Some of the most recent recycling innovations, especially regarding organic matter, fall under the rubric of composting. This age-old practice, once reserved for individuals who own large outdoor spaces, can now be practiced (odor free) in areas as small as a balcony or even indoors.

Small Yard or Balcony Composting

For a small yard or balcony, today’s technology provides a wide range of inexpensive and commercially available “tumblers” that allow residents to discard any spoiled food or cooking scraps in a manner that creates a useful product (rich organic material to feed your house plants or tomato vine) instead of generating more landfill. If you are interested in composting techniques for small spaces that also allow you to reap other benefits, consider vermicomposting or establishing a bed of morel mushrooms (nature’s very own food waste composter).

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting breaks down your food scraps into rich soil using earthworms in a small bin on the patio or in the basement. It has the extra benefit of producing more wrigglers–which gardeners and fishermen will pay for, your flower beds and garden will love, and your kids will learn from (if not delight in). A perennial bed of morel mushrooms must be fed with food scraps directly, and in exchange for processing your waste, will provide you with tasty and otherwise pricey culinary fungi for many years to come.

Bokashi Composting

Bokashi composting is another simple, hassle free method that can even be used indoors, allowing you to recapture some of the value of your otherwise useless scraps in a compact system that fits right into the cabinet below the counter. Unlike some composting systems, Bokashi even allows for the disposal of small bones or cartilage, skin, and tendon that is cut away, which would otherwise become waste when preparing meat.

Today’s technology allows every sustainability-minded person to harness the power of composting to maximize the use of food scraps, and not create “waste,” no matter if you live in an apartment or condo, a townhouse on a small lot, or in a single-family home sitting on more acreage.