Non-stinky compost bucket

In our very small house in the UK, we use a similar compost pail to the one Raven suggested, with compostable liners similar to the ones Nikki referenced. They are supposed to be completely made from plant material, but I don't know the brand as they're supplied by the local council as part of their waste reduction campaign. They don't break down for ages if they're dry, but as soon as they get wet, especially with mildly acid fluids (hubby's bad habit of pouring his tea remains into the caddy without straining it first!) they break down rapidly. Waaaaaay too rapidly sometimes!
The only catch for what D.W. wants is that the pail is small, suitable for a 2 person household if emptied daily. If I'm processing stuff from the garden or a bulk batch of fruit and veggies and producing a lot of compostable scraps, it needs emptying two or three times daily. So for a bigger household, it's a no go. The other issue is that I suspect the carbon filters may contain plastic fibre, though it should be possible to find ones that don't and I will be looking out for those next time we need some.
We also have a no-kill household. Though we have a thriving rodent population in the garden, we worked to seal anywhere they could enter the house and haven't had issues with them coming indoors yet. The house does have a bit of eau d'cat about it, so that could be why. Also it's a newer home. Older homes have a lot more little gaps rodents can squeeze through. I like the suggestion of rodent homes outside for them. It won't lure the ones who've found a warm cozy place to sit out the winter from the house. But maybe when they leave the house in spring, that's the time to go on a gap-filling round of the dwelling, and providing alternative habitats in the garden can encourage the critters to find somewhere else to stay next year?

My compost heap is a 15 minute walk from my house, so during the winter I don’t take it daily. I have a small caddy i use with the green compost bags, then i store these in a bucket outdoors and take them every few days. I find the compost liners degrade fine in my poorly maintained compost heap.

I also use ‘degradeable’ binbags which are black, for our regular rubbish,and I think those would struggle to degrade in a home compost situation. The two seem to be made of totally different materials, just in case anyone was getting mixed up.

I've been using a digester for 35 years.  That involves storing kitchen scraps in the kitchen until they are dumped into the digester outside.  The digester takes ALL food scraps except corn cobs and woody squash shells.  In that time I have perfected the easiest, no smell collection method possible.  Number 1 priority is NO lid.  Adequate oxygen causes aerobic decomposition to start rather than anaerobic which is smelly.  Adequate air flow keeps things drier which slows down decomposition.  We had 10 kids and encouraged them to view the open compost bucket and watch what happened to various foods.(O.K. they didn't all appreciate that so we had a lid they could put on when their friends came over.)  Nobody has mentioned china or porcelain containers.  If not needing a lid, a visit to a second hand store will procure a very decorative, very cheap, beautiful bowl, pot, or container square, round, or whatever fits best on your counter space.  The size will need to reflect 1 to 4 days of scraps from your kitchen.  And the shape will need to be easy to empty.

Number 2 priority is keeping the contents dry.  I have become quite proficient at quickly lining any size container with a part of or whole newspaper page.  The liner usually lasts 1 to 3 dumpings and then goes with the scraps.  Stale crusts are sometimes kept out to start the new bottom after a dump.  Liguid soups, soured milk, etc. are dumped down the toilet in winter or taken out to the digester by me if more liquid is needed there.  Large amounts of wet stuff like 3 squash guts are put in another dish and taken out within a day.  The same goes for all the bones of a meal of spareribs for 6 people.  Our container might get washed every 6 months!  

Number 3 is the necessity to learn about your food scraps.  At certain times of the year flies will lay eggs on the meat and new flies will appear in 3 days.  At other times fruit flies must be controlled.  Etc.

FYI our digester "disappeared" all our food scraps for 20 years until it needed to be emptied of digestate.  At that time, I started to compost.  So I have 2 containers on the counter, 1 for everything a dog would eat and 1 for everything a rabbit would eat.  The digester continues to "disappear" meat, bones, gravy, etc.  but it will not get full again in my lifetime....

Ray

A lot has already been said on this subject, but here’s my 2 cents worth. My problem wasn’t mice it was fruit flys.
I use a lidded blue enamel pot and add a couple of handfuls (about 2 inches) of paper from my shredder. Great way to recycle all that junk mail. The paper has reduced, mainly stopped any problem with fruit flys. All is dumped into one of 2 (hope to get 3 to better stage aging compost) conveniently located outdoor consumer compost bins every few days. The paper eliminates/reduces smells & extends the time between emptying the container. The outside bins are the heavy plastic stacked, vented & lidded upright containers. It’s occasionally turned with a long handled tool that works like a toggle bolt. We have had to strap the lids to stop raccoons from having a meal or two.
I use a stick to scrap out most of the paper scraps, quickly spray rinse the container in the sink with hot water (we live in the city and a garbage disposal takes care of a stray wet scrap of paper). A fast wipe out with a drop of dish detergent or an occasional soak, then throw in a couple of handfuls of paper from the shredder....

If the outside compost smells bad or if we’ve shredded a lot of paper, the shredder is always emptied into the compost. I have a different system for yard waste, so paper replaces leaves with the kitchen scraps. As much as 4 to 6 inches of paper will not overwhelm the balance of the finished compost, although occasionally I will wet the paper after pouring it in.

r ranson wrote:Stainless steel with holes in the lid so the compost can breathe and CHANGEABLE charcoal filters in the lid.  Emptied and rinsed (I use rainbutt water) AT LEAST once a day (full or not) and you only have to clean it and change the filters twice a year.  Emptied every other day or neglect to rinse it each time, and it needs cleaning with bleach AT LEAST once a month.  

We have one like this.



IF the lid is properly closed, and the bin properly maintained, there is no smell - I'm hypersensitive to smell (Hyperosmia due to health issues), so smells (not just bad ones) make me vomit instantly.  So I can say with strong conviction that, if the human element is functioning correctly (emptying the bin AT LEAST ONCE A DAY), then this is the most awesome solution to kitchen counter compost EVER!

We use this exact same one. We keep it on the kitchen counter, and we empty it every morning for the chickens. The inside smells bad, when opening it, but when closed, no smell. I don't rinse it out every day, but I do about once a week. And maybe every two months I actually wash it.

It's really zero hassle, zero smell when closed. Almost every day we fill it full. On the rare occasion we need more space (i.e. peeling alot of apples or potatoes), I just empty it a second time in the evening for the chickens.

My solution was to put a bucket in the fridge freezer and put my compost there.    This got rid of bugs and the smell,    Then when full I would take it out and let thaw in the compost pile outside.


This puts it out of sight, out of mind, and the smell is gone.  

In Canada there is a program called Dragon's Den where entrepreneurs seek investment for their products.  On tonight's episode there was a pitch for a product called Bin Breeze that cures compost odor.

Seems it is comprised of wood waste, essential oils, zeolight (sp?) and DE - based on pitch info. Was developed at the University of Victoria, and is patent pending. Arlene - one of the original Dragon's - bought just shy of 50%, all the Dragon's loved the product, but we're not a fan of the pitcher.

Might be worth looking into - either the actual product (comes in different essential oil blends such as lavender, Holiday spice...), Bin Breeze or adapting into a homemade product as sawdust, DE and essential oils are easily available and these basic ingredients seem easily obtainable and sustainable.

"We use this exact same one. We keep it on the kitchen counter, and we empty it every morning for the chickens. The inside smells bad, when opening it, but when closed, no smell. I don't rinse it out every day, but I do about once a week. And maybe every two months I actually wash it.
It's really zero hassle, zero smell when closed. Almost every day we fill it full."

If the inside smells bad when opening and/or emptying it......well, don't you have to open it multiple times all day long to add stuff like a banana peel or whatever?  Part of the reason we don't like a lid is the convenience of tossing stuff in with just one hand all day long and for several days without it smelling.

Razer

Ok, so I do things a little differently. After looking at some of the Korean Natural Farming stuff on no smell chicken and pig keeping (where they spray Lactobacillus around amongst other things) - and after making some JADAM JMS (anerobic potato ferment with no smell) i decided to try and predigest the fruit and veg scraps with lactobacillus. Tipped everything in a bucket, added water which is non treated here and some keffir whey. Sit it behid the wood heater and it bubbles in a few days. A little citrus smell (my children love citrus) but thats it. Every few days i take it out and tip it around the orchard trees and restart. There is a lot of biodiversity in milk keffir. Tends to break down quickly (two weeks) and the micro biology love it, though it is moist here and doesn't freeze.  You could use a lid with a bubbler like you'd do with edible lacto-ferments if mice exclusion was needed. I dont rinse the bucket generally, often just wash the remaining coffee grounds back to the bottom as a bit of an extra starter. Milk keffir is also worth looking into in its own right, lots of publications now on liver protection, gut and skin health amongst other things.  Hope that helps.