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Indoor Composting: How to Make Your Apartment Kitchen Sustainable
Apartment dwellers, behold. Gardening and composting are not just for those with a backyard. Whether you have a small porch with a container garden, an herb box on your windowsill, or even a community garden you frequent, you may be interested in composting food scraps. Your small space shouldn’t hold you back.Byline: BTB Editor
February 23, 2024 / Time to read: 4 minutesAre you a sustainability enthusiast on a mission to reduce your ecological footprint? You don’t need a yard to compost. Indoor composting is a surprisingly easy way for apartment dwellers to live sustainably.
Whether you have a small patio with a container garden, an herb box on your windowsill, or even a community garden you frequent, you can compost food scraps inside your apartment.
What Is Indoor Composting?
Indoor composting is the process of decomposing kitchen waste and other organic materials within your home to produce nutrient-rich compost. Think peels, coffee grounds, tea bags and paper towels, to name a few.
To compost, you need a mix of
● Nitrogen
● Carbon
● Water
● Oxygen
Nitrogen comes in the form of “greens,” like food scraps. Carbon comes in the form of “browns,” like paper and cardboard. The makeup should be
Benefits of Indoor Composting
Every time you throw away kitchen waste, it's a missed opportunity to create something useful and eco-friendly. Did you know that food accounts for
Indoor composting offers several advantages:
● Reduces waste going to landfills. By converting your food scraps into compost, you can significantly reduce the amount of waste you contribute to
● Produces organic fertilizer. With the right blend of brown and green materials, your compost will produce a free, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer.
● Promotes healthy plant growth. Feeding your plants with homemade compost provides soil structure and a full spectrum of nutrients they need.
● Reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Composting organic waste at home reduces methane emissions and helps combat climate change.
● Reduces trips to the dumpster. Apartment dwellers can reduce the number of trips they take to the dumpster by diverting food scraps to their compost bin instead of the trash can.
Before You Start
Indoor composting in an apartment is not a one-size-fits-all operation. Choose a method depending on your space, interest and goals.
Identify Your Composting Method
The most common type of indoor composting is vermicomposting, which involves worms, and is the type we’ll focus on here. Don’t worry — worms are slow want to stay in the mealy food scraps you’re providing them, so they are unlikely to try to escape the bin. Worms do best with moderate temperatures, so inside an apartment is the ideal condition for them.
Countertop digesters and bokashi are other composting methods that involve may bacteria, heat, agitation and carbon filters. These methods may work for you but are less common and less proven than vermicomposting.
Choose the Right Container
Once you’ve chosen your method, it’s time to choose the right container. It could be a simple bucket with a lid or a specially designed container. Consider factors such as size, material (preferably plastic, ceramic or metal) and whether it has a lid. The container should have ample room for the waste to break down and should fit comfortably in your space.
If you want to compost on your patio or balcony, a tumbler is another option. Because they’re sealed, tumblers don’t smell or attract pests. These are often too large for indoor composting, though. Tumblers can but do not require the use of worms.
The Environmental Protection Agency lists
Set Up Your Composting System
Once you have your container, it's time to set up your composting system, which can be as simple or complex as you want. At the very least, it should include:
● A layer of browns (leaves, newspaper, egg cartons) for carbon
● A layer of greens (
● A small amount of soil to provide composting microbes
How to Compost Indoors
Once you’ve set up your bin, line the bottom with newspaper and put some potting soil inside. Then start putting in those food and paper scraps.
What to Compost Indoors
Here are materials you can put into your apartment compost bin:
● Fruits and vegetables. Scraps, peels, cores, stems, and leaves are the most common. Chop them up first to speed decomposition.
● Eggshells enrich compost with calcium. Rinse and crush eggshells before adding to your compost.
● Paper towels, napkins, shredded brown bags and non-glossy cardboard provide compost with necessary carbon.
● Natural fabric like cotton, wool and silk can be added in small pieces.
● Coffee grounds, coffee filters, tea leaves and tea bags add nitrogen to compost. Remove the staple from tea bags before adding.
● Plant stalks, twigs and dry leaves also add carbon.
● Citrus fruits like oranges and lemons can be added if first
There are a few exceptions to these rules. Though onions and garlic are compostable, you may want to keep them out of your bin to help avoid strong smells inside.
What NOT to Compost Indoors
Some materials are
● Animal products like meat, fish, cheese and bones
● Fats, oils and grease
● Pet waste and cat litter
● Dryer lint
● Produce stickers
Turn the Compost
Turn your compost occasionally to provide oxygen. With vermicomposting, the worms are doing the soil-turning work for you. If you’ve opted for a wormless version, you’ll have to turn the soil yourself to keep the process moving.
When you place scraps inside the bin, put them about an inch under the surface, and turn the compost once a week to speed up decomposition. You can use a compost-turning tool or a simple garden fork to stir the compost.
Control Odor, Moisture and Temperature
The speed your food scraps decompose depends on how efficient your worms are, the temperature of your apartment, and your nitrogen-to-carbon balance. A balanced ratio of greens and browns won’t smell bad. Your compost should be warm and damp like a squeezed sponge — neither too wet nor too dry, reaching temperatures of
Here are some tips to maintain your compost:
● If you notice a bad smell, dry out your compost by adding more browns and air circulation.
● If the compost isn’t decomposing fast enough, add more moisture and turn it.
● If the compost isn’t warm enough, add some greens and turn it.
Finish Your Compost
Usually,
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