WOW! and only $400!! I gotta have at least 3 of those.

And here I thought tumblers were too expensive. :^(

Dave

If there are folks who live in high-rise apartments with no option to compost 'normally', and they can afford this, just think of the fun they'll have.

And all things are relative.....I forget what my sister used to pay, annually, for garbage pick up in a high rise in a major, metro area, but it was surprisingly high.

I remember awhile back someone promoting these on this forum. I too thought it way to pricey for me, but I could see someone who lived with a condo association or hoa that had rules against outdoor composting, that it might be worth it for them?

I've seen the ads before. I don't intend to buy one, but sure would like to see one work.

Karen

About six months ago, when I first began composting, I was sooooo close to buying that thing. Saved up money and everything.

According to testimony however, the thing is an overpriced piece of junk that you could easily do for free in your backyard

Just think of all the raw materials that go into building that thing just so you can save the earth's landfills from a quart of potato peels and coffee grounds each week.

Yeabut..... think of all the raw materials it takes to load the quart of potato peels and coffee grounds into a huge garbage truck, compact that, drive it to the transfer station, unload it, load it on another truck/barge, ship it to some place 100 miles away from the original high-rise, where they've taken prime farm land, bulldozed out some deep trench, lined that with clay, and dump it, then return empty.

Not to mention that our original high rise inhabitant, in search of eating something organically grown, heads down to Whole Foods in his/her Prius, and buys a head of organic cabbage trucked in from California, which they could have grown themselves with the compost.

It seems that the whole compacting feature would slow the process down. You need air to make compost. :/

David- I agree 100%! I prefer whole foods but it bothers me that almost nothing there is local. It's like the Walmart of the organic world, IMO.

If their product description is accurate (and why doubt it - it wouldn't be too hard to verify) about being made from recycled materials, and using the energy of a night light - then it seems pretty benign, energy-consumption-wise.

That one negative review would give me serious pause about buying it though, if I had the money to begin with.

What typical household - say two adults and a child - produces just a quart of compostables a week, and only potato peels and coffee grounds at that? A banana peel alone fills a cup.

Watch the video on the linked page. Does anyone see the purpose in adding baking soda? And not just a little, she added what looked like 1/4 cup for a medium sized bowl of waste. What's the deal here?

It's strange, they advertise it as a completely self-supporting system that requires little to no intervention, yet you still have to balance the carbon and nitrogen ratios, you still have to be choosy about which ingredients to put in, you still have to innoculate it, you still have to balance the Ph. From testimony, they also says it smells horrible and leaks all over the place if you don't do it right.

I'd just go with vermicomposting

Good point about vermicomposting. But you have to be, or become, a compost wacko to do that. You have to care about what's going on in there.

I thought the baking soda thing was weird too. Raises the pH to make the OM less smelly?

We're winning when William Sonoma starts selling vermicomposting stuff.

It wasn't so much the price that got me. God knows I have spent more on less useful things. I just didn't quite see what it actually DOES or how it is useful considering its tiny size. I love Williams-Sonoma, but I wish they'd stick to what they actually do well. After all, I do not buy cookware at garden chain stores.

Interesting idea... sure beats the old trash compactors that people were building into their kitchen counters in the 70s. I wonder, though, on the subject of hi-rise dwellers, what would most of them DO with the resulting compost? With no green space around many apartment buildings, and what there is usually very controlled, where do you put it?

My guess would be seed starting, houseplants, balcony plantings. And at some condos or landominiums people do have small garden areas.

Karen

joepyeweed - Actually, that was me. I was NOT PROMOTING the item, I was simply asking if anyone had one and how they liked it before I bought one. And, everyone complained and attacked me.

Since I actually DO have one of these - not the pro model - I thought I should comment on the nasty thread you have going here bashing the people who buy them.

First of all, the only way it smells is if you fill it with wet stuff and then don't add any browns to it (I use sawdust pellets from Agway for my browns), as with a normal compost pile. Also, I have never once had the unit leak, but I did have it get stuck once in a while when I piled in too many coffee filters or pea pods at the beginning. Granted, there are some things that you can't put in it (such as corn cobs) but it works well for me. Since I have raccoons that love to rip apart my compost pile if I have foodstuffs in it outside I decided to either get a NatureMill composter or stop composting completely. I figured indoor composting was better than no composting. And, before you say it, I looked into worms and they were so not for me.

So, before you judge and make nasty comments, you may want to think about how everyone is different and that there is not just one way to make compost. Not everyone can or should be the same in the way they garden, and if this is right for some people so be it.

And before someone makes another rude comment about me "promoting" the product, let me repeat that I don't work for the manufacturer, I don't know anyone who does, I don't get a commission from them, I am completely uninvolved with them. I just found out about the product and really liked it and it works for me. Silly me for asking people about it and telling them my experiences with it. I thought this was a forum to exchange ideas, but I guess only if they're the "right" ideas.

Sfg, I'm sorry to see you take this thread as an attack. Of 17 responses only 7 could be construed as negative or highly sceptical. The majority of people, including joepyeweed, sound curious, neutral or positive.

I agree with Sfg. People shouldn't judge and make nasty comments on something that they don't know much about. I have a NatureMill composter and I love it. I compost all of the kitchen scraps including meat and dairy with the NatureMill composter. If I use an outdoor composter or dig a hole and make a compost pile, I wouldn't be able to compost meat and dairy because those items attracting pests, flies, rats and raccoons that I don't want in my backyard. I'm glad that I don't have to throw away compostable items to the landfill.

Yes, I do have to balance the carbon and nitrogen ratios. But which composter that doesn't require to do that? It's not rocket science to balance the green and brown ratios. If the compost looks wet, just add more browns. If it looks dry, then add less. If it smells a little, it usually means the compost is a little acidic or too much green, so all you need to do is add a little baking soda (an alkaline agent) to reduce the acidity. That's it! Even my boys can do that.

I never have any leakage with my machine. And even thought the NatureMill composter looks tiny but it eat away all of my kitchen scraps about 2-3 cups everyday. I have a family of 5 with 3 young boys and I cook a lot at home. I put my composter in the kitchen and I find that it's a good way to educate children about composting. I hope that when they grow up, they would continue to compost instead of throwing the food scraps away to the landfill.

"looks tiny but it eat away all of my kitchen scraps about 2-3 cups everyday. I have a family of 5 with 3 young boys and I cook a lot"

& you have only 2 to 3 cups of scraps a day?

By the way, welcome to the forum; I see you just registered today...& resurrected this thread whose last previous post was at the end of January.

"& resurrected this thread whose last previous post was at the end of January."

I fail to see the relevancy for this comment. ?? I've brought back older ones, so old in fact they won't even post any more, I had to link to it!

CM, welcome to the forum as well. Sometimes non-traditional methods get a bit of a cold shoulder from the traditional crowd. It isn't personal. Sometimes a post just gets past the firewall of better judgement.

As well, on occasion, people who spend money, take up time or effort, use electricity, use petroleum products, cause any form of GHG, use chemicals, buy synthetic fertilizers, till the soil, or even walk on their gardens get taken for a bit of a ride now and again. Nature of a forum I guess.

Lloyd