How To Use A Kitchen Compost Bin?

You hear about taking care of the environment almost like every day and you wonder how you can be of great help. Well, having a compost bin in your kitchen is one way to do it. Composting at home is most achievable because of the availability of sources of organic materials. Food scraps, which include leftovers, vegetable, fruit waste, tea bags, grains and all those food items that we throw away can make for great composting. In most households, it is believed that they are capable of throwing away so much food in a day and this is useful for recycling and feeding to your garden. Therefore, you should be able to know just what to compost and what not.

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What to and what not to compost in the kitchen bin?

To make a perfect compost, food scraps such as any type of vegetable and fruit waste, anything expired made of flour, grains, coffee grounds, tea bags, spices, crushed shells, cobs and husks are required. However, other things that shouldn’t be in the compost bin in your kitchen. These include meat waste (all of it including bones), fish or fish waste, dairy products, oils and grease. The wastes not only slow down the food breakdown, they are also responsible for bringing the rodents to the kitchen bin. In addition, meat create maggots which in turn causes the whole area to stink.

Using a kitchen compost bin

Step 1

First, you have to choose right container to do your composting in. Most people prefer making the bins themselves. Metal containers work best in this situation. Start by making holes at the base of the container and store away either in your cabinets or under the sink.

Step 2

Fill the bin with food scraps from your kitchen. It is always nice to use the smaller bits of the scarps to help the nutrients break down faster and easier. You can also add pieces of shredded papers every time you layer the bin. Do this on a daily basis without fail.

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Step 3

Lock tightly the contents of the kitchen bin after filling. This will not only help in the breaking down process, it will also contain the bad smell that may come out of the bin after some time.

Step 4

The contents of your kitchen bin will be there for quite some time and it is advisable to keep stirring them every once a week to allow them to interact and aerate oxygen into the mixture. Do this until ready to be used. This aids in fast decomposition of the pile. Always put back the lid to avoid unwanted pests.

Step 5

Your compost is ready after three weeks. Take it out to the garden and begin to feed it.

What to do when the bin stinks

The smell from the rotten food scraps is inevitable. Therefore, you need to apply the following tricks to curb the situation. Add a few pieces of newspaper or dry leaves to the pile. By doing this, the wet-dry content ratio will achieve balance to control the acidic odours.

In the case of rodents and pests

Pests and rodents love to be in places where decomposition is occurring. Therefore, to avoid such occurrences, it is always good to keep the bin tightly closed once you are done using it. And also, avoid putting in your compost kitchen the wrong wastes mentioned above.

Using your kitchen bin is the easiest way to make compost. Just make sure you are using the right bin. Also, fill the bin with the right waste for composting. During this process, it is vital to maintain high level of hygiene since there are items rotting in your kitchen.