Well, there are some things that cannot be overlooked. The smell of rotting garbage comes from your apartment or dormitory. Yes, this happens rather often, but it is still gross. The solution is to buy yourself a countertop compost bin to get rid of your kitchen’s smell and save the planet with just one purchase. No biological knowledge is needed, just some patience and a spot for your new gadget on the counter.
The first step you should undertake is choosing an appropriate container. You may buy a rather fancy-looking stainless steel bucket with a charcoal filter on Amazon. If you are on a budget, you can go with a plastic five-gallon bucket, which you may get at Home Depot. No matter what choice you make, remember that your bucket should have a lid as fruit flies are the most annoying visitors that may appear in your kitchen.
The technical details of composting are rather easy to follow. First of all, you should prepare the “brown” layer that will absorb the nasty liquid. It is achieved through collection of newspapers, cardboard egg cartons, or dried leaves that you may find around the building. After that you should lay two inches of this material at the bottom of your bucket before putting the banana peel in.
When you are adding your food, you should know that greens are all the wet materials (apple cores, coffee grounds, and vegetable peels). In turn, browns are all the paper products and dryer lint. The balance between these materials is crucial in order to avoid turning your composting system into an unpleasant science experiment. A good hint is to cover every layer of the wet food with a layer of dry paper products.
This is what usually traps a lot of beginners. You cannot just pour all the meat, dairy products, and oily foods into your countertop compost bin, as they may attract pests and produce bad smell. For now, try sticking to fruits, vegetables, grains, and coffee grounds. To put it shortly, everything that grew in the soil is acceptable for your kitchen composting system.
Placement of the composting system is really crucial when you are dealing with limited space of your apartment or dorm. You cannot hide it in a dark corner of your kitchen and then ignore it. Place it near the sink and coffee maker, where you are the most active in generating waste. Out of sight equals out of mind.
Moisture level is an important factor that should be regulated. If the content of your composting system looks like a messy bowl of cereals, you need to add some paper products. In turn, if everything is dry and nothing is decomposed, you should sprinkle some water on top. Everything should be as wet as a wrung-out sponge.
Maintenance of your composting system is quite easy. All you need to do is to stir the mixture once in a while with a wooden spoon or a garden trowel. Through introducing the oxygen in the mixture, you provide necessary conditions for the bacteria to do their work and speed the process. Otherwise, anaerobic bacteria will take care of this work, and you will definitely notice their presence in your kitchen.
After some time your bin will be filled and you need to dispose of it. Of course, throwing this mixture away with your regular garbage is useless and contradicts the whole concept of composting. Find your nearest community garden or municipal drop-off point. Sometimes farmers’ markets have a special bin for collecting this waste near the heirloom tomatoes.
One of the major concerns of some people regarding home composting is insects. If you have started seeing gnats, this means that you added too many green materials without enough brown covering. Sprinkle some diatomaceous earth on the top of your bin or freeze the scrap materials before using them in your bin. Thus, you will kill all the eggs that your bananas or potatoes bring.
Look, home composting is not always a glamorous process. It requires some time and some experimentation to find the right balance for you. However, once you learn how to do this, throwing food in the garbage can will seem like a very wasteful action. Moreover, you will no longer have to bear the smell of rotting vegetables.
Basically, you will turn your household waste into black gold for the soil – sounds like an incredible superpower. The sensation of gaining control over the process of your waste disposal, even in this small way, is incredible. Therefore, take your bin, shred your paper, and save your coffee grounds. Your future garden, whether yours or your neighbors’, will appreciate this greatly.