Environmental Enlightenment #5 (Composting)

Once I started paying attention to everything that I was using and throwing away I couldn't help but feel bad about throwing food away. Generally speaking I try to save leftovers and eat them later, but there is always that food that doesn't get eaten. Besides that there is also food waste such as onion skins, peels, fat cut off of meat, egg shells etc that we can't use for eating purposes so it gets thrown away.

I started to research composting. It seems easy enough, if you're blessed with a backyard. However, I live in a condo on the third floor (no balcony either!) I first looked into vermicomposting. They sell plenty of kits (including the worms) and it sounds like a nice little ecosystem. I feed the worms and in turn the worms poop out glorious plant food.  I poured over dozens of reviews and came to find that many people had trouble keeping the worms alive. Apparently they can be pretty picky about what you feed them. Plus, I wasn't too comfortable with the idea of keeping a bunch of worms inside my home. If I had a backyard or balcony it might have been another story...


I came across a Real Goods magazine and discovered the Nature Mill automatic indoor composter. To be honest, the words "automatic" and "indoor" already had me sold. Plus, there was this picture of a couple composting and they just look so darn happy!

In all seriousness though, this was just the composter for me. It has a lifetime filter which never needs replacement. I can't tell you how many times I forget to change filters on things and they get clogged. It is also temperature controlled and has a mixing chamber that automatically rotates every 4 hours. So basically all you have to do it plug it in and dump some food in it. There is also a bottom chamber where finished compost gets transferred into in order to dry out before use.

This composter is a little on the expensive side so I asked for it as a birthday present from my family. I've been using it since December and it works great. A lot of people have asked me if it smells and there is an odor when the composter is open, but it is a very earthy smell (it doesn't smell at all like garbage). Otherwise, while the composter is closed you can't smell a thing. I've even used some compost on my house plants to add some life back into them during this particularly overcast winter. I would recommend the Nature Mill to anyone looking for a simple easy way to compost.

When composting I've learned that it is very important to balance what goes into the compost in order to get a good end result. The Nature Mill came with a very informative manual and I haven't had any problems keeping my compost balanced. Having this compost readily available further encouraged me to start up my indoor garden. I recently ordered the seeds and I am now attempting to free-cycle some old pots and containers in which to grow my plants.

For some reason my mom has taken on the role of "Negative Nelly" when it comes to my environmentalism. I welcome the critiques because it helps me see these changes that I am making from another perspective.  She pointed out that the composter runs on electricity. *gasp!* The specifications for the Nature Mill state the following: "Power Consumption: 5 kwh/month- as much as a typical night light. This costs about $0.50 per month depending on local rates. Uses far less energy than hauling the same amount of waste in a diesel garbage truck." In conclusion, I won't be losing any sleep over the electricity that my composter is using. However, it would be nice to be completely solar powered, but that is a task for another day.