apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

How much power does the composter use? It seems kind of wasteful to use electricity to compost.

jinx-- look at the specifications on the website.

"5 kwh / month - as much as a typical night light. This costs about $0.50 per month, depending on local rates."

personally, if you need to compost and you have the outdoor space I prefer the old fashioned method. It works just fine. Last thing I want are more needless gadgets added all around the kitchen and house.

Are you sure that baking soda won't affect the ph of the compost in a negative way?

Let me chime in with, "it's big in Japan". I've seen photos of units like these integrated into Japanese kitchens. If you have a garbage disposal, it seems like you would be able to plug this into the other outlet and keep the unit under the sink on a pull-out tray.

I wonder where you'd deposit the compost if you lived in a high-rise? Maybe you could become a urban compost guerrilla. Nourishing plants and trees out on the streets...

As someone without enough outdoor space to properly compost, I'm really excited about this. Could I put it out on my balcony (i.e., is it waterproof?)?

re: "Cound I put it out on my balcony") - from the website:

"Indoor or outdoor use, even in cold weather, rain, or snow."

so... yes.

using this machine would result in less garbage going to the landfill.

An alternative way to composting is to keep a bowl in the back of your fridge and toss any of your produce clippings into it and at the end of the week liquify it in a blender/foodprocessor and pour into a hole outside :) guerilla style.

We have one in our 3rd floor apt and have to admit that it's great! The smell gets to us sometimes, so we're finding that having baking soda and sawdust pellets on hand is essential for cutting down the organic odor.

We're also finding that the banana peels (when not chopped into small bits) and flowers like to bind up the motor and cause jams.

One question though...just completed our first transfer of compost to the finishing tray. It's been there for a week and is ready to be emptied. I'm done for the season with my garden and would like to begin storing the compost. How do you store yours??

Do not, under any circumstances, buy the Nature Mill Indoor Composter!!!! I talked two friends into buying units with me to get the discount, and none of our units work properly. They’re flimsily made, and do not perform the way they’re supposed to. My unit broke after two weeks–it stopped mixing. My friend’s unit stopped emptying. My other friends unit stopped emptying. We contacted the company (email is your only option here–no phone help available). We waited over a month for replacement parts. Imagine cleaning compost slime and gook off of many parts in order to take everything apart and replace parts. Two weeks after I got my unit up and running again, it stopped emptying. The unit looks like a phase one prototype. Piece are flimsy and break easily. I ended up rigging up my own solutions (driving nails into the styrofoam backing to keep the motor and motor shaft from coming out) to problems that should have been remedied before they put this on the market. It is the worst purchasing mistake I’ve ever made. Run, don’t walk, from this composter!!!!!

I have this machine, and am planning on buying the kitchen cabinet accessory (attaches to the door and pulls the unit out when the door is opened). It has worked great so far, but we don't put sawdust and baking soda in often enough, so it gets a little mushy and smelly until we add them. I particularly like this unit because after our waste goes through this system, we chunk it into our large compost turner outside with all our yard clippings. It stays out there and cures longer, until we need it. Overall, it is very convenient.

I love my NatureMill! I am still blown away by how FAST it crunches our leftovers down into dirt. Smells like vegetable soup. We have not had any jam problems but only because we are very careful about what we put in it (no plastic or hard pits). We used to have a big tumbling bin outside but it really was a waste of time and required a huge amount of energy to get it to turn and of course in the winter it was no fun at all. If everyone used one of these we would rid the world of trash in no time! Trash produces methane which is incredibly toxic in terms of greenhouse gas.

Awesome composter! I've been using mine for about a year. You HAVE to add the sawdust pellets as they recommend in the instructions otherwise the green-brown balance quickly gets out of whack. I have not had any problems once the balance was properly established. It is amazingly fast.