This Hack Makes Composting at Home So Much Easier
Most people new to composting find that there are a number of nuisances that are difficult to avoid. Odor, fruit flies, countless trips to the bin in the backyard…in the beginning, all this can be enough to make even the most dedicated want to give up.
But what would you say if I told you there was a single solution that could take care of all three of these problems? All you need is a freezer!
Stashing your food scraps in the freezer might sound weird, but it’s actually a great way to keep all those organic discards from ending up stinky and bug-ridden. Simply locate a bin (this could be an old coffee can, a 3-quart trash can, reusable silicon bags ? anything, really) that you don’t mind relegating to the freezer, and place it on a shelf where it can be easily accessed.
When the bin gets full, all you have to do is empty it in your pile and give your empty freezer bin a rinse. The organics will already be well on their way to decomposing and you’ll have been able to avoid the trek to the pile for at least a week, if not more!
What makes this method so great?
1. Minimal to no odor
Frozen organic matter does not interact with its environment the way it would were it on the kitchen counter. Open the freezer and all you’ll smell is icy freshness! Bonus tip: Struggling to keep everything tidy? Lay a flexible cutting board underneath your freezer bin to catch any escaped scraps.
2. Zero?pests
Common pests like fruit flies and maggots will steer clear of your freezer. They don’t want to be in there any more than you do!?Freezing scraps will also kill any insect larva that may be in the food.
3. A convenient location
It takes next to no effort to drop a banana peel or pile of carrot shavings into a bin just steps from where you created them. Keep your bin in the freezer and you won’t have to tromp out to the backyard every five minutes just to drop your scraps off for decomposition.
4. Quicker decomposition
Speaking of decomposition…did you know that the act of freezing actually breaks down the cell walls of organic material? It’s true! When that newly dumped bin of scraps thaws in your pile (or in your city’s pile), it’ll already be much closer to becoming the black gold you know it can be.
How to apply frozen scraps by composting method.
If you have a traditional pile:
Keep doing what you’re doing. Freezing kitchen scraps will help stretch the time between trips out to the compost pile. Sometimes that’s all the motivation you need!
If you?use bokashi:
Frozen scraps can be added to your bokashi bucket, no problem. Just make sure you’re still layering with “browns”?? a.k.a. dry, high-carbon materials like newspaper, brown paper bag shreds, sawdust, etc.
If you?send scraps out for collection:
Again, keep doing what you’re doing. Compost collectors won’t have any issue with frozen scraps. The only consideration here is that you get the bin out a few minutes ahead of pick-up time so you don’t have to struggle to dump a frozen-together lump of scraps into your collection bin.
If you have a worm bin / vermicomposter:
If you are using a vermicomposter to manage your kitchen scraps, adding the scraps directly to the bin as you make them may still be your best bet ? don’t want to overwhelm those worms! Still want to save scraps in the freezer? Just make sure you thaw them before adding them to the worm tray.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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