If you're life is like mine sitting down to catch up on TMZ is not on my schedule. Cooking happens once in a while - and by cooking I mean cutting vegetables and throwing them on raw lettuce. Or perhaps a nice brown rice cake smothered in almond butter.
Ok. So I'm not much a cook. BUT I do have a desire to compost those little bits of veggies left over after making salad. Fine, I'll be honest. I have a desire to compost the veggies and fruits that go bad sitting in my fridge while I'm out eating at restaurants.
I live in an apartment without a balcony. I could put a compost outdoors but even the apartment recycle bins get stolen (along with 4 of my bikes since I've been here). Not a wise choice. Churning leaves, and soil, and food, and waiting, and churning, and adding, and . . . well you get the point. It's not on my to do list.
In comes the very convenient, highly efficient, and small compact indoor electrical composts available. I chose to go with NatureMill (available through Fresh Cafe) for the low, low (cough) price of $400 you can be the proud owner of one of the black ones (colours are $25 extra). For the sake of Green research out came my Visa.
As the first week progressed I questioned my sanity on why I would spend $400 on a machine that made my apartment smell like garbage on a hot July day. It was laughably unbearable. I was frantically googling similar situations with the machine and panicking at the stench wafting around my place.
In comes a word of advice - READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! It turns out all you have to do is add sawdust pellets (that come with the compost) EVERY time you put in food. Oops.
Three weeks later I am a proud newbie compost junkie. The apartment doesn't smell like hot garbage, there are no fruit flies, the machine is pretty quiet, I've got a full tray of compost soil, and I've noticed a significant difference in the amount of actual garbage leaving my home. Not bad.
Nature Mill is available at Fresh Cafe and it will compost anything from bread, rice, fruit, veggies, meat, egg shells, . . the list goes on. The whole compost process takes about 3 - 4 weeks which is extremely faster than an outdoor, natural compost bin.
Now, here's the deal. Would I suggest this to everyone? Heck no. The initial expense is hefty and there are the additional costs of continually purchasing Baking Soda and ordering sawdust pellets. Also, the machine does have an "energy efficient" setting but it is always plugged in.
For those who are wanting to compost who live in an apartment or condo this may be a great option for you. If you have any questions please feel free to send them to me.
Carry on and Compost Eco-Curious folk!
Green Realtor Reality Check
xoxo
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