Many people love the idea of recycling food scraps into compost. They hate the smell of decomposing (rotting) compost in the house–usually the kitchen. Cooking in a smelly kitchen is uncomfortable for many people. Compost should not smell bad when it is done properly. Here’s how.
Types Of Indoor Composting
Good indoor compost bins cost around $40.00 and up. Some electronic models cost close to $1000.00. You can compost in one of four ways.
- Traditional Composting. Uses water, oxygen, and mixing to break down matter. Usually, it takes over one month to completely decompose.
- Vermicomposting. Uses worms in the compost bin to break down organic matter in a week.
- Bokashi Composting. Uses an inoculant and a fermentation process. Produces compost in approximately ten days to two weeks.
- Electronic Composting. Breaks down matter using electronic control, heat, and monitoring. It often takes less than a week.
How To Produce Compost In Your Kitchen
Producing compost is fairly easy. Organic materials rot naturally. Adding the proper amount of water and “brown” material to compost controls smells. Buy a compost pail with a tight lid and charcoal filter to reduce odors.
Start the mixture by placing alternate layers of green (vegetable and fruit scraps) and brown (paper and dry leaves) material in the container. Keep the volumes as close to 50/50 as possible. Add enough water to make the mixture moist but not dripping wet–somewhat like a wrung-out sponge.
Use a compost starter (store-bought or homemade) to speed up the decomposing process. Many commercial products promise to reduce odors. Compost should be mixed regularly. (Compost volume can shrink by over 50% as it gets close to completion.) For extra bacterial action and deodorizing, add a little plant soil or a little leftover compost to the mix.
Healthy compost smells slightly sweet and earthy. It does not smell like rotting vegetables. Compost can easily be adjusted by adding more green material–and maybe a little water–if it is too dry. Add more brown material if the mixture seems too wet. Sprinkle a little compost starter on new additions to the bin.
Achieving sweet-smelling compost requires a little bit of trial and error experimentation. Trust your nose. It is easy to make the mixture too wet by adding extra-moist scraps or dry it out by not adding enough. Regular adjustments to the mix reduce odor and produce excellent soil for your household plants.
Vermicomposting reduces foul odors to almost nothing quickly but many people are uncomfortable bringing a bunch of worms into the kitchen–even if they remain in a container.
What To Compost
Composting is another step in the residential recycling process most people are familiar with. Instead of bottles, newspapers, etc., you separate food scraps to process at home to improve your plant soil. Scraps suitable for composting include:
- Vegetables. Any and all.
- Fruits. Peels and cores.
- Plant Leaves. Anything pruned from indoor plants including dying blossoms.
- Coffee and Tea. Coffee grounds and tea leaves. Not the bags.
- Egg Shells. Cautiously. Begin to smell bad after 2 – 3 days if not handled properly.
- Corn Cobs. Chopped.
- Cardboard. Torn up. Cardboard egg cartons.
- Newspaper. Torn into small pieces.
- Shredded Office Paper. Works well because it resists clumping.
What Not To Compost
You can compost almost anything organic but keep some things out of the compost mixture. They do not decompose readily and stink.
- Meat. Any meat, fish, and bones.
- Dairy Products. Milk, cheese, butter, cream, etc.
- Chemicals. Paper towels with cleaning product residue. Plant leaves sprayed with chemicals or oily substances.
- Oil. Cooking oils including margarine and shortening.
- Glossy Paper. Including magazines and pictures.
- Compostable Packaging. If it is not “home compostable” it may never break down in a small home composter.
