Is it possible to compost, from start to finish, in my kitchen?

February 24, 2021 7:40 AM

All the instructions I’ve found include eventually taking whatever scraps you gather to an outdoor composting bin. Is there a way to avoid this step?

Ideally I would like to compost to have access to nutrient-rich soil for plants. I would also like to reduce my food waste since we drink a lot of coffee and eat a lot of eggs.

I saw Vitamix sells a fully indoor electric composter for $400 but that seems to defeat the purpose of being more environmentally friendly. All the local composting facilities cost money to use, understandably.

Are there any other options? Thanks.

posted by girlmightlive to Home & Garden (18 answers total)

Look into vermicomposting / worm composting.
posted by jon1270 at 7:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [17 favorites]

I gather scraps in a container in my refrigerator, but I take them to my patio once a week and to a friend with a yard about once a month.

I doubt you would be able to compost all your scraps just inside. It seems like you would quickly run out of room to keep the scraps. And f they aren't either refrigerated or used with some kind of special containers or filters, they would stink after a while.

But there might be a composting company in your area that will pick up compost, or you could take it to a community garden.
posted by NotLost at 7:47 AM on February 24, 2021

As I understand it: one of the reasons to take it outside is to get access to the microbiome in your soil & outdoor air, so that they can start to digest your coffee grounds and whatnot.

Without those little outdoor critters breaking down your food waste -- and the other "brown, green, and black" that you add to it -- you have to reply on what's alive in your house. And I believe your indoor biome offers a lot fewer critters who can digest coffee bean hulls. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Vermicomposting (worm bins) and bokashi buckets can both work well indoors.
posted by fifthpocket at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]

Have you looked at Bokashi composting?

Another option is finding somebody who already has a compost pile, and agree to contribute your scraps in exchange for good soil. I live in an apartment and keep a covered pail near the front door for our veg detritus, and drop it off every few months.
posted by snerson at 7:48 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I'm not clear on what the hold up is. You can definitely compost indoors, eg in a 5 gallon bucket or a larger Rubbermaid tub.

Here is a nice wikihow about indoor composting.

The Bokashi method is enjoyed by many, and it is effective. It doesn't smell when covered but it stinks to hell when you open it.

Without knowing your specifics as far as space and tolerance for hassle, you might do well with a simple tub with drainage holes on bottom and air holes on top, or you might like the faster approach by having a vermiculture stage.

If you can give a little more info about what kind of space/time you can commit, what kind of volume you need to handle on what timeline, and what you want at the end, you might get more useful answers. Also worth noting if you're ok with some occasional earthy Odors or want this to be as odorless as possible.

On preview: wow a lot of answers poured in while I was typing. You don't need outdoors to get a good microbiota, that stuff is literally everywhere. You can increase the culture by never fully emptying the bin, of you're concerned about that.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:52 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Here's info on how to do just that.
posted by chaiminda at 7:53 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I have a fairly large apartment but not tons of storage space—i could make space on the floor of my pantry, which is the size of a typical closet, or underneath my kitchen sink. I do have a fire escape but it gets zero sunlight, and it’s also only a couple feet from my neighbor’s windows, so odor is a concern there.
posted by girlmightlive at 8:01 AM on February 24, 2021

My friend did vermicomposting for many years. It was basically in one of those big plastic storage tubs. They kept it in a closet. They never had a smell problem. This is entirely doable; you need to buy/acquire the worms for the starter kit.
posted by gideonfrog at 8:12 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

I vermicomposted for about five years in a tiny NYC apartment. I used a rubbermaid file box that sat under a table next to my kitchen, fed it exclusively shredded newspaper and the coffee grounds, eggshells, and fruit and veggie scraps from two enthusiastic home cooks, and about once a year I sifted the compost and used it to pot new plants and/or give away to others for the same purpose. The box needed no tending; the worms are just insanely efficient. The level of materials in the box rarely - maybe never? - rose above the half-way mark. I can't emphasize how miraculous it is. And there was, as above posters noted, absolutely no smell. The only reason I stopped was that I moved to new place that had an in-building compost system.
posted by minervous at 9:04 AM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]

- I knew a houseful of roommates that had a window that opened over a yard waste wheelie bin. They said they had all been dumping all their kitchen scraps into it for over a year, and it had never yet had to be taken out.

- In our old house, we had a regular-size step open trash can with inner sleeve. We fed it all our kitchen scraps, of which there were many. Sometimes we covered the contents with carbon matter. Sometimes it would steam. It took about a month to fill up. It would get very heavy. Sometimes it would steam.

- Bokashi buckets are stiiiinky when opened. Do not open them indoors.

- Once, when I lived in an apartment, I looked for the nearest compost bin to my house. I found one. I knocked on their door and asked if I could bring my scraps. They were fine with that.

- Once, when I lived in an apartment, I used to bring my scraps to my community garden plot and bury them.
posted by aniola at 9:44 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

You will get maybe 5 - 10% of the volume you compost as usable compost. I tried vermiculture - fruit flies & gnats. I won't compost citrus, after grapefruit peels in an outdoor compost heap were incredibly stinky when I turned the heap. Compost requires either critters like worms or bacteria. Bacteria usually smells bad in a small space. A benefit of composting is keeping compostable food waste out of garbage, so maybe find a spot at a park where you could add compostables? There are some un-maintianed concrete planters in a shopping center near me, crying out for compost and flower seeds.
posted by theora55 at 9:53 AM on February 24, 2021

If anyone here has ever been around a failed vermiculture bucket, they already know the smell I am going to warn you about. A bunch of Scouts did the gardening merit badge last year and their results were...even worse than you would expect for a bunch of 12-year olds. WORM MURDER
posted by wenestvedt at 12:42 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Nthing that Bokashi smells terrible when opened, but otherwise the smell is pretty much non existent if done properly. Bokashi has the added benefit of being able to digest meat and bone scraps which you should never put on regular compost. With any compost system the smell and condition of the compost will depend on conditions specific to your set up. Someone above mentioned citrus which most places will tell you not to try to compost. It's a good idea to do a little research into what happens during the composting process so you can troubleshoot if problems occur. It's totally do able in a situation such as you describe and not much work at all, once you have conditions right. However, the more you know on advance, the less time it will take to get things working well. Composting is sort of an art, and like art, everyone does it a little bit differently. Your local county extension office may have a master composter program. If so, that is usually a great resource, and there will probably be actual real live people who will be glad to answer all your questions as they come up. This is definitely not a thing to spend $400 on. Compost is going to happen pretty easily on its own.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 12:45 PM on February 24, 2021

Worm bins worm bins worm bins! I am currently doing vermicompost using two kitty litter tubs (the shape is wrong, those big plastic tubs are much better since there is more surface area for the worms to work with, but I repurposed what was already in the house).

Fruit flies can be an issue, but after reading through a lot of vermicompost blogs, my problem has been easily fixed by putting a good layer of shredded newspaper on top of fruit scraps. The Red Worm Composting person also recommends freezing fruit scraps (link is same as above). Basically put MORE newspaper, shredded corrugated cardboard, egg cartons, etc than you think is necessary, and you should be good. My bins don't smell, except when they get a bit sour when waterlogged and anaerobic at the bottom (suboptimal bin shape).

I've found that the volume of coffee grounds is too much for my bins, so I use about 1/3 of the grounds we generate as deodorizers (undersink cabinet, fridge etc), 1/3 goes directly into my bushes, and 1/3 goes into the worm bins. Eggshells are great, but to help worms process them faster, you should pulverize them as finely as possible.

P.S. If you choose to purchase your worms via mail, the worms will be fine, but very prone to escaping for the first week (apparently being shipped is unsettling). The first night I forgot to leave the light on to dissuade them from crawling out (I had the tub in the bathroom with the lid cracked) and the worms escaped. So many worms. All over the bathroom floor.
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:40 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

YES! very possible! we followed the method listed out by the NYTimes via this article.

It genuinely has no smell, but we eat more vegetables than the author does, and ended up with more super rich soil than expected. After all the plants got extra compost, we then started putting it around the tree in front of my apt. we premixed the ratios of ash and coconut coir in a second bucket, but otherwise we followed the steps exactly. Upfront cost of abut $15, and it took in all of our veggie scraps from May-> November, around which time composting came back in NYC.

Strongly recommend. It does need to be in a breathable container though like a cardboard box. (We keep it on a spare baking tray for peace of mind)
posted by larthegreat at 2:28 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Yes! At the moment I have two worm systems going, one Worm Inn on the balcony and one indoors. The one indoors is simply a big terra cotta planter (maybe 12"-15" diameter) with a cardboard sheet lid that I originally intended as a temporary backup. Both have been going for several years. No noticeable odors, unless I open the lid and dig around. Got the worms from a local seller rather than online because of a better price and assurance of live worms. The seller also told me that the number one mistake is overfeeding, so I try to be careful...

I'm considering expanding to a big plastic bin as others have suggested but am hesitating because I prefer a continuous flow-through (CFT) system. The advantage of a flow-through system is very efficient collecting of the finished compost (saves time, space/mess, labor)--scraps go in one end, compost comes out the other end.

One eco-minded caveat: some worm species are considered invasive, so research before buying (and risking releasing the worms).

Here's a site on worm composting basics I used in the past. (No affiliation etc.) The site also has links to specific products.
Reddit has r/vermiculture and r/composting.
I'm no expert myself but feel free to ask more questions!
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 10:50 PM on February 24, 2021

Thank you so much for asking this question, and larthegreat for linking to that NYT article! I have a worm bin inside for the winter, but love the idea of having a simple box inside year round, that can handle even more food scraps. I was fascinated to read about the Japanese method (not Bokashi) described in the NYT article by Hiroko Tabuchi. If you fall down the rabbit hole like I did, there is a fantastic Google Doc that Tabuchi put together that goes into more detail, and there is even a link to purchase BioChar, which can be used instead of kuntan.
posted by oxisos at 10:33 AM on February 25, 2021