Food compost bin concept turns food waste and cardboard into fertilizer

Our eating habits have changed drastically over the past years, especially after the recent boom in food delivery services. Unfortunately, this isn’t always for the best as it has encouraged unhealthy lifestyles and increased the amount of waste we produce. Of course, there are services that try to remedy that with healthy food options and more sustainable packaging, but those don’t always result in a reduction of how much we throw out at the end of the day, or even after each meal. Human food doesn’t have to go to waste, especially if it can be converted into food for other living creatures like plants. That’s the idea behind this compositing device that transforms not just your meal but also its packaging into something to keep your plants just as healthy as you.

Designer: Byeonkyu Park

That salad you didn’t finish might come in cardboard packaging, but the moment you throw it in the bin, it stops being healthy for the planet. Sure, both materials will decompose eventually, but not only will that take time, it also misses out on the opportunity to use those for something more beneficial in the long run. After all, they can turn into fertilizer, but only if they’re actually treated in a proper manner, which usually involves taking them to recycling or composting centers.

Toggle is a device concept that lets you cut off the middleman and do all of that at home, and it works by using both edible and inedible parts of your meal delivery. It utilizes “green” materials like food waste mixed with “brown” materials like paper and cardboard or even wood, pretty much the things that your food came in. In other words, nothing is wasted, unless your meal is wrapped in plastic instead.

The device doesn’t simply mix these two groups into some disgusting slosh. One part of the machine has a shredder to reduce cardboard and wood into tiny bits, while another is a grinder that cuts up the food waste. The components are heated to reduce the volume of the waste and turn the mixture into something almost similar to the soil you will dump it on. The result is homemade fertilizer that you can use for the plants you’re growing both indoors and in your backyard.

While the process of handling waste might sound and look icky, Toggle is designed to hide those details as much as possible. In fact, it’s made to look more like a stylish and sophisticated can, just one that deftly handles the food you would have thrown out indiscriminately. In addition to safety mechanisms to protect kids in the house, the concept device is made to look discreet, attractive, and easy to use. It’s meant to encourage a more responsible lifestyle that goes beyond just eating properly, making sure that your plants and the planet can also benefit from your healthier lifestyle.

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How To Make Compost At Home

Composting is an aerobic procedure that requires oxygen and transforms organic substances into a nutrient-rich soil enhancer or mulch via the process of natural decomposition. Microorganisms consume materials in the compost pile, utilizing carbon and nitrogen for growth, water for digestion, and oxygen for respiration, resulting in compost—a dark, crumbly material with an earthy smell. Composting is nature’s method of recycling naturally, helping in reducing waste, combating climate change, and enhancing the quality of the soil. The biggest advantage is that one can compost kitchen food scraps along with dry leaves and woody debris from your yard at home.

Designer: Otis Oat

What are the benefits of composting?

• Composting allows one to recycle food scrap and manage waste more sustainably.
• It helps in reducing the volume of materials that may get disposed of in landfills or trash incinerators, thereby reducing the emission of powerful greenhouse gases.

Designer: Homesteading Where You Are

• Composting requires minimal effort and is a cost-effective way to produce high-quality soil amendments while reducing the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
• Another advantage is that composting is that it creates nutrient-rich soil, prevents soil erosion, conserves water, and improves plant growth.

What are the different types of composting?

Composting can be broadly classified into backyard composting and vermicomposting.

Backyard Composting

Backyard composting includes carbon-rich materials or browns like dry leaves, twigs, plant stalks, nitrogen-rich materials, or greens like grass clippings and food scraps. Composting involves the presence of water and oxygen, where carbon-rich materials serve as food for microorganisms, and nitrogen-rich materials generate heat in the pile.

Image Source: Plantophiles

• For backyard composting, the first step is to decide on a method for gathering and storing browns outdoors and collect fruit and vegetable scraps in a sealed container either on your kitchen counter, under your sink, or in your fridge or freezer.
• Identify an accessible, well-draining space in your yard for a compost pile, and select a bin type, that can be constructed from materials like wire, wood, cinder blocks, or enclosed options such as barrels and tumblers.
• Chop and break down the browns and greens into smaller pieces before adding them to the pile to expedite the decomposition process.
• Construct the compost pile with a four- to six-inch layer of substantial browns, like twigs and wood chips, to absorb excess liquids, elevate the pile, and facilitate air circulation at the base. Follow by layering greens and, add a bit of water to moisten the pile. Note that the browns should be at least three times the greens.
• As the compost pile decomposes, the center temperature initially rises. One can speed up decomposition and aerate by turning and mixing the pile with a garden fork. Monitor moisture, odor, and temperature, adjusting as needed. Adjust the compost by moistening and turning if it’s too dry, adding browns and turning if there’s an odor, mixing in greens, and turning if it’s not heating up.
• Once your compost pile stops heating up and shows no visible food scraps after mixing, let it cure for at least four weeks, relocating the oldest compost if desired. Note that after curing, the pile will be reduced to about one-third.
• Well-maintained compost is ready in three to five months, looking dark, loose, and crumbly with a soil-like smell. Screen or sift the finished compost to remove undecomposed materials, such as twigs or fruit pits, and add them back to the active or new pile if desired.
• Well-constructed and properly maintained compost piles, whether in bins or open, should not attract pests or rodents. If using a bin, reinforce it with a lid and potentially a floor, ensuring no holes or gaps larger than ¼ inch. Cover and bury food scraps in the pile, and avoid adding meat, dairy, or greasy foods.

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting employs specific earthworm species to enhance the organic waste conversion process, utilizing microorganisms and earthworms in a mesophilic environment. Earthworms consume organic materials, producing granular excrement known as vermicompost, which, in simple terms, improves soil’s biological, chemical, and physical properties. The earthworm’s digestive tract secretions aid in breaking down soil and organic matter, enriching the castings with readily available nutrients for plants. Various organic residues, including straw, husk, leaves, stalks, and livestock or poultry wastes, can be transformed into vermicompost, with earthworms reducing waste volume by 40–60 percent.

Types of Compost Bins

Here is a curated assortment of innovative compost bins.

1. Handheld Composting Machine

Designer: Shihcheng Chen

The ReGreen is a compact handheld device simulates the look of a miniature waste-disposal machine and incorporates an aluminum grinder that efficiently crushes and pulverizes waste while promoting quick biodegradation. The device features a top opening for waste input, a rotating arm that facilitates gentle pulverization and its base allows water drainage for compost drying. After waste is processed, one can introduce enzymes to speed up composting and convert organic waste into nutrient-rich compost.

2. Plant Cultivator and Compost Bin

Designer: Robin Akira

Paradise is an automated plant cultivator and compost bin designed to decrease domestic waste via the use of integrated technology that notifies users about compost and plant care needs. Inspired by the pandemic-driven shift to home-centric living, designer Robin Akira created Paradise to integrate greenery into interior spaces while addressing the global rise in domestic waste with its composting features and odor-sealing lid.

3. Compost Bin cum Indoor Garden

Designer: Chaozhi Lin

In a changing world where sustainability is a personal commitment, KAGURA, a self-sustaining indoor gardening system created by Chaozhi Lin, facilitates composting and vegetable cultivation. Consisting of a food waste container, elevated light structure, and three soil pots, KAGURA transforms scraps into compost, nourishing plants with an attractive, compact light fixture. Designed to fit any kitchen or living space, this system caters to environmentally conscious individuals in urban settings, addressing the challenge of limited yard space and making sustainable living feasible for city homes.

4. Compost Sleek Bin

Designer: Alp Çakın

Homepost, an innovative composting station, addresses waste challenges in office environments by accelerating the composting process, containing odors, and providing additional storage space. Its efficient design allows for the transformation of diverse organic waste, including plastics, paper, nutshells, teabags, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable scraps, and eggshells. The system’s environmentally friendly construction, made from sustainable green polyethylene, absorbs carbon dioxide during production. Featuring a rotating arm for easy transportation, Homepost’s modules nest efficiently for minimal space occupancy during transit.

5. Composting Machine

Designer: Jinhwi Bang

Reencle tackles the escalating food waste issue in the USA by efficiently breaking down household food-prep waste, bones, peels, leftovers, and expired products into compost within 24 hours. Roughly the size of a trash bin, Reencle features an automatic opening lid and a control panel, with microorganisms inside its chamber facilitating the composting process. The mechanical churning system reduces waste volume through vigorous mixing, and any emissions are filtered to release trace amounts of water vapor and clean air. This at-home solution transforms food waste into nutrient-rich compost for gardens or disposal, mitigating environmental harm caused by landfill decomposition.

6. Stainless Steel Compost Bin

Designer: Adrian Moro

Kamoro’s Compost Bin is crafted with a streamlined airflow design that both dries out waste and provides essential oxygen for microbial survival, ensuring the effortless cultivation of a healthy compost batch. Its double-walled construction consists of an outer stainless-steel container and an inner plastic bucket. The stainless-steel container incorporates a perforated base to establish an airflow pattern, and an activated carbon filter on top effectively filters outgoing air, reducing any odors generated during the organic breakdown process.

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A smart compost tracking system that analyses soil conditions to send alerts to users

Monty is a smart compost tracking system that analyzes soil conditions with Bluetooth and smart technology before sending alerts to users through a mobile app of when their soil could use some extra care.

Everyone thinks about composting at some point. Whether you have a small, windowsill herb garden or a full grassy yard, composting helps keep greenery abundant and healthy while also recycling organic waste back into the soil. While the benefits are many, actual compost gardens are few and far between. Making the composting game accessible and easy for everyone, Monty is a smart compost system that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth to track compost data and break the process down into simple steps.

“Compost can reduce our waste, feed our food, and save our soil but not enough people do it,” as the creators behind Monty put it. Monty Compost Company developed its smart compost system to help make composting more efficient and approachable for people with all types of gardens. Using integrated smart technology, Monty’s soil sensors connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth and use an app-based management system to help track the conditions of the compost in your garden. Monty is comprised of a mobile app and sensor wand that analyzes the state of your soil to indicate when more compost can be added.

Stocked with first-class smart technology, Monty tracks the key compost health indicators such as soil temperature, humidity, and VOCs. Wireless by design, Monty can be disassembled and plugged into an external charging basin, where the batteries can power up before hitting the soil again. Through the mobile app, users will be alerted when their soil needs water, less sunshine, or more compost as the wand tracks its conditions.

Designer: Monty Compost Co.

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These sustainable single-use takeout containers made from wheat husk are fully compostable!

These days, we’re ordering takeout and a lot of it. Part convenience, part laziness, takeout gives some much-needed variety with the monotony of cooking every meal during the pandemic. With this surge in popularity, Forest & Whale, a multidisciplinary design practice that focuses on products, circular systems, and future envisioning, hope to combat single-use plastic’s harmful impact on the environment with Reuse, a single-use food container that can either be composted in cities with available corresponding facilities or eaten.

Gustavo Maggio and Wendy Chua co-founded Forest & Whale as a means to explore the world of design and its relationship with the environment, along with our own human behavior and living experiences. Made from wheat husk for its base and PHA for the lid, Reuse serves as a fully compostable food container that not only amplifies our experience consuming takeout food but creates a conversation around our high-consumption habits and the negative effect they have on our environment. Wheat husk and PHA, a bacteria-based composite that works like a natural plastic derived from organic materials, can both be composted as food waste, without additional industrial-level composting facilities. The usability of Reuse hinges on its simple decomposition and accessible construction processes, appeals for large cities and small towns alike to adopt this form of containing takeout food. Similar to the paper straw revolution we’ve seen come to fruition almost overnight, the takeout industry could quickly adapt to swapping out their plastic containers for biodegradable and compostable ones like Reuse.

While single-use plastic containers are convenient and quick to get rid of, they leave a startling impact on the environment. Accounting for their low-recyclability rate, plastic takeout containers stick around for ages, running off into waterways and polluting the oceans, spreading toxins to wildlife, releasing harmful chemicals and gases into the air we breathe, and generally disrupting our waste management systems. Maggio and Chua of Forest & Whale designed Reuse to take some of the pressure off our planetary responsibility and health. With hopes of entirely replacing single-use plastic containers with compostable and edible takeout bins, Reuse marks the initial steps towards a worthwhile goal.

Designer: Forest & Whale

Made from wheat husk and PHA, Reuse single-use food containers are fully compostable and edible.

Reuse food containers fully decompose in nature within one to three months, minimizing their end-of-life impact.

This self-sustaining compost system turns your food scraps into a thriving indoor garden!

The world as we once knew it is changing. While the list of changes seems too long to share – gardening would be considered one of them. The environment and sustainable living have been hot topics for some time now, but in 2020, they’ve turned into personal commitments for people across the globe. Composting is one way to promote sustainability in your own living space, as proved by AQUA, a sustainable, contained gardening system. AQUA was created by OG Design so that environmentally conscious people can curate their very own self-sustaining indoor garden no matter where they live.

AQUA’s system is comprised of three main working parts: a container for food waste, an elevated light structure, and three soil pots. The food waste container is located on one side of the indoor planter and turns your leftover food scraps into compost for fertilizer. Composting is a method used to decompose organic solid waste and fertilize the soil for gardening. The slim, attractive light fixture is situated directly above AQUA’s garden pots and provides the mini garden with nourishing light-energy. The indoor, gardening system is completely self-sustaining and conveniently sized in order to fit into any kitchen or living space. The system itself works after food waste is dumped into the container on the left-hand side, fertilizing the soil contained in the trio of modestly sized pots, each of which provides energy for plants to then grow and thrive.

OG Design conceptualized AQUA in order to “[keep] food from entering landfills” and for users “to cultivate their own small vegetable garden,” because food accounts for 46.2% of combustible waste. The interest in gardening, especially indoor gardening, and sustainable living is rising with younger generations as city living becomes more popular. In urban spaces, ecologically conscious living is tricky as there’s less yard space and community gardens can be hard to come by. AQUA makes sustainable living possible for any city home, from the small efficiency studio to the three-story townhouse. As long as you’ve got a kitchen counter or windowsill, your personal vegetable garden awaits.

Designer: OG Design

An automated composting bin that makes living sustainably easy

Want to join the reuse, reduce, recycle gang but overwhelmed about managing trash? Fear not, Sepura’s Home Food Waste device is here to make your 2020 more sustainable! This is currently the only sustainable food waste disposing device on the market that does it all to make food waste management an effortless experience – municipality authorized, septic friendly and self-cleaning!

The waste can fit all kitchen sinks and spaces also providing a connection to built-in dishwasher drains that separate food from liquid waste. It takes it one step further by also collecting the food waste from the dishwasher and a safer alternative to the traditional garbage disposal. You can store your food waste for up to 4 weeks without any odors and reduce the usage of plastic garbage bags.

Sepura Home includes features such as flood detection, autostop, and it even cleans itself quietly so you can now run it at night too – could composting be easier than this? You can use your sink to discard all foods now without stressing and let the device do the job for you – push one button and it will separate the waste into an odorless, sealed collection center in a few seconds. There is a light indicator tells you how full the collection center is, just slide out the inner compartment and dispose of the organics in your compost or curbside collection bin.

Let the composting begin!

Designer: Sepura

This innovative composting crate can repair the earth’s soil

Earth. We’ve literally named our planet after the soil beneath us (even though the 75% of the planet’s surface area is water), yet with time, urbanization, pollution, and climate change, the very soil that nourishes us is slowly being killed, robbed of its nourishing properties. However, with a clever allocation of already existing resources, the guys behind Subpod believe they can reverse this process of soil degradation.

The Subpod is a composting unit that sits within the ground, unlike most compost heaps that exist independent of the soil. It relies on two important, yet easily available resources. Earthworms, to help break down matter and create the compost, and food waste, something that this planet has an abundance of, but no place to put it. The Subpod’s neat, collapsible design comes flat-packed, and opens out to become a container/crate that sits half inside the soil. The lid (which also serves as seating) opens up to reveal a spacious interior with perforated walls. All you do is dump food waste along with carbon-matter (dried leaves or shredded newspaper) into the Subpod, introduce the earthworms to the mix, and close the seat-lid. “Feed” the Subpod once every 3-4 days and the earthworms get to action, breaking down the food and dried elements to create a nutrient-rich compost in just 10 days. Use the compost you create to grow plants around the Subpod and you immediately notice how healthy the soil and the plants that grow on it are. This is thanks to the perforations on the side of the Subpod that allow the earthworms to travel in and out of the compost crate, feeding themselves, creating compost, aerating the soil, and maintaining soil and plant health.

A lot of stuff happens under the Subpod’s hood. Its integration into the ground allows the worms to repair the soil, as well as maintain stable temperatures required for compost creation. The Subpod works without any extra intervention or energy, outwardly looking just like a wonderfully rustic seat that gives you the ability to admire the plants that are growing around you. Inventor of the Subpod Andrew Hayim De Vries was astonished by how many tonnes of untreated food waste go into landfills, harming the soil by introducing unwanted chemicals into it. The design of the Subpod prompts you to, instead of throwing your food into the trash, take it and convert it into fertilizer that saves you money, helps you grow great produce (you can even sell your own compost to nearby farmers, helping them ditch synthetic fertilizers), and eventually helps the soil beneath your feet become healthy again… one Subpod at a time!

Designers: Andrew Hayim De Vries & Phil Johnson

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $119 (16% off). Hurry, only 26/95 left!

Meet Subpod. The world’s first modular in-garden composting system that turns food waste into soil food with no smells or mess. It’s simple to use and takes the hard work out of composting.

Designed for strength and durability, you can even use a Subpod as seating in your raised garden. Subpod packs flat for easy shipping worldwide and can be assembled with no tools in under 3 minutes.

From a single household to an entire residential community, Subpod can scale to suit your needs.

The efficient, low-maintenance and odor-free composting system powered by worms and microbes. Composting your food waste has never been this simple.

The Subpod not only disposes of your organic waste, but is also the ‘growth hub’ for your garden. The movement of worms and microbes between your Subpod and garden bed builds soil fertility and plant health, allowing you to grow nutrient-dense food at home with ease.

Subpod doubles as a sturdy bench seat. So, once you’ve fed the worms, have a seat in your garden, and reconnect with your herbs and veggies.

Stable & Effective Composting – Going below ground means we’re feeding the plants at the root level, where they draw in their nutrients. Using nothing but worms and microbes, this natural process aerates the soil and adds good bacteria throughout your garden.

The unique series of holes beneath the soil allow worms and microbes to freely move to and from the system and the surrounding garden bed. And the best part is, your herbs and vegetables are being fed in a really natural way, every day – reducing the need for other fertilizers.

Permaculture expert, Geoff Lawton of Permaculture Research Institute shows how the Subpod works on his property, Zaytuna Farm.

Convert Waste to Food – You can finally start composting your own waste and growing your own food at your home or workplace with more ease. As Subpod is embedded right in your growing garden, it helps feed and boost your herbs and vegetables on a daily basis. The worms feed and then transverse out through the soil, excreting natural fertilizers and aerating it, all at the plant root level.

The team has designed an internal divider which slides in to create sections with the Subpod. This allows you to compost your waste more effectively, allowing one side to be filled with new food waste, whilst the other could be harvested, essentially worm-free. The worms will move to where the food is, or away from something that needs to de-gas, such as onions.

It would also suit composting a smaller amount of food waste more efficiently, which would be suitable for an individual, a couple, or those producing less waste. You can lock the Subpod if it’s in a community garden or shared space, and you can collect the worm tea via a built in drain pipe (BYO hose), which has an internal filter and can be plumbed around your garden.

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $119 (16% off). Hurry, only 26/95 left!