Environment Experts Choose the Top Compost Bins

Now you’re ready to ditch plastic straws in favor of metal, stock up on food containers that can be reused, and switch out old cleaners for more organic options. It’s time to start composting. Composting is next, says Rebecca Louie, author of Compost City and founder of Compostess.com. Over time, bacteria breaks down the scraps to create compost and you end up creating about 50 percent less trash.

Even though it’s admirable and easy to do, some people find composting intimidating, particularly those not who have the space or are not gardeners. There are also systems that can be used to do the entire process at home. If you’d rather, your scraps can be collected and dropped off at a suitable location. Many farmers markets provide this service. In some cases, they may even be picked up by local agencies or the city.

For the best ways to compost at home, we spoke to Louie; Marisa DeDominicis, co-founder and executive director of environmental nonprofit Earth Matter NY ; George Pisegna, deputy director and chief of horticulture at the New York Horticultural Society ; Sandy Nurse, founder and co-director of BK Rot , a service that collects businesses’ food waste for composting; and a handful of other experts about their favorite bins and composting strategies for all levels of commitment. We included some books to help children and adults alike, as not everyone is familiar with the topic.

Get the Best compost bins

Here are the top-rated compost bins that you should buy if composting is something you want to do.

Norpro offers this single-gallon, compact receptacle for small households that produce food waste less frequently. It is available in several colors, so repurposed coffee cans and shoe bins won’t be wasted. This container is easy to clean and has lid holes that allow air circulation.

OXO Great Grips Easy-Clean Composite Bin

With 1.75 gallons of capacity, the OXO bin is also designed to be fitted with biodegradable bags that hold organic waste so it can either go out for curbside collection or migrate to a composting heap.

Natural Home Stainless Steel Compost Bin

Natural Home’s recycled stainless steel bin holds approximately 1.3 gallons worth of compostable food and has a ventilated lid.

Enviro World FreeGarden EARTH Compost Bin

You can keep an outdoor composting pile if it isn’t possible. This large, heavy composting drum for outside use will store up to 82 gals of any organic material you have around your home. Recycled, all-weather materials make up the single-unit body. This pet- and animal resistant lid has a twistable top for adjustment of airflow. It also features a large opening that allows you add or subtract material as well managing the composting mixture.

Nature’s Footprint Worm Factory

The stackable Worm factory is made up of four connected trays. Worms move from one area to the other, climbing up each tier as they finish. Also, the Worm factory collects water from “compost” a result of their hard work. It can be pulled out and used for garden soil.

This list contains the top 6 most straightforward compost bins, both for experts and beginners.

Pin It Photo: Getty Images/Svetikd After switching to reusable grocery totes eco-conscious activewear environmentally-friendly cleaning products , the next step of making your transition towards a more kind-to-the-planet lifestyle is composting. And, no. You don’t have to be a professional composter to get the best results, even if you are just starting out.

Composting is the act of breaking down biodegradable waste (think: food scraps, coffee grounds , newspaper, or gardening clippings) and turning it into fertilizer that can be used to fortify your soil and promote healthy plant growth. Rich compost is just as good for gardening as it can be for house plants. Because composted soil is rich in nutrients and minerals, it acts as a fertilizer for your soil. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that food scraps as well as yard waste make up more than 30% of all the material we throw away. Therefore, composting reduces methane emissions and helps you grow your fresh vegetables and fruits.

With so many kinds of compost bins out there, it’s important to find the right one to fit your needs, space, and the amount of waste you produce. Before you start looking at the different compost bins, you should consider where you will keep it. Consider how big the compost bin will be, whether it has a capacity or is too large, its materials and price, along with its design.

Here are the 10 best compost bins for 2021 according to sustainability experts

You can use the best compost bins indoors or outdoors in your yard, kitchen, and garden.

An Method of Composting

Biodegradables are used as fertilizers to enrich your soil. It’s a great habit even if you don’t have a garden or even a yard since it helps reduce food waste and produce less trash overall. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), food scraps and yard waste account for more than 30% of what we throw away, and composting these materials reduces the methane emissions that occur when they’re sent to landfills. There are many raw materials available, including paper and food waste. To get started, you only need one item: A compost bin.

Natural Resources Defense Council states that “Using a container is the most efficient and cost-effective method of small-scale at-home composting.” Bins control temperature, moisture, oxygen and bacteria to produce compost all while keeping critters and odors at bay. I keep my compost bin out on my counter for the coffee grounds that can clog up my pail. It allows me to throw away my trash less often,” says Nicole Papantoniou , deputy director of the Kitchen Appliances Lab.

Your job at home is to manage the input and create balanced scraps for the final compost. Selen Nehrozoglu (a New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station researcher in New Brunswick), says that a useful ratio for compost composition would be roughly two thirds of “brown matter” which is sticks, leaves, dirt, and one third of “green matter”, which are food scraps, or fresh plant waste. “As a general rule of thumb, I like to add enough brown matter to fully cover the food scraps,” she says. “I use a shovel to mix the materials together, chopping down any of the more bulky food scraps like melon peels. Mixing the materials together, I then add a layer of brown matter.

What we do to test compost bins

Good Housekeeping Institute puts a great deal of importance on sustainability. It hosts the Raise The Green Bar sustainability summit every year, along with our Sustainable Innovation Awards and Sustainable Packaging Awards. As part of this initiative, we also test sustainable products to help consumers find the everyday changes and items that can decrease their carbon footprint, including reusable bags straws bottles eco-friendly products and sustainable packaging alternatives When compiling our list of best compost bins, our pros assessed material, size, ease of use, type of filter, and effectiveness of the seal where applicable. It was also important to consider whether or not the compost bins are able repel pests and keep odors at bay. The following are the most popular compost bins, as rated by Lab-trusted brands. These products have been tested for decades.

Beginners’ Best Composting Bin

The Most In-demand Compost Bin On Amazon

Best Compost Bin for Kitchen Waste:

Best Compost Bin for Yard Waste:

Best Compost Bin for Apartments:

Buy Countertop Compost Bin Bamboozle Composter – Continue reading Below FCMP Outdoor amazon.com $76.59 (23%) SHOP NOW. The outdoor tumbling container can hold 37 gallons. Just give the container a push for a few days and it will start to spin. Lab pros like that it also sits high off the ground, which helps with rodent control and that the UV-resistant black plastic construction includes recycled content and helps to attract and retain heat to aid in the composting process.

Utopia Kitchen Amazon.com SHOPNOW. The affordable Utopia Kitchen bin is perfect for those who want to begin composting their food scraps. It can store 1.3 gallon and is compact enough to be stored on countertops or under sinks.

The stainless steel construction resists odors. This lid comes with a handle that makes transport easy. It also has a charcoal filter, which helps to prevent unpleasant smells from getting into your home.

Our Methodology

Owen Burke/Business Insider We spoke with Rick Carr , Farm Director at Rodale Institute in Kutztown, PA, and Dr. Paul Voroney, Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph , in order to learn the finer points of composting.

For our test, we took out five compost bins. Each was filled with meat, plant and fish scraps. Shredded paper separated each layer and the containers were left in the kitchen for a couple of days. Two days later, the smell of fish emitted from all the compost bins was overwhelming and fruit flies began to appear in the entire kitchen. This was somewhat expected.

Next, we excluded meat and fish from the analysis and measured which containers seemed to attract fruit flies. We could only isolate the Oxo Good Gips Easy-Clean as well as the SCD Probiotics.

While bins with compost filters might have helped keep odors at bay, there was no shortage of fruit flies finding their way in and out. We recommend that you use a charcoal-filter option. However, it’s possible to still get fruit flies.

Anaerobic composition with bokashi has been shown to be the best method to kill fruit flies.

13 The Top Compost Bins 2022

How do you choose which type of compost container is right for your garden: a hot composter, a plastic or homemade compost bin? Find out, in our composting guide.

Not only is composting kitchen and garden scraps useful in keeping the garden healthy but also beneficial to wildlife and the environment.

You can put your food or garden waste into a compost bin. The compost will slowly decompose over time to make fresh compost. The nutrients in compost are essential for plants. It can be used as fertilizer, mulch or as soil improver.

Below, we go through exactly what to put in a compost bin before offering guidance on how to choose the best garden compost bin for you.

There are many options for compost bins. The video above explains them all. From compost bins that can be built yourself to wormeries for wildlife, there are many options. Each type of compost bin has its benefits and each one will be different depending on your needs.

Following our short guide, we have also included a suggested list of compost bins which cover a range of styles, sizes and price ranges.

If you are new to composting or would simply like some more practical tips and information, see our guides on how to make compost , how to turn your compost and how to make a composting trench. We also have a handy trouble-shooting video on common problems with composting . Start composting at home and watch your garden flourish.

Our Top Picks for Countertop Compost Bins

You don’t even have to smell it.

Our editors test the best products independently and make recommendations. Read more to learn about our. Purchases made through our links may result in us receiving commissions.

Vicky Wasik Removing food waste is one problem. According to FDA, food waste constitutes the biggest category of materials that land in landfills. It contributes to methane emission.

One way you can contribute less to this growing problem is by composting your food scraps, like coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable peels, and apple cores. These materials should be collected and composted, rather than being thrown into garbage bags.

To begin composting at home, you will first need a bin for your scraps. This isn’t a guide to backyard composting systems that convert your scraps into compost. They are sometimes also called “bins” (confusingly). This review will cover scrap-collection bags that are used in kitchens to keep scraps together until you can take them to the composting site.

What you do with your scraps depends on where you are located, how many scraps you make, and how often it is being emptied. A variety of tests were done to determine if the bins had the right smell, capacity or fly attraction. Four bins came out on top. Here’s more on them.

Criteria: We look for good compost bins

There are many compost bins available. Important considerations include size, appearance, price, and functionality. Which bin works best depends on your needs. For example, if you add onion skins and banana peels on Sunday and by Tuesday you can smell them, the bin isn’t doing its job.

This is also true of bugs. The presence of a single fruit fly is not an issue. It is possible to avoid pest problems with a properly sealed, low-odor container and basic home composting guidelines.

Major cities like San Francisco or New York have more accepted items in their compost bins than those with city-wide programs like San Francisco. For home composters or those who drop food scraps off at collections sites in small towns, dairy and meat are no problem. They attract bugs and animals, but also decompose at a slower pace.

DeDominicis explains, “You want them to smell less.” “Just think about it, a putrid piece of meat? Avoid putting it in the bin. You will avoid leaks and minimize odors after collecting.

Which is the Best Type Of Compost Bin?

Epica Stainless Steel Compostbin is the Best Overall.

Are plastic compost bins any good?

A plastic compost bin is ideal for a small space. Both the plastic lid and sides retain moisture, heat and help promote quick decomposition. The lids also prevent weed growth by blocking out sunlight. Nov 22, 2021