I compost because I garden and because Grandmother composted! Two open wooden bins, one for this year and one for last. Compost-ready veggie trimmings etc go into a plastic grocery bag in fridge to be emptied when I take out trash or recycles. Smell outside is rare. Had more trouble with possums before I got the bins built than after. Fringe benefit: the compost pile functions practically as a "safety deposit box" for plants, plus earthworms love it there and get transplanted to new locations whenever I use compost.

@samjwill .. make sure you are adding enough brown materials to your compost to keep gnats away. This could be dried leave, straw, shredded paper, etc.

Jhayes I'm guessing, but I think that with carnivores, you risk ecoli? Ours is rich from rabbits and alpacas -- but the dog stuff goes far away from the heap.

Good info on composting pet waste: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/howtocompost/a/Can-I-Compost-Cat-Or-Dog-Waste.htm

@quercus2 I do add whatever brown material I have-empty toilet paper & paper towel rolls, any white or brown paper without ink.

@samjwill ... Are you shredding the toilet paper rolls and paper? In my experience, this makes a big difference. In my experience a lot of dried leaves work even better in almost instantly eliminating bugs and smell in compost.

Ink is now soy. It is no longer toxic, so printed paper of all kinds can safely be added to compost.

I compost at home. I have for over 10 years. I have a metal bucket like the one pictured above on my kitchen counter. I transfer it to a kitty litter bucket with lid in the garage, then on to my compost pile next to the garden. Earthworms love shredded newspaper. I do not put anything with oils in the pile to help keep critters out. I also gather bags and bags of leaves in the fall.

I vermicompost! I love worm composting. I actually keep them in my kitchen and no -- when done right there is absolutely no odor. And the vermicompost is even better than regular compost. Google it! You can get your worms on line, I got mine from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm, they also have a lot of info on the process. Don't try it with earth worms, the composting worms are a different variety, red worm wigglers or Eisenia fetida to be exact.

I used to when I had a house. I am currently in a tiny studio apt. with no patio or balcony, and one lonely houseplant. About the closest I get right now is reusing my eggshells and orange peels to help keep my garbage disposal clean, which is something, I suppose... When we move, I'll find a place that at least has a patio or balcony so I can compost and have a container garden for some fresh veggies. I really miss my garden. :-(

i keep compost in plastic bag or container in freezer so it doesn't smell. I save for my daughters farm animals.

We used to. I am living with my elderly parents (in their 80s) and was very good about it until I was injured and had 3 neck surgeries. I made a wonderful compost bin (following instructions from an article in Backwoods Home Magazine) that never required turning. I had a small "step on" can with a plastic insert where we kept compostables for up to a week without any smell issue. We did put a LOT of coffee and tea in it, so that may have helped. You can also freeze compostables until you are ready to take it out to the bin.
We back up to a 100 acre hunting property (that isn't used any longer), so once in a while, raccoons would sometimes take the lid off for goodies, and possums would sometimes pull some out of the holes on the sides, but since we only used food (no meat or bones), leaves, or shredded paper or newspapers, there was never much of a problem. The critters ate whatever food they pulled out. Dogs never really bothered it. In our area, if you care about your dog, you don't let it roam - they aren't likely to come home. They could be shot by novice hunters, hit by cars, attacked by wildlife, or any number of things. They can also be sprayed by skunks, which you definitely wouldn't want back in your house for a while! :-)
As you can see from the first picture, we have lots of leaves to top off any fresh compostables, so smell isn't a big deal outside. The 1st and 2nd pictures were taken in November one year, and the third was taken in April of the next. No turning! Just an occasional watering when it got too dry.

There's a process at my home. First step is will the chickens or cats eat it? (Chickens eat a lot, but not onions, potato peels, corn husks, etc.) If not, the next step is can it be recycled (junk mail, cans or bottles). If not, onto the third step, can it be used in the garden (cardboard for weed suffocation). Final step is can it be composted, into the compost bins it goes. Each week, I have but maybe one bag of trash to be hauled away. I use a small clay pot with lid (lined with a plastic bag) on my counter for immediate, small items, but have a large plastic kitty litter container (with lid) on the back porch for more items. It helps cut down on the number of trips I need to make to the compost bin at one time. (BTW, I have three compost bins going on in three different parts of the yard at any one time. Each are in different stages. The only one that gets turned is the one by the chicken coop--and that's when the chickens decide to pick through it for bugs!)

My neighborhood is in a city pilot program for composting. As soon as our kitchen renovation is complete and I have a place to store the daily-scraps bin, with accessible running water and a freezer if things get stinky, I'm looking forward to composting. The city sanitation department picks up compost twice a week, separate from regular trash, and from the number of bins at the curb, I'd estimate that 75% of our block participates.

I separate recyclables, and compost the leaves from my yard. Unfortunately I'm terrible about getting my kitchen scraps out to my compost bin, so I end up putting them down the garbage disposal.

My grandfather, who was a farmer, taught me to compost and I've done it whenever I had a yard where I could plant a garden. Currently I don't do it at home because I just moved into a condo and didn't make the list for a plot at the community garden this year. However, my employer, the National Institutes of Health, has a composting program in the cafeteria as well as recycling. So after you eat, plasticware goes in the recycling bin and paper plates and leftover food into the compost bin. They've also converted many of their "plastic cups" to biodegradable or compostable alternatives. Unfortunately despite being clearly marked, the collection bins confuse what seems to be the majority of visitors who don't have a clear idea what goes into each one without asking. http://www.ors.od.nih.gov/News/Pages/Composting-Pilot-Underway-in-Building-10-Cafeterias.aspx

We have been composting for over 30 years. After using different kinds of homemade or bought containers for the kitchen scraps I finally invested in a real kitchen compost container, so glad I did. It's stainless steal and has a tight fitting lid to keep the smells inside and looks neat on the counter. We should all be doing these easy things to help the environment and having free compost is a wonderful bonus.

Yes, lazy way of just piling layers, mentioned many times just be sure the new stuff is covered from animals foraging ( I live in town). In two years you have compost. No turning, worrying etc. My second way is bury thinly in the garden almost all year. The easiest habit I ever formed was a 5 lb coffee tin on the kitchen drainboard. Handy and easy to toss ends of whatever as they are cut, do not forget tea bags and coffee grounds filter and all. Mighty easy to manage, toss and sprinkle or bury.

We vermicompost indoors, as well as having two separate outside areas (one a raised bed that we layer garden refuse and dirt in, the other a massive pile of yard cuttings) . Meat and bread scraps feed the birds, who keep the gophers out of our garden. Other than Christmas and birthdays (toys have WAY too much packaging!) out family of 6 generates a small bag of garbage per week.

We have a worm bin and they that consume our organic waste

We live in a small city (Abbotsford, BC, Canada) that encourages composting. We can put out as much yard waste and composte as we want and the city collects it weekly. They then turn it into usable compost that we can then buy and distribute into our garden. Our actual garbage is reduced to one small bag a week and that is then collected every 2 weeks. We also recycle all tins, bottles, cardboard, newspapers, plastics, etc. It's a great system.

My neighbor taught me how to sift my compost thru a patch of hardware cloth on top of a large garbage can to collect the fine, ready to apply in the garden compost, and some years I can get two garbage cans full.

We have a cabin in the woods of Michigan, we recycle and/or compost 95% of all the trash we generate. The compost has makes excellent soil for our garden and flower beds.

We live in Cambridge Ma. perhaps the bluest city in the bluest state.
There is now ongoing a pilot program in our immediate neighborhood for composting.
The new garbage truck
(what's the carbon footprint of a new garbage truck, metal, rubber, paint, hydraulics?)
Driving around the neighborhood with two guys
(salary, taxes,pensions, health care, fuel )
Then driving to a farm (15 miles) and back (15 miles) to PAY to drop off the load.
Then It's "digested" with NO methane recovery. Maximum methane.
(You remember that methane is 20 times worse than CO2 )
The compost is then sold by the farm to others.
So, on balance, I would say that both the taxpayer cost and the ecological cost
are greater than just putting your banana peel in the standard waste stream.
Michael O'Shea

Wow, so many composters! For years our compost box has been made of free pallets. Three for sides and one for a "door". Covered crock on counter for coffee grounds and tea bags, plastic covered container in refrigerator for eggshells, veggie scraps, etc. Very seldom turn pile in "pallet bin" but always cover food scraps with dry leaves or grass clippings. Wouldn't know how to garden without my annual load of finished composted waste. Note: we have to haul our recyclables and waste to a collection center - so no wet stuff in trash means no stink at home!

We have horses and a garden, so we put our kitchen scraps (vegetable) on our manure pile and turn it over occasionally and it make a very nice rich dirt that we put on our garden.

My grandfather was the king of composting (at least in my world) and it amazes me that no matter the type of compost placed around a tomato plant, for example, the tomatoes always tasted like tomatoes. To me, that's like a miracle. I can't get over it

I started composting about 5 years ago. I love that if vegs start turning to the unusable point, I don't feel that I am wasting food when it goes into the compost bin and not into the garbage collection. It goes into the compost bin to turn into a lovely black, earthy smelling fertilizer for my eggplants and other garden plants.

We use this small container with a lift-out pail in the kitchen, which is emptied into a compost bin in the back yard. There is no smell in the kitchen and the compost in the outside bin provides a great supplement to our dry, sandy soil.

I compost plant-based kitchen waste, coffee grounds and filters, and eggshells. I keep one of those stainless steel covered compost buckets under the kitchen sink. It gets emptied into a Rubbermaid compost bin at the back of the yard, along with non-diseased garden refuse. In the winter, when snow cover makes it difficult to get to the composter, we just throw the vegetable scraps under a bush where the wild rabbits can eat them if they want. We have also composted directly into areas where we later plant trees.

The city I live in in Switzerland provides composting and recycling of almost everything (ALL food scraps including egg cartons!, paper, cardboard, glass, tin cans, all PET and other household plastics, etc). In our garbage can goes---more plastic (the plastic that meat comes in for example)! I try to push it down and compact it as best as possible. As a family of 5 we put out the garbage maximum twice a week---between 35-70 liters--of mostly plastic :-(

We juice a lot, so have a big compost pile. The raccoons and skunks don't seem to bother it - they are too busy scaring away my outdoor kitties and eating their food. I am currently making a grass/pine needle/small twig pile as well that I am hoping will get hot enough to render the grass seeds ineffective - will have to research what to do.

Our city gave us new recycle, compost and garbage bins. The garbage and recycling are picked up alternating weeks and the compost is picked up weekly. The city compost receives everything from cardboard pizza boxes to yard trimmings, food scraps and even tea bags. It encourages residents to put less in the landfill. We also use a backyard compost that I favour with fresh veggie and fruit scraps, egg shells but no citrus or meat products. It makes great soil for our garden :)

We've composted for years. We don't get a lot if compost because we're not religious about turning & watering it. But it doesn't go into the landfill& we do get some compost.

We got a dark colored covered plastic storage bin, drilled drainage holes, and stir as needed. About a $5.00 investment. Hosehold waste is stored in a cofee can in the frig intil it fills, then taken to the compost bin.
We are in north east Ohio and compost all year long.
We placed it behind a garage and have had no problems with the night creatures or any odors.

i live in northern canada on a small urban lot with a lot of garden. i try my very best not to have any live organic material leave this small property but pruning of trees does necessitate a trip with the utility trailer to the compost section of our local landfill. i have set up 9 (!) self-contained composters on my property (tucked alongside a walkway, hugging the fence-line in the backlane, etc) that pretty much allow me to fill them all year -- keeping in mind that 6 months is frozen winter when the composters are not really working. I do a once a year compost screening in the spring/early summer to dress the lawns and beds and fill the few container planters that I have. i don't hesitate to throw in twigs and hard stuff -- it really helps keep everything aerated and it will compost eventually. I feel compost lucky!

It is much easier and faster to just dig a hole and bury your kitchen waste than to compost it. You can use the soil for grow anything after 3 months. Plus the area will be full of worms and you don't have the problems of flies.

oh yes...Coz I'm a nature lover and one way to protect our natural resources is to throw our garbage properly....

In Portland, Oregon we have to :)

Yes. I actually have a worm composting bin. The worms eat all the garbage and newspapers, leaving me with nutrient rich soil and worm "tea" fertilizer. There is no smell, no stirring, and minimal upkeep. I do throw an old blanket over it when the temperature gets below 20 degrees F.

We compost when we can, my husband is in the military and many base housing areas don't allow compost piles (our current one doesn't). Can't wait to get to our forever home and set up our compost pile!

Yes!! Heck yes!!! I had built a two bin system that worked great: we kept the older separated from the oldest in one section. I moved it two years ago because I didn't like where it was. Now, I just make piles under the trees and it works great. Less successfully I've had a tumbler. I found that was too dry.

What at I also do now, throw my kitchen water that is too 'dirty' for water long plants but still 'clean' into my kitchen compost bucket! Take care all you composers! We are saving the planet.

I don't compost because the soil in my yard is swampy and useless and it would be a waste of time. but I honesty wish I could, if only in my area people who need it would collect it, I would very much be an active participant and I would totally appreciate it.

We don't compost because the process puts the maximum amount of METHANE into the air. Much better to put your banana peels into the landfill where they can stay inert because they are in plastic bags with no air. Plus, there is an environmental cost to the extra diesel trucks and personnel involved in collection.

michaeloshea, I assume you are being sarcastic..

You assume wrong.

I'm asserting a cost/benefit judgement. That's right...a JUDGEMENT based on the reality of the condition. Methane is about 30 times more powerful than CO2 as a heat trapping gas

(because I'm judgmental)

actually compost is exposed to oxygen so there is CO2 and not methane,,Methane happens in landfills where things are not exposed to oxygen

"We don't compost because the process puts the maximum amount of METHANE into the air."

No, it doesn't......well, not if you do it properly. Landfills, where stuff gets buried and is prevented from contact with oxygen in the environment, is where a lot of methane is produced. But if you (or your municipality) composts properly, turning the decomposing material frequently to allow proper exposure to air and making sure it doesn't dry out, then only a very minimal amount of methane is produced or released. No biologic body will stay inert, so get that idea out of your head. Depriving that old banana peel of oxygen in the landfill allows it to decompose in an anerobic environment, thereby producing vastly more methane.

I have 5 composters, and I use red wiggler worms. The worms do a fantastic job of breaking down food items, leaves, etc to make wonderful soil, loaded with beneficial microbes. My bins have only an earthy smell and no problems with rodents. Your worm bin can be kept indoors. I'd be happy to show anyone in the Victoria, B.C. area.

I dig up a hole and put kitchen scraps,and my plants' dead leaves.

Then the worms come and eat it. Then when i'm going to plant, I take my shovel and scoop some out and add it to my freshly planted plant.