How To Compost When You Don't Have Outdoor Space

According to the EPA, 95% of the more than 66 million tons of food waste in the United States ends up in the landfill. That waste along with other compostable materials like yard trimmings and cardboard make up more than half of the solid waste that ends up in landfills. If that organic matter was, instead, processed into compost, it would cut methane emissions from landfills in half while returning the nutrients locked in that waste to the soil.

Whether you're trying to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle or you want a cheaper way to feed your houseplant collection, composting is one of the best things you can start doing. But if you don't have a yard to keep a compost pile in, you might assume it's not a practical option. In fact, indoor composting is possible and not as smelly as you might think if done right.

By following a few simple best practices, you can create rich compost in an indoor bin or vermicomposting system without the putrid stench of rotting food. If you don't have houseplants or a garden plot to use that compost in, you can donate it to a community garden or give it to a friend who does have plants to feed. For apartment dwellers who have no interest in making compost at home, you can still keep your kitchen scraps out of the landfill by collecting them to donate to a local composting program or community garden.

If you have houseplants or friends with gardens, it's worth getting a compost bin for your kitchen. It's not hard to make your own DIY compost, and it is a prized ingredient in any healthy garden. You can make your own indoor composting bin out of just about any container with a tight-fitting lid. There are also some great kitchen compost bins available that are designed to trap odor while still allowing enough airflow for the composting process.

With indoor compost bins, the key is to make sure you're adding a generous layer of browns on top of each addition of greens. Brown materials are low-nitrogen ingredients like dry leaves, shredded paper, or cardboard. Green materials are the high nitrogen ingredients, which include most of the kitchen scraps you plan to compost.

In an outdoor pile, getting the layers of green and brown materials perfect is less important since the compost is, ideally, far enough away from the house that you don't have to smell it. But indoors, alternating thin layers of each type of material will prevent your compost from stinking by preventing it from becoming anaerobic. Anaerobic digestion will still break everything down. But it will also produce the putrid odors you associate with rotting food.

Vermicomposting, or worm composting, is a lot more indoor-friendly than it sounds. It involves feeding your food scraps to worms in an enclosed bin. If maintained properly, a vermicomposting system allows you to create compost in your home without attracting pests or dealing with the odor of decomposing matter. Setting up and maintaining the system is easy. You can buy a premade worm bin like the Worm Factory 360 that comes with everything you need. You can also make your own vermicompost system with a pair of dark storage bins and a drill.

Whether you bought one or made one, the next step is to fill it about halfway with a moistened bedding material like damp, shredded cardboard, leaves, or newspaper. Sprinkle in a handful of soil and about one pound of worms. You can order the approximately 1,000 worms that make a pound online.

Now you're ready to start worm composting in your kitchen. Worms will eat most of your produce scraps, with the exception of citrus or pungent ingredients like garlic and onions. They will also happily scarf down eggshells and paper products like coffee filters or tea bags. Just avoid adding meat and dairy. Whenever you toss in scraps, add a 2-inch layer of bedding material to cover it. Don't add new scraps until the old scraps are gone. In a few months, you'll have a rich layer of vermicompost at the bottom of your bin ready to use in your houseplants or give to your friends with gardens.

If you don't have a yard but do have houseplants, you can enjoy some of the benefits of composting at home by adding certain kitchen scraps straight into your pots. For example, a thin layer of dry, used coffee grounds around your plants will provide a nitrogen boost as it slowly breaks down. It also blends in with the soil so it doesn't look like you have rotting food scraps in your houseplants. Likewise, you can grind eggshells into a powder to add calcium to your potting soil.

Other scraps might not blend into the soil as well, but they can be used to repel pests. Citrus peels and hot peppers, for example, both contain volatile compounds that common pests don't like. As the scent fades, move the scraps to a compost bin or mix them into the potting soil where they can break down into compost over time.

If you do opt to apply kitchen scraps like these directly to your houseplants without composting first, be careful to not go overboard. Too much of any single ingredient can end up harming your plants. Too much coffee grounds, for example, can result in excess caffeine that slows plant growth rather than boosting it. Excess eggshell powder can raise the pH too much, making it harder for plant roots to absorb nutrients from the soil. This is especially risky for plants that need more acidic soils.

If you don't want to actually create compost at home, you can still keep food waste out of the landfill by collecting it and giving it to a local composting facility. You can find compost programs near you at findacomposter.com or simply search using the keywords "composting program" and your town or city name. Depending on where you are, you may be able to sign up for a residential pick-up service. These programs let you simply leave a bin of compostable scraps at the curb like you would your regular trash bin. In some cases, municipal composting programs will even give out free ready-to-use compost to residents. If you have a garden or houseplant collection, you can enjoy all the benefits of composting without any of the work or potential odors involved in making it yourself.

Before adding anything to your new compost bin or dropping it off at the facility, be sure to check the program's guidelines and restrictions. While just about anything that was once alive can be composted, not all facilities will accept anything compostable. This is especially true for packaging and other manufactured products that are labeled compostable. While one survey found that over 70% of facilities accept some kinds of compostable packaging, there are still restrictions on which kinds. There's also a chance your local composting program is among the roughly 30% that won't accept any.

If there aren't any composting programs near you, there might be a community garden or farmer's market that accepts food scrap donations. Search for community gardens and farmer's markets in your area and reach out to see which of them might have drop-off sites where you can donate your food scraps. When you find one that has a drop-off site, make sure you note what kind of waste they accept.

Once you know what materials they're able to compost, you can simply toss food scraps into a bin on your counter or store them in your freezer. When it's full, stop by the drop-off site to empty it. If you want to make fewer trips, you can keep a larger bin outside or in your garage to empty your kitchen compost bin into. Just make sure it has a secure lid that hungry rodents or raccoons can't get into.