If you’ve ever felt guilty about throwing food scraps in the trash because you don’t have room to compost, you don’t have to feel that way again. You can compost in an apartment and turn your organic waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Gardens and big outdoor compost piles can make us feel like good stewards of the earth. People with yards the size of a postage stamp and apartment dwellers don’t have room for that.
Fortunately, you can still compost in an apartment and feel better about recycling your food waste.
If you can find a way to compost your food scraps, you’re taking a solid step toward helping the environment. Every eggshell or vegetable peeling you keep out of landfills can help.
Food decomposing in landfills produces methane gas and accounts for about 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Reducing your food waste and composting food scraps and food you don’t eat instead of putting it in a landfill can help fight climate change and reduce your need for chemical fertilizers.
Keep reading to learn how to compost in an apartment or anywhere you have limited outdoor space.
If you’re picturing a smelly bucket of rotting food scraps sitting on your counter, think again. You have composting options that are clean, convenient, and good for the planet.
If you have a small balcony, rooftop space, or ground-floor outdoor area you can use, consider purchasing a small compost tumbler.
These tumblers let you turn your scraps into fertilizer in a compact space without an unsightly pile on the ground. The units seal so pests like raccoons can’t get into them and make messes.
The smallest models typically hold between 15 to 19 gallons. You can store your scraps in a countertop container in your apartment until you’re ready to add them to the tumbler. Choose a bin that seals, or use a sealed baggie or container in your freezer to avoid odors.
Once or twice a week, add your saved scraps to the tumbler and turn it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. You can produce ready-to-use compost within two or three months during warm weather.
If you don’t have a balcony or outdoor space, you can compost indoors with a couple of different methods.
To start worm composting, you only need a space of about one-and-a-half feet square. An empty corner in your apartment can become your vermicomposting center.
You’ll have to make the composter or purchase one ready-made, but you won’t have to turn the compost as you would with a tumbler. The worms moving through the material provide the necessary aeration and soil shifting.
If you have a balcony or outdoor space, you can even put your worm composter outdoors when the weather is above 40 F and below 80 F. Worms will die in freezing weather or intense heat, so you’ll need to keep them indoors during extreme weather.
Ready-made models typically cost between $45 and $100 for the smallest versions suitable for use indoors. You can find composters that fit inside a sink cabinet. These models take up minimum counter space.
Commercial indoor worm composters come in a tower system with trays. The height keeps the unit from taking up much floor space and lets the worms move through the different layers.
Some purchased composters have a spigot on the bottom level to drain the liquid that might collect. That liquid is known as “worm tea.” This tea contains nitrogen, carbon, potassium, phosphate, and other elements.
You can mix worm tea into the water you give your houseplants. A well-maintained vermicomposter won’t produce much of this liquid, but you won’t want to waste any of it.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers instructions to make an indoor worm composter with inexpensive plastic bins. This option will work for small budgets, though their version will take up more room than many ready-made models.
Some commercial brands have more elaborate tray systems that let you sift the compost and avoid having to touch the worms. If you choose a DIY option, you’ll have to get your hands in the dirt with the worms more often.
Whether you choose a purchased or homemade composter, this method is the most high-maintenance apartment composting option. If you neglect the system or add too much food, the worms could die.
Worm composting isn’t for everyone or every apartment. If you’d rather be able to toss your food scraps into a bin and forget about them, other options are available.
If you’re not ready to have worms living in your apartment and don’t have a balcony for a tumbler, you can compost your kitchen scraps with an electric food composter.
Electric composters take about the same space as a large countertop kitchen appliance. Using them is easy. You collect kitchen scraps until the container is full, then run the machine.
You don’t have to turn a tumbler, tend worms, or wait weeks or months. Let the machine run through its cycle. Voila! In a matter of hours, you have ready-to-use compost.
Electric food composters are the most expensive option for composting in an apartment, but they also may be the most convenient.
This model from Vitamix has an inner container for you to store scraps with a carbon lid to reduce odors. Smart Cara makes one for a countertop and a taller floor model for larger families who produce more food scraps.
You can store food scraps in your refrigerator or freezer to avoid odors, but most brands designed their containers to eliminate as much of that as possible.
If you love the idea of composting for the planet but don’t have plants to fertilize, you still have options. Family members, friends, or neighbors who have gardens or plants can use your compost and reduce their need to buy chemical fertilizer.
Some regions may have pick-up composting services you can pay to collect your food waste. You may also be able to find someone who wants your food scraps or completed compost by using a free sharing service with members in your area.
Apartment dwellers have composting options in every price range and level of convenience.
Whether you choose to keep a worm farm indoors or you invest in an electric food composter, you can feel good about keeping your organic waste out of landfills.