With Seattle’s mandatory food waste recycling a scant 20 months away, folks there have begun to contemplate how to store their food scraps in the kitchen before curbside dumping. In other words, what kind of container works best.
This problem isn’t unique to Seattle’s single family homes (the ones forced to compost in 2009). Home composters of all levels and locales face the same question. As a rookie composter, I haven’t settled on how to store my kitchen scraps before transferring them to my outdoor bin. I’ve been using a jumbo yogurt container, but it fills rapidly.
There are certainly plenty of options for sale on the Web. Yet, this review of food scrap storage options is useful for those on a budget. It’ll get you thinking and, for better or worse, is written by someone not afraid to call food waste ‘gross.’
Don’t hesitate to comment if you’ve had success with a certain kind of container. Or maybe if you haven’t!
Comments
2 responses to “Containing Compost”
I use a 1.5 gallon plastic container found at my local dollar store. It is upright, takes up about the same space as a gallon of milk, and has a lid that keeps it from attracting the flies (if left out). I do vermicomposting (in NYC no less), so I tend to empty it within 48 hours. Still, it is nice to be able to throw it in the fridge.
My grandmother uses a small kitchen trash can that has a flip up lid and a pull out bucket. It is probably about 5-7 gallons and will hold well over a weeks worth of kitchen scraps for the compost heap. She has never had mice or bug issues with it as the top has a rubber lip that seals and she washes it out after she empties it.
Sounds good, thanks for the advice. I’m having decent luck with something similar to your container. It’s a
62 oz. plastic pickle jar (half-sours) with a screw top. I like being able to see into it–very science projectish.