Composting has become increasingly popular over the past several years. It can be a fantastic way to create fertilizer for your yard or potted plants and it also helps keep food waste out of landfills.

Indoor composting can be quite simple and extremely rewarding. However, if you live in a city or small apartment you may think that you do not have the space. There are a few, helpful solutions you can turn to to easily compost your kitchen scraps and organic matter.

Worm Bin

If you can get past the idea of having worms in your apartment, a worm composting bin can be a good solution. These bins are quite common for those that do not have a yard with enough space for a compost pile.

The concept behind this setup is that the worms eat what you add to the pile and turn it into worm castings. If you have a patio, porch, or balcony, you can use the worm castings as a great fertilizer for potted plants or flowers.

There are quite a few things to watch for to ensure your worm bin is working properly.

• Worms need to be kept out of direct sunlight and at room temperature.
• You should target a 50/50 mix of browns (carbon) and greens (nitrogen) for your worm bin.
• Do not add any dairy, meat, or citrus peels to your worm bin.
• Check on the food regularly to see if there are some foods your worms are not eating.

Tumblers

Another common way of composting for people who live in apartments is a compost tumbler. You will need to have some outdoor space for this, however, so it is really only an option if you have a balcony, porch, or patio to put the tumbler on.

A tumbler is an outdoor, airtight container that gets rotated to mix composting materials. Tumblers trap the heat to speed up the composting process. A general rule for optimal decomposition is a 20:1 ratio of browns to greens.

Collection Sites or Donations

Some urban areas offer compost collection sites. Use our online compost site search tool to see if there is a site near your home.

You may be able to find a local community garden in your area that you could donate food scraps to as well and some cities even offer compost pick up.

beyondGREEN’s Countertop Composter

Knowing how to compost kitchen waste in apartments is easy with beyondGREEN's countertop composter. This kitchen scrap composter has the capacity to compost everyday items such as food scraps, coffee grounds, wood shavings, grains, yard waste, and more.

This composter is capable of composting at 10 times the rate as the average backyard composter or indoor worm bin. With our composter, you will have fresh compost for use in your garden every two weeks.

This electric composter is also energy efficient. It is built to insulate itself and control the internal temperature allowing it to require less energy to run.