How To Compost At Home | FoodCycler Electronic Composter
Have you heard of an electronic compost appliance? For those looking to compost in a small space, indoors, or who just don’t want the hassle of managing an outdoor compost pile, read on for more about how this family uses an electronic compost appliance to reduce food waste in their kitchen!
The Compost Chronicles series highlights families in various circumstances who have all found a way to compost at home that works for their lifestyle. Hopefully, you can be inspired to give it a go and help our planet become a little healthier.
Did you know that composting can transform your trash into new life? And that new life, in the form of microbes, fungi, earthworms, and more, provides the foundation for much of all other healthy life on Earth?
Composting is a great way to create healthy soil to support people and our planet. Healthy soil is also a magical carbon sink that absorbs carbon from our atmosphere and helps cool the planet. While dead dirt has few living organisms, a teaspoon of healthy soil has more living organisms in it than the entire population of humans on Planet Earth!
We need everyone to learn how to compost at home and make it a part of everyday life.
Don’t think you can compost? We’ve got a whole set of resources on Everything To Know About How To Compost At Home, including more Compost Chronicles interviews. All of this information about how to compost at home will hopefully prove that just about anyone can make space and find a system to turn their food scraps into nutrient-rich compost to enrich our soil, feed our food cycle, and limit the food waste that ends up in landfills.
In this edition of Bring Your Trash To Life, Luci is sharing all about how she and her family compost at home right in their kitchen. They have an electronic compost appliance that minimizes food waste and turns it into a soil amendment in just a few hours without any smells. I’ll let Luci tell you more about it!
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you live, your family, etc…?
I’m a women’s lifestyle blogger with an emphasis on sustainability (in recent years). I live in Sacramento, California, with my husband and one-year-old baby boy! We love traveling, eating, and enjoying time outdoors in the sunshine, rain, and snow!
Tell us a little bit about why you decided to start composting?
I thought composting was so cool but never an option for us, living in an apartment in Los Angeles (before we moved). When we bought our house in Sacramento, I loved the idea of composting but just wasn’t there yet in terms of time to research and carrying it out (our little guy was just 2 months old).
Not too long after, however, I learned about electronic composters and my world just about exploded. That I could handle. We’ve had our electronic composter for a little over a year now and I CANNOT imagine living without it! It’s my kitchen gadget of choice! Crazy, right?
Editor’s Note: Luci uses the same FoodCycler electronic composter we do!
What method of composting do you use or have you used?
We just use electronic composting. Our little machine takes everything you’d put into a traditional compost pile (as well as dairy and fish/poultry bones) and turns it into a “foodilizer.” The process takes about 6 hours (we run it overnight), and we run our machine 3-4x per week. The foodilizer is like a super-concentrated compost (minus the microbes) that adds tons of nutrients to soil.
Our electronic composter comes with a bucket (that fits into the machine) and has a fitted lid with a carbon filter. There is no smell from the food scraps and only occasionally does the machine smell (but not like rotting food), when the filters need changing.
Have you had any issues with animals or pests getting into your compost pile?
We have a trash can of sorts on the back porch with our foodilizer (to store until we add it to our garden). It has a lid and we have thankfully had no issues with any kind of animals or pests!
How does your family feel about composting?
My husband was quickly on board with the electronic compost appliance. It took some time to get us into the habit of putting our food scraps (that I don’t freeze to make broth) into the bucket, but that was short and painless! Now I have major guilt putting any food in the trash when we’re away from home!
Have you experienced any benefits from composting, especially ones that might have surprised you?
I didn’t realize how much food waste we created, even just from cooking with all our veggies, eggshells, etc. I’m so much more mindful of how much waste even a small family can create!
Anything else you’d like to share with readers about your composting practices, especially to help beginners gain confidence that they too can compost?
Try what works for you. If composting in your home or backyard isn’t working yet, look around your community for others who are composting. We have city-wide and local groups who help with compost. There’s even an app called ShareWaste that connects people looking for food to compost with those looking for a compost system. Don’t ever feel like you have to do any of this alone.
Where else can we find you and learn more about what you’re up to?
I post regularly on my site Luci’s Morsels. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and follow me on Instagram for all kinds of life and fun.
Bring Your Trash To Life Interview Series
For more interviews from everyday families who compost at home, check out our entire series of Bring Your Trash To Life interviews. We’ve interviewed tons of families who compost in a variety of ways, so hopefully, there are one or two ways that may work for your family and inspire you to try composting at home!
