From reader Heather in Chicago: I've been doing some research about kitchen composting, but have come up with very little useful how-to info. Are there viable/good options for composting under the kitchen sink? Our Chicago loft apartment has absolutely no outdoor space and most of what i've been able to find online is useful only as a temporary stop before getting lugged out to the outdoor compost bin.
Read on for our answer and one of the hottest items we have seen to hit the green kitchen and urban gardening scene in a long time.
Heather this is a great question and gives us a chance to talk about a great product we've been thinking about a lot.
How would you like a garbage disposal that does all your composting for you, automatically? Forget the question of composting versus garbage disposal, and stop worrying about what can be composted - this disposal does it all for you!
It works on simple yet economical principles. As you flush food waste down the drain the disposal transforms it through a very highly specialized breed of earthworms that chomp through your leftovers faster than the rusty blades of your old disposal. The worms chew up anything that can be composted and pass it on to a compost bin under your sink. The bin compresses the compost into small odor-free bricks that can easily be removed and crumbled into your garden or container plants. No mess - no fuss, and no extra food down the sewer drains.
Anything that can't be processed by the earthworms is automatically passed on to a trash can under your sink.
Wouldn't you like one of these? Yes, we would too, but unfortunately...
... they're only the product of our fertile brains at the moment - just another April Fool's Day good idea from The Kitchn. Happy April Fool's 2008! (And can someone please get busy inventing something like this thing - we actually think it's a really good idea.)
And in all seriousness, we're going to talk about small-space composting very soon - stay tuned for a serious answer. And don't wait for us - if you have a good idea for Heather, post it in the comments...
- Originally posted at The Kitchn by Faith
(Images: Home Depot, Amazon FloraCube, and Wikimedia)
You can have a worm bin under your sink! Vermicomposting is great for an apartment because worm bins are cheap and easy to make, and can fit inside one of those plastic storage tubs, so you can tuck it under the sink, in a cabinet, etc. Here is a good overview and tutorial for making your own bin, and you can also pick up the book Worms Eat My Garbage, which is a kids book, but a good place to start none the less. My local hardware store sells red wriggler worms, but I live in San Francisco, so there might be more of a demand here. If you can't get them locally, there are a handful of worm ranches that you can buy from online.
Good luck!
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Hey ya'll, I wondered the same thing, so I wrote a post about the four ways to compost indoors. If you know of any others, let me know!
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