So you’ve heard about the benefits of composting, but you live in an apartment. Don’t stress! With some careful choices even those in the tiniest of homes can reduce their waste and turn it into their own compost.
Here’s how you can start composting at home.
What Is Composting?
Composting is the process of breaking down organic matter into finished compost and adding it to the soil as a nitrogen-rich, natural fertilizer. While this process occurs in nature as part of the carbon cycle, it can take years, but the composting process speeds this up while ensuring the end product is a natural, chemical-free, nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Home composting consists of taking your kitchen scraps—fruit and vegetable peels, eggshells, coffee filters, etc.—cutting them up into small pieces, saving them in a bin, mixing them with carbon-rich items like paper, dried leaves, and cardboard (also cut up into tiny pieces), and letting them degrade together over time. As the materials degrade they form a nutrient-rich, soil-like substance. This finished compost can then be added to soil to see multiple benefits.
You can compost in almost any type of container, indoors and outdoors. Outdoors, people who compost typically use store-bought compost tumblers, or even make their own DIY compost bin. In an apartment, your options are a bit more limited, but no less effective.
Benefits of Composting
The benefits of composting can be seen across several areas, with the environmental benefits being the most notable.
At home, a compost bin cuts out food waste and similar materials at their source. The average person throws out over 400 pounds of perfectly good food every year, and all that food decomposes in landfills.
This anaerobic landfill decomposition is not harmless. Greenhouse gas emissions can be tied directly to the scraps and waste that ends up in your trash bin. How, you ask?
Once this waste ends up in landfills, it’s covered by thousands of pounds of other waste every day, cutting it off from oxygen. When this happens, anaerobic decomposition takes place, as opposed to aerobic composition, which is what happens in nature.
Anaerobic decomposition results in the release of biogas. Composed of methane and carbon dioxide, this biogas traps heat in the atmosphere and worsens climate change. Composting helps prevent this by reducing the amount of waste that makes its way to landfills. If everyone started composting, greenhouse gas emissions would lessen by 50%.
Compost is also better for soil and plants. Adding organic matter to soil helps it retain moisture. By using this, farmers can save thousands of gallons of water for every acre of soil they apply compost to.
The material broken down from fruits and vegetables is high in many essential nutrients, as well, even more so than chemical fertilizers. Reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers is better for your garden AND the environment.
How to Compost in an Apartment
Creating compost in an apartment can be tricky because of the space requirements that are typically needed, but it’s far from impossible. Just as people have adapted to recycling bins, you can adapt to a compost bin as well. Several methods are convenient for apartment living, each with their own pros and cons.
Worm composting
Worm composting, also known as vermicomposting or vermiculture, is one of the more popular types of indoor composting, as it doesn’t take up much space. Apartment dwellers can take advantage of this quite easily, since worm bins can be placed almost anywhere in an apartment and you can start composting quite quickly.
As the name suggests, worm composting involves adding food scraps and other materials to an indoor compost bin, and letting earthworms break down the organic materials. You should do this indoors because the worms prefer temperatures between 55 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but you can put them in an outdoor space if the worm composter is properly insulated for the winter and protected from heat in summer. You don’t want to cook your worms.
Just add food scraps to your plastic bin and the worms will break down the organic material and turn it into compost. You won’t need to aerate this as you do with a compost tumbler because the worms aerate the material as they work their way through it.
You don’t even need to buy a special worm bin to take advantage of this—you can make it yourself. Simply start with an airtight container or plastic bin of an appropriate size—the larger this is, the more compost you can make and drill holes before drilling holes near the top of the plastic bin and in its lid. This allows oxygen to flow into the worm bin, which is essential for the earthworms to thrive. If you’re worried about pests, you can always add a mesh screen over the holes.
You’ll then need to add bedding to the bottom of the worm composter, typically in the form of torn-up newspapers. You should fill two-thirds of the worm bin with this before adding the worms. Red wigglers are best for this, as they can eat half their body weight in food scraps every day and can process more waste than other worms. You should add about a pound of these worms to the bin. Believe it or not, you can order a whole case of worms online.
The next step is to start adding food waste to the worm bin to start the composting process. One pound of red wigglers can make their way through about 3.5 pounds of organic waste every week, so you may need to adjust how many of the worms you have based on how much waste you generate.
To keep this process as odor-free as possible, you should keep the waste and compost covered by the bedding you first added. While this involves a bit of rooting around, it’ll keep the smell to a minimum while also avoiding pests. Alternatively, you can add brown materials such as newspapers, cardboard, and dried yard waste to accomplish this as well.
You can expect this process to produce finished compost in three to six months. You’ll know it’s finished when it looks like dark soil. Once it reaches this stage, push the compost to one side of the bin and add bedding to the other side. After a month, the red wigglers should’ve moved to the new bedding, letting you remove the finished compost without getting rid of many worms.
Compost toilet
For apartment dwellers who own their apartment, a compost toilet may be an appropriate option. These function almost exactly like a standard toilet, but they have a composting chamber where the decomposition process takes place.
These chambers function similar to a compost bin and can be an effective choice for someone who wants to take sustainable living one step further by composting their own waste, but there is the drawback of needing to get this installed in the apartment. It’s also possible that the waste may need to be placed into a bin after emptying the toilet to make sure it’s completely decomposed and composted, and safe for application. If not, you’ll need to arrange to have it removed and disposed of according to local regulations.
Compost bins
While some compost bins might be too big to use effectively in an apartment—compost tumblers come to mind—not all of them can be ruled out. Countertop food waste processors, also known as electric composters, can be an effective solution to this, as they compost your waste without taking up too much space.
Since an electronic composter doesn’t take up much space, it can’t compost as much waste as its larger counterparts, but electronic composting counteracts this drawback by producing finished compost faster than alternatives. It accomplishes this by dehydrating and grinding up the bits of organic matter
Another indoor compost bin option that’s suitable for apartments is the bokashi method, which simply needs “bokashi inoculant—a combination of effective microorganisms, water, and molasses mixed into wheat and bran that can be purchased already prepared.” Mix this with your waste and the microorganisms will break down the compost material.
Drawbacks of Composting in an Apartment
As tempting as making compost in an apartment is, it also comes with its drawbacks.
Cost
The most notable drawback of apartment composting is the initial investment. The most efficient and odor-free countertop food waste processors can cost as much as $300. If you’re a gardener or houseplant enthusiast and you spend a lot on soil and plant food, this cost may pay for itself after a while in the money you’ll save on those items.
Odor
Then there’s the smell that could develop during the process unless specific steps are taken to counteract it. Certain models are built to minimize odor, but some smell from your compost is inevitable. Bokashi composting emits a sweet-sour smell from the fermentation, but usually only when you open your bokashi bin.
Time
You’ll also need to invest quite a bit of time on this. It takes some getting used to saving, chopping, and setting aside your kitchen scraps. And while most indoor composting methods don’t require aeration, there will be some maintenance of your compost bin involved, for example adding waste, emptying it when it’s full, etc.
Space
Indoor composting methods are designed not to take up too much space, but as anyone in an apartment knows, even a medium-sized bin can disrupt the careful storage methods of even the most organized flat dweller. But if you’re committed to learning to compost and minimizing your carbon footprint, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a space for your bin or electric composter.
Community Composting
Sometimes apartment composting simply isn’t practical, either because of the drawbacks associated with it or due to lack of space. Participating in a local community garden could be an option for you, as they are becoming increasingly popular and boast multiple benefits on the local level, not the least of which is that they’re a great way to meet people with similar values and interests.
It also improves local soil, reduces food deserts, and leads to greener communities. The community-focused process is much the same as composting at home, but involves bringing the materials to a central place where the entire community’s waste is composted.
Outside of the principles associated with composting itself—recycling food waste, returning organic materials to the soil, etc.—community composting is usually bound by several guiding principles:
- Empowering and educating—Community composting programs educate residents about local food systems, sustainability, food deserts, and how community gardens can be used to tackle these issues locally.
- Community focus—Community composting programs are supported by the communities they serve while also supporting the community itself. The initiative supports economic, environmental, and social well-being on a local level.
- Community scaling—The initiative must be sustainable and scalable to meet the needs of the community it serves. Those who add organic matter must get a benefit out of the project.
Compostable Materials
Food scraps and similar organic materials are the most obvious items you can compost, but quite a few organic materials can be composted. Many of these can be tossed straight into the compost bin, but if you want to collect a few items before adding them to the compost pile to save time, you can use compost bags to store food scraps and other waste until the organic waste is ready to be added to the compost pile.
What to compost
Compost piles benefit the most from food scraps such as fruit and vegetable scraps and similar waste, as these add nutrients to the finished compost while keeping it free from diseases and pests. Traditional compost piles benefit the most from the following items:
- Cardboard, uncoated and cut up into small pieces
- Hair and fur
- Shredded paper
- Yard waste
- Dead leaves
- Grass clippings
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Shredded newspaper
- Vegetable peelings
- Eggshells
- Sawdust
- Tea bags
- Wood chips
- Food scraps
- Kitchen scraps and kitchen waste
What not to compost
As a general rule, most food waste can be composted, but that doesn’t mean you should toss all food scraps into your compost bin. Avoid adding dairy products and eggs—aside from their shells—as these can attract pests and create a foul odor.
Speaking of things you wouldn’t want in your compost pile, diseased and insect-ridden plants should be avoided for the same reason. As the decomposition process continues, these diseases and insects will be absorbed into the material. The finished compost will then spread these across your garden or field.
You should also refrain from composting these items:
- Cooking oils
- Black walnut tree leaves and twigs, as they can excrete toxins
- Coal or charcoal ash
- Rice
- Colored or glossy paper
- Dairy, meat, or other animal products
- Acidic fruits and vegetables, such as citrus
- Bread and other baked goods
Wrapping Up
Composting in an apartment is far from difficult, especially with an electric composter. For a more interesting and hands-on method, try vermicomposting or bokashi. Reducing waste and minimizing your carbon footprint doesn’t have to be reserved for homeowners out in the country with five acres. City dwellers and renters can compost too.
FAQs
Can you compost in an apartment?
Yes! Making compost in an apartment is easier than you’d think, but you’d need to make sure you use the right type of composter. Try vermicomposting or the bokashi method if you want a hands-on project, or buy an electric composter if you want to get the job done quickly with minimal effort.
How is compost used?
Compost is used in agriculture around the world, with the material being more effective and sustainable than its chemical-based counterpart. The nutrients it offers can also benefit home gardens, helping soil and plants look lusher and healthier. You can even add compost to houseplants.
Is composting worth it in an apartment?
Whether or not making compost in your apartment is worth it comes down to your particular needs and preferences. People with the space and time as well as somewhere to use the compost find that it’s an effective way to reduce their environmental footprint.
How do you compost in an apartment without it smelling?
There are more than a few ways to cut down on or remove the smell associated with making compost. Placing bedding above the compost when using vermicomposting helps with this, as does avoiding adding meat to your compost pile. If odor is your biggest obstacle to starting a compost bin in your home, an electric composter may be the best option for you.