Composting at home

[Cirkel]

Hi,

i am new to Edinburgh and do not understand how the Council works with distributing compost bins. We do not have one in our building. I live in an apartment so do not have a garden. But I hate to throw away my food waste.

It would be great if I could get some advise on how to compost at home.


Thanks,
Nidhi

[veggiechicken]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.
Have you asked your council about food waste collection?
Request bins or recycling boxes | Order bins or recycling boxes | The City of Edinburgh Council

[Cirkel]

Thanks veggiechicken.

Yes, I had visited the website some time back and again did when you sent a link. I get a message saying the service that's available in our area is the 'garden waste bin' which is the brown one. I have written to them for a food waste bin but haven't heard back.

Would it not be possible for me to compost at home?

[veggiechicken]

Most composting is done outdoors and, if you don't have a garden, you'd have to compost indoors. You could look at Bokashi bins but I know absolutely nothing about them! Bokashi - Composting | Bokashi Composting | Wiggly Wigglers

[Cirkel]

Thanks a lot

[Scarlet]

What will you do with the compost?

[Cirkel]

Hi Scarlet,

I would donate it to people who could use it.

[Scarlet]

I use one of those composting caddies indoors and empty out into my composting bins when full.
What about going onto freecycle/or similar and offering your food waste for composting rather than trying to compost yourself?

[Cirkel]

I've tried posting on Gumtree and Streetbank for people to take my food waste for composting, but haven't received any response so far. So I thought perhaps I could compost the waste myself and try giving that away. And if nothing else, I would sprinkle it in my community garden.

If you have any suggestions on where I could give away my food waste, that would be great.

Thanks much

[Scarlet]

Why not start off a composter in your community garden?

[veggiechicken]

Does your community garden have a compost bin? If not, why not ask for one?
My mother lives in a block of flats with a shared garden. The residents share a big compost bin.

Snap Scarlet

[Cirkel]

The community garden doesn't have a bin. But yes, I can surely speak to the manager here and ask for one. Thanks for the suggestion

[Scarlet]

Snap Scarlet

There's a first time for everything...I GOT IN FIRST!

[veggiechicken]

Only because I wrote 4 sentences to your one

[Jay-ell]

Most composting is done outdoors and, if you don't have a garden, you'd have to compost indoors. You could look at Bokashi bins but I know absolutely nothing about them! Bokashi - Composting | Bokashi Composting | Wiggly Wigglers

Bokashi Composting isn't real composting. It pickles food waste so it doesn't go rancid allowing you to use meat and dairy waste as well. The resulting pickle looks the same as it did when it went in (perhaps with some white mould) smells strongly of cider vinegar and still needs to be composted properly.

Food waste can attract rats, foxes and other vermin if put directly into a compost bin which is where I use bokashi - as an in between process that lets me compost the things I wouldn't normally put in. For some reason Bokashi is hyped as perfect if you live in a flat, it isn't. I keep my bokashi out of the house because you get the pickled smell whenever you open the lid to fill it up. And that can be a strong vinegar smell.