The Natural Home stainless steel compost bin is a great option to dispose of kitchen waste and other organic waste.
It’s the perfect solution to sorting and storing food waste and other organics before composting. It has high ease of use and holds many days’ worth of organic material. In addition, the charcoal filter and lid help keep smells and pets away.
It’s estimated that about 50% of all waste is compostable. This means composting is far more effective at reducing waste than recycling, making this compost bin a great tool towards lowering the impact of your waste.
In this article, I’ll review the Natural Home stainless steel countertop compost bin and charcoal filters.
This review will cover:
- Why Is Composting Important?
- How To Use An Indoor Compost Bin
- What To Put In Your Indoor Compost Bin
- Charcoal Filter Overview
- Can Composting Save Money?
Why Is Composting Important?
Composting reduces the volume of organic waste being sent to landfills, which results in less carbon emissions, water pollution, and air pollution. Composting also reduces the impact of creating and using fertilizer.
Organic, compostable materials makes up the largest share of our homes waste. Further, when organic material such as food waste is sent to a landfill, it gets buried and breaks down without oxygen.
The result is the production of a power greenhouse gas known as methane. Composting eliminates this source of methane and turns organic waste material into a useful substance to grow new food.
This eliminates the need for synthetic fertilizers which cause eutrophication, among many other environmental issues.
Altogether, composting is the most effective thing you can do to cut down your total waste.
How To Use An Indoor Compost Bin
An indoor compost bin is really more of a compost storage area for organic waste than a compost bin. Waste may begin to break down in your compost bin while its still in your home, however.
The only true way to compost indoors that I’m aware of is if you have a worm compost bin in your home.
Many people will store their kitchen waste in the freezer to prevent waste from breaking down in their homes, but this takes up space in the freezer. In my home, I couldn’t possibly spare freezer space, especially with so much other usable space in the kitchen.
With that said here is how to use an indoor countertop compost bin properly.
Setup Your Indoor Compost Bin
The Natural Home stainless steel compost bin comes with a stainless steel lid, replaceable charcoal filter, and biodegradable liner bags.
Insert the filter into the lid. You don’t have to use the bags if you don’t want to.
Your setup should look like this.
The bags definitely keep the bin itself clean, but clean up isn’t much of an issue since stainless steel is fairly easy to clean.
Also, no matter how much compostable waste you create, you’ll want to empty the bin regularly. I recommend 1-2 times per week to keep smells and pests away.
Emptying the bin frequently will also keep materials from clumping together and drying in the bin, which makes it harder to empty and clean.
Select A Location For Your Indoor Compost Bin
Kitchen countertops are a great option for storing an indoor compost bin. You can also store it under the sink, or really anywhere you wish. The compact size allows you to store the bin in small spaces and doesn’t take up much space if you have a small kitchen.
I have the 1.3 gallon bin and its small enough that it fits nicely behind the coffee maker. I find it to be the ideal compost bin size.
When I’m ready to cook, I’ll take the bin out and leave it beside me for easy access.
Add Your Kitchen Waste
I’ll go over exactly what to put in your compost bin in a moment, but you can add your kitchen waste directly into the bin or into the compostable bag if you’re using it. Replace the lid to help contain smells and keep pets away.
Empty Your Indoor Compost Bin
Once your indoor compost bin is full, or several days has past since it was last emptied, you can take it to your desired compost location.
The bin is fairly light and has a metal handle which makes it easier to carry and dump in your selected compost area.
Add the contents of your compost bin to either your outdoor compost bin, compost tumbler, or compost pile. If you don’t have a compost pile in your yard, you will need to either find a neighbor, communal compost drop-off site, or get commercial compost pickup.
You could also try bringing your compost to a community garden if your area has one.
You can throw everything from the bin into composting including the biodegradable bags.
From here, there really isn’t much to it. The organic matter will begin to break down into material that you can use in your grass, garden and flower beds.
Maintenance, Cleaning and Durability
You’ll need to replace the charcoal filter every once in a while to keep smells contained. The charcoal filter works in the same way as charcoal air purifier bags. They absorb smells and slowly it will lose its ability to do so.
It’s hard to say just how long the filter will last since the exact conditions of your bin and home are different than mine. The amount of odor your filter needs to absorb is different than mine.
The recommendation is to change the filter every 6 months or so. However, I’ve been using this filter for much longer than the recommended amount of time with no issue.
The filters are pretty inexpensive and can be washed. The best thing to do is replace the filter when needed, rather than on a regular schedule.
This bin is also very durable, which is one reason I prefer stainless steel bins over a ceramic or plastic bin. To test out its durability, I left my compost bin outside for about a couple of weeks. In this time it rained several times and the bin was exposed to direct sunlight.
As expected, the compost bucket shows some signs of weathering, but there was no damage to the bin, lid or filter and no loss of quality.
In addition, a stainless steel compost pail is made of recycled content and is far more recyclable than a plastic compost bin or ceramic compost bin. This means your compost bin won’t contribute to the waste stream when you’re done with it.
Since the bin is made of stainless steel, its fairly easy to clean. After you empty it, you can rinse it out with dish soap and water.
If you are looking or an eco friendly cleaning product to clean your bin thats fully capable of controlling bacteria, I recommend Force of Nature. Its an amazing all-purpose cleaner and disinfectant that I use for my bin as well as throughout my home.
It may be helpful to have a routine schedule for emptying your compost bin in the same way you routinely empty your trash and recycle bins. You’ll want to keep an eye on the bin as waste begins to break down in the bin and create mold.
Again, you’ll want to come up with a routine that works best for you, but I recommend starting with emptying your bin 1-2 times per week and modifying as needed.
I keep an outdoor compost pile where I combine my kitchen waste and yard waste. You’ll also have to maintain your compost pile as well, if you are going that route.
Here are some other great tips for outdoor composting.
What To Put In Your Indoor Compost Bin
In short, you can include pretty much all organic materials from your kitchen that fit in the compost bin. This includes everything from vegetable scraps and egg shells to coffee grounds and tea leaves. You may want to avoid adding foods such as meats, dairy, bones, fish and anything with oils or sauces.
If your compost is going to a neighbor, community garden, or commercial compost facility check with them first and learn what they do and don’t accept. If your compost will be used at your own home or on your own property, be mindful of pests, smells, and neighbors.
Here is a list of what you can include in your bin, along with some pictures from my own bin.
Kitchen Scraps
The best source of compostable materials in your kitchen is kitchen scraps. Examples include materials such as onion and garlic peels as well as unused parts of vegetables such as stems, cores, and leaves.
Whenever I cook, I try to waste as little of each ingredient as possible. A great way to do this is to learn how to cut vegetables properly. For example, there is a lot of usable material in a pepper. Cutting a pepper incorrectly could create a lot of waste.
Either way, all parts of the pepper can be composted. You may want to avoid the seeds however, so they don’t grow in the compost pile.
Learning low waste cooking and recipes is another great way to lower food waste in the kitchen. For example, did you know you can use carrot tops to make soup? Or that broccoli stems are edible?
Here again, all parts of broccoli and carrots can be composted. This includes any carrot skins that you may have peeled off.
Food Waste
Food waste gets a bit tricky when it comes to composting. Large compost piles and commercial compost facilities get pretty hot. This helps break down materials more easily. Home compost piles may not ever get to such an optimal temperature.
In addition, certain materials such as oils, sauces, and therefore, cooked food, may attract pests and create bad smells. My recommendation is to only include foods waste from leftover meals if its been minimally cooked and prepared. I would avoid adding processed foods.
Otherwise, a large share of food waste comes from perfectly good, compostable food items that went bad before we can use them. Food items such as moldy vegetables can still go in the compost bin.
Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds are a highly compostable material. They add a great source of nitrogen which is important for composting.
Coffee grounds often go to waste because you can’t really do much with them after brewing your coffee. Just be sure to balance out your compost with plenty of carbon rich materials such as dried leaves.
Banana Peels
Banana peels are a great material to include in your compost bin. They take about 6-9 months to break down, so you may want to chop it into small pieces first.
I prefer to toss them in my compost bin whole and let nature take care of the rest. I like composting banana peels since their shape and texture are easy to spot in a compost pile, making it easy to evaluate the decomposition process.
Egg Shells
Egg shells are an excellent addition for your compost pile. They will add calcium to the soil as they break down, which can be important if you’re using the compost in your vegetable garden.
Eggs often get a bad name in the sustainability community, along with other animal products. However, research shows the impact of animal products can go from highly negative to a positive impact on the planet if they come from the right sources.
Eggs are also loaded nutrition, which means you don’t need as many of them compare to other foods to get your nutritional needs.
Other Household Compostable Items
If you have any other compostable items you use in your home, you can add them to your compost bin. The perfect example is if you use replaceable, compostable bamboo toothbrush heads.
What NOT To Put In Your Indoor Compost Bin
You can put so many different things into an indoor compost bin that it may be more helpful to know what not to put in your compost bin. I don’t recommend putting any meat, bones, fish, dairy, oils, or sauces in the bin because they tend to attract more pest and produce harsh smells.
Charcoal Filter Overview
The charcoal filter does a great job at keeping smells and pests away such as fruit flies. I’ve had my compost bin from a couple of years now, and I have only replaced the filter 1 or 2 times. It’s still able to control smells with ease. This is partially due to regular emptying.
If you do ever have a problem and need to replace the filter you simply remove the existing one and pop in a new one. It’s very easy to remove and install.
Can Composting Save Money?
There are a couple of different ways composting can save you money. First, composting will reduce the amount of materials you throw away. This means you’ll spend less on garbage bags.
Second, if you pay for trash removal, this cost will be cut as well. Last, composting may make you more aware of wasteful purchasing.
Last, composting may make you more aware of wasteful purchasing. If you realize you are putting a lot of food items in your compost bin, you may be purchasing more food than you need. If this is the case, you can save money by buying less of those items.
Stainless Steel Compost Bin Coupon Codes
I’ll keep this section updated with any current coupon codes. There are no coupon codes at the moment.
Quick Summary
The Natural Home Stainless steel compost bin is a great option for storing all kinds of kitchen waste and other biodegradable items before they are composted. It’s small enough to fit in a small kitchen and it’s stainless steel design make it durable, easy to clean, and aesthetically pleasing. The charcoal filters are long lasting and effective at keeping smells and pests away.
Why We Love It:
- Inexpensive
- Easy To Use
- Easy To Clean
- No Smell
- No Pests
- Large Capacity
- Uses Minimal Space
- May Save Money
Where To Purchase Your Compost Bin
You can purchase the 1.3 gallon bin replacement filters, and compostable bags below.
Stainless Steel Compost Bin
Replacement Charcoal Filters
Compostable Bags
Similar Stainless Steel Compost Bins
You may also want to check out the very similar Epica Stainless Steel Compost Bin and the Utopia Kitchen Compost Bin. They are all pretty much the same thing, only these two brands may be a bit more accessible.
Utopia Kitchen Stainless Steel Compost Bins
EPICA Stainless Steel Compost Bins
Want To Make Your Purchase More Sustainable?
If you are purchasing any items above from Amazon, you can make your purchase more sustainable by doing all of your shopping at once. This includes purchasing sustainable and non-sustainable related items.
Make sure to have as many items delivered in the same box or at least in the same delivery as possible to cut down on packaging and shipping related environmental impacts.
No matter which site you choose to purchase from, I may earn a small commission which goes a long way to making these reviews possible. I would greatly appreciate if you used the links, if you decide to purchase any items above. Either way, thank you for reading this review!