment.
Regardless of the size of your apartment or condo, the lack of backyard or garden soil will limit the size and capabilities of your compost. Since most compost need to be in contact with the soil or earth you will then be limited to a smaller compost bin that’s stored either in your balcony or by your kitchen counter.
Low involvement composting - simply gather and drop-off. Make sure to set aside all your food scraps and organic matters (your greens and browns, more on this later) in a bin or a container that you can drop off weekly at your local compost facility. To make it easier, makesoil.org provides a map for easier drop-off location. Hot Tip: freeze your scraps to avoid the flies and smells. Simply use a Nata Gallon Home Compostable Zip Bag to dump all your waste into, pop it in the freezer then take out before drop-off. With this said, each facility might have different requirements so please make sure to check especially when dropping off. Some won’t allow home compostable zip bags or other products, while others will. There are facilities that don’t accept meat or dairy, so best to double-check and ask.
Medium involvement composting - considered medium because it includes purchasing a home composting machine. We are generally not a fan as most “home compost machines” function as dehydrators than actual composters, but it is a decent, easy and cleaner option to divert your food waste. Mill’s even have a subscription program that picks up these scraps from your home, easy-peasy!
High involvement composting - worm composting or vermicomposting. This process needs a worm bin and well worms, earthworms to be exact. Worm bins are compact enough to store under the sink (cool, dark location) but needs a lot of time and care by making sure the ecosystem of the bin is good enough for the worms to do it’s job - constantly making sure they have a bedding of newspaper, they remain moist and they have enough food scraps to process and digest.
If you live in a house with outdoor space.
Easy involvement composting - use a green cone digester which is a basket that gets buried fairly deep into your yard/garden where you end up dumping your food scraps and organic materials. You don’t get to “harvest compost” and will take longer compared to other methods, but all you do is dump and let nature takes it’s course.
Medium involvement composting - big tumblers or geobins. Available online, at your local Costco, Home Depot or your city office. These are big containers that you use to dump all your waste into. But unlike the green cone digester, this is not buried into the soil, just placed on top of it. It takes a more active approach in facilitating heat by turning, mixing or tumbling the contents of the bin and moisture by adding water when necessary. Consider it a long-cook stew where you add, stir, adjust along the way.
High involvement composting - have the space, patience, time and want the best quality of plant fertilizer? Then a vermicompost farm is the best option for you! Basically a larger scale of worm composting that would entail a small shed in the yard to keep the temperatures stable for all your worms.
This is home composting simplified and it may still feel overwhelming, understandably so. But honestly, it gets easier once you start. Or better yet, if you have free time on your hands volunteer at your local composting facility or organization. They would love your help and you will get a better understanding and appreciation for composting. Win-win!
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Source:
https://directcompostsolutions.com/8-methods-composting/
https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/approaches-composting
