How to Compost in an Apartment

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When I lived in a house I was able to have a tumbling compost bin, which I used faithfully. After my divorce and the kids and I moved into an apartment, I lost the tumbling compost bin, but not my desire to continuously reduce my carbon footprint.

Over the last five years of living in the apartment, I’ve tried several options in an attempt to find what works the best for me. Some of them worked, some of them worked for awhile, and some of them just didn’t work at all. Be sure to read to the end to see what works for me now!

Why Should You Compost?

Did you know that if you put your food scraps into a plastic garbage bag with the rest of your garbage, the plant material doesn’t actually break down all the way? It decomposes without oxygen, creating methane gas. Methane gas traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, helping to contribute to the climate crisis.Composting food scraps is a great way to help reduce food waste and return nutrients to the soil, which in turn improves future plants.

What Can Be Composted?

Any plant scraps can be composted, which is great for me since we eat a plant-based diet at my house. Aside from produce scraps after I make homemade broth or blend up bananas for the freezer, I also compost:

• leftover coffee grounds
• moldy or stale pieces of bread
• Trader Joes bouquets that pass their prime
• Reel toilet paper rolls and wrappers are compostable!
• compostable paper plates
• paper towels (as long as they aren’t contaminated with body fluids or waste)
• egg shells can also be composted, but as a vegan I don’t have those

What Cannot Be Composted?

• Meat or bones
• oil or fat
• plastic
• bodily fluids or body waste

How to Compost in an Apartment

Parents’ Compost Bin

When I first moved to the apartment and was getting my life back together during the divorce, I used to bring my little countertop compost container to my parents’ house and dump it in their compost bin.

Pros: This was free

Cons: This got very annoying when I didn’t go over there every week and also got annoying to be transporting stinky waste in the car and bringing the containers back home.

Worm Vermicompost Bin

I looked online for options for composting in an apartment and learned about a vermicompost bin, which uses worms to break down food waste into compost. The DIY version of the bin uses three kitty litter containers, with holes drilled in the bottom of two of them. To use a vermicompost bin set up like this one, you fill up the top bucket with waste and then swap the first bucket for the second bucket. The worms go back and forth between the two buckets through the holes in the bottom of the two bins, eating it and creating worm castings (waste) which is also nutrient-rich for the soil.

I found empty kitty litter buckets on Facebook for free and borrowed my brother’s drill to create the holes. I found a local worm farmer and bought a small paper bag filled with worms and worm castings. I added my food waste and my bag of worm friends, and a layer of newspaper over the top (under the lid)

This worked for awhile, until the worms escaped onto the carpet.

Pros: It was nice to have a compost bin we could add to, and the worms became our first “pets.”

Cons: At some point, a fly found its way through the holes, laid eggs, and the whole thing got maggots, so out to the common ground it went. Also, the worms kept escaping onto the carpet and dying overnight, and that got fairly traumatic for the tiny humans.

Lomi Countertop Composter

The Lomi compost bin began as a kickstarter campaign, which I contributed to and got a “countertop composter” machine made from recycled plastic that turned food waste into dirt (not the nutrient-rich compost with a biodiverse microbe system) in 24 hours. While it worked well for over a year, I had to run it outside because the inside bucket had a non-stick coating that is toxic for birds when heated, and I have two birds. I used it more than weekly until the fan died. The first time, I was able to contact the company and they said I was still under the warranty and they sent me a new fan that I was able to easily clip in. The second time it happened a couple months later (which I thought was weird), the customer service rep told me that my warranty had expired and I would have to purchase a new unit at full price.

Pros: The concept of the Lomi was pretty cool, and when it worked I really liked it.

Cons: From the Kickstarter facebook group I was part of, it seemed that people either didn’t have any problems with their unit, or they had a lot of problems and they were not happy with the customer service experiences. Also, it did put off a smell when it was running and our deck often smelled like burned cabbage.

Compost Pickup Service

Once my Lomi stopped working, I found out that a friend of mine has a local composting pickup service that is very affordable. I’ve been a customer for over a year now and I’m very happy with it! I signed up for the bi-weekly service option, so every other Friday I put my full buckets outside my door and she picks them up and leaves two empty buckets. Over the two weeks, I add my used coffee grounds, veggie scraps, leftover food from my kids’ plates, and any food that goes bad in the fridge.

If you are in the St. Louis county area, check out MOshrooms Regenerative Microfarm!

Pros: This is super easy because I don’t have to transport anything or do much besides remembering to put the buckets outside on pickup day. It works so well for my family and I feel good about supporting a local entrepreneur. She also offers 2 complimentary buckets of compost a year as part of the membership, as well as produce for sale that you can order and she delivers it with your pickup service.

Cons: There really aren’t any!

Save $10 on MOshrooms Regenerative Microfarm when you sign up through this link.

Not in St. Louis? Go to your favorite search engine and look up “compost pickup service near me” and see what pops up! There are dozens of small businesses using this model around the country.

Do you compost? Would you sign up for a compost service?