I’ve tried so many different ways of containing our kitchen food waste over the years. Ultimately, a worm farm is in my future. But I want to share this easy way we’ve found to keep food out of the trash and headed to the compost pile, without adding a lot of extra work to the process.
In the cabinet under our kitchen sink we keep a large stock pot with a lid. This is where we discard all of our food waste to be taken out to our compost bin outside by the gardens. We usually get away with only needing to dump it a couple times a week, but depending on what you discard, you may want to take it out more or less often. In the heat and harvest of summer, it might get taken out every other day. While in the dead of winter, once a week is sufficient.
There are lots of opinions about what should or should not be composted. I tend to lean the direction of David the Good and “Compost Everything”, while Ryan is much more specific with his composting inputs. I can tell you from our experience, everything breaks down eventually if it is organic material, or was once alive. Thus, I tend to reserve my mental space for things other than sorting categories of what to compost or not.
A trick to help you decide if you could compost it or not would be to ask the question, ”was this ______ever part of something that was alive?”
The answer might be obvious like in the case of strawberry tops or avocado shells, while some paper products and other processed food items might take a second or two to decide if it’s compostable, or headed for a landfill. Eventually you will get the hang of it!
But don’t take my word for it. YouTube ”composting at home” and see what other people are doing, and remember to set the bar low, and you’ll always be able to jump over it.
