I became aware of the first electric composter a couple of years ago, and now there are at least a dozen brands on the market. They are promoted as an eco-friendly way to deal with food scraps. Just put your waste in the device, and it will compost the material in a few hours. The material is reduced in volume by 90% and is a perfect fertilizer for your houseplants and garden.
The first one I saw was a larger floor model that required the addition of coir, and some models suggest the addition of microbes to help with the composting process. Newer models are smaller in size and don’t require the addition of coir or microbes.
Right from the moment that I saw the first unit, I questioned the “composting” aspect. How can they compost so quickly when composting is a very slow process? My myth-busting antennae went up.
What is an Electronic Composter?
You may not have heard the term before. This category of products is still trying to find its footing and final marketing labels. They are also called food recyclers, food processors, or food digestors. They all operate in a similar manner, with the exception of the above-mentioned coir and microbes. Food scraps are placed in a bucket, the unit is closed, and turned on. An automated cycle dries the material and “grinds” it. The time needed for this depends on how much you put in and how wet it is, but most units take 3 to 5 hours.
At the end of the process, you have something dry but still kind of resembles the food you put in. Some items turn into brown powder while others stay quite chunky and fibrous.
There is a bit of odor, but it is not unpleasant. Some units have charcoal filters that reduce the odor while it is exhausting the water vapor.
The buckets are quite small. The one I tried had a 2-liter capacity (0.5 gal), but that’s a bit of an exaggeration since you can’t fill it to the top, and most of the space is air. We produce very little kitchen waste, mostly orange rinds, banana peels, apple cores, some potato peelings, and a couple of egg shells, and we can fill it in 2-3 days.
Do Electronic Composters Compost?
The answer is clear – NO!
Almost all the manufacturers of these units claim they make compost because that is a popular, eco-friendly way to handle food scraps. Any company making this claim is using false advertising to sell its product.
I found this comment, “The machine runs for 5-6 hours – yes, it’s a while, but you’re speeding up science, so let’s have some patience! ” The only science it is speeding up is the drying of food.
I contacted several manufacturers and asked them for proof that they compost. None had any. To be honest, they didn’t understand what composting is. The exception to the rule is the Vitamix FoodCycler who are mo, re ethical. They made it clear they “don’t compost”. They reduce the volume of food waste and hope that their product diverts it from the landfill.
FoodCycler also provided me with some analytical data for their end product that showed a total nitrogen level of 2.9% and a nitrate level of 0.005%. During composting, organic forms of nitrogen are converted to inorganic forms of nitrogen, mainly nitrate. These numbers confirm that composting has not yet started.
Running Temperature
These machines claim to run hot. The Nagual runs at 120 C ( 248 F) or is it 126 C – both values are given. When I open it during a process, it is not that hot, but it does have to be over 100 °C to drive off the moisture. A hot compost pile is limited to 66 °C (150°F) so that the microbes are not killed off. The steam plus high temperature will sterilize the food scraps.
Another reason why there is no composting!
Do Electronic Composters Grind?
Many of the products claim to “grind” the food as it’s heated. The blades in the unit are not sharp, nor is the space between the blades and the fixed bar small enough to grind food. They rotate once per minute, and at best, this can be called agitation or mixing. This also becomes evident when you look at the results. The material is not finely ground and contains a lot of larger pieces. Don’t believe some of the pictures shown by the manufacturers.
Do Electronic Composters Produce Fertilizer?
The end product from the FoodCycler had an NPK of 2.9-0.2-0.6 (made from food scraps), but this depends a lot on the material being processed. It has a higher level of nitrogen compared to P and K. It also has sodium levels between 0.2 and 0.5%. Processed food and canned food tend to add high levels of sodium, which can be toxic to plants.
The NPK from an industrial electronic composter at the Leiden University Medical Centre kitchen was 2.7-0.7-1.0. Sodium levels were 1% and the pH was 4.3.
Electronic composters produce dry food scraps. Until this material starts to decompose, most of the nutrients are not available for plants. Most manufacturers of these products show how easy it is to take the dry material from their unit and apply it to potted plants, but I would not do that.
A study done by Vitamix had this to say, “We recommend delaying planting following application of the dehydrated food waste byproduct to soils to allow sufficient time for decomposition to take place, to ensure that germination is not inhibited by the decomposition.”
The term “dehydrated food waste byproduct” seems like a good description of the material produced by these units. I would not call it fertilizer, but gardeners use the term in a very general way to refer to anything that releases plant nutrients. Is an apple a fertilizer? If you believe it is, then a dried apple is also fertilizer.
Eco-benefits of Electronic Composters
What can you do with food scraps?
You can compost them yourself, and that is probably the best option. This can be either an outdoor compost system, vermicomposting, or even bokashi composting.
Another option is to send it to a municipal composting facility. This is also a good option, especially if you don’t have a garden.
You can send it to a landfill (ie, throw it in the regular garbage). This is the worst option because organic matter in a landfill can’t decompose anaerobically, and therefore produces methane gas, which is 25 times worse than CO2 for global warming.
Use an electronic composter. This is only eco-friendly if you don’t send the food waste to a landfill, because reducing its volume by drying does not reduce the amount of methane it produces in a landfill.
Weight and Volume Reduction
The marketing material for this product makes a big deal about reducing weight and volume by 90%. My testing has shown that volume reduction is more like 75%, but that is not really the important point.
The food waste is reduced by weight and volume due to a loss of water. All of the organic matter that was there at the beginning is still there at the end of the process.
In a landfill, a whole apple produces just as much methane as a completely dried apple. Granted, a dried apple takes up less space for shipping to the landfill.
The reduction in weight and volume is only a benefit if you are going to store the material. It does NOT help the environment, as is suggested by marketing material for these devices.
Personal Experience
A new company in this market space, Nagualep, sent me an electric composter for evaluation on my YouTube channel. This system seems to be well built, works quite well, and is quiet. You could easily work beside it and not find it distracting. It lists for $700 but is available for $300 as an introduction to the North American market and has been selling well in Asia. It takes about 3.5 hours for a batch.
The manufacturer claims that “it is 100 times faster than traditional composting”. Well ….. yes, it is much faster, but it does not compost anything.
How Should Dehydrated Food Waste Be Used?
It can be composted, added to a vermicompost bin, used as a mulch in the garden, or added directly to soil. If you bury it, don’t plant seeds or seedlings above it right away. Allow a month or two for the composting to start.
I would not mix it into the soil used for potted plants in case the material robs nitrogen from the soil during composting. Using it as a mulch on top of the pots should be all right.
Another good way to use the material is in a Soil Factory, which I have discussed for Bokashi.
Are Electronic Composters Eco-friendly?
These units use about 1 kWh per cycle, so the energy use is fairly small, but it is another product that needs hydro.
The unit also has to be made, packaged, and shipped around – that is never eco-friendly. Several of the brands suggest regular (every 6 months) replacement of expensive charcoal filters – more eco-waste.
To answer the eco-friendly question, we have to compare options. We all make food waste, so what is the most eco-friendly option for dealing with it?
To be quite honest, the best thing you can do is create less waste. I have looked at data that shows people create a huge amount of food waste. My wife and I rarely throw out leftovers. Fruit and vegetables rarely go bad because we don’t buy an excess amount. Before you do anything else, produce less waste.
The second-best thing you can do is compost, even if this means sending it to a municipal composting facility.
Is an electronic composter eco-friendly?
Here are my issues with it.
- It is expensive to buy.
- It takes up way too much room on a countertop.
- Making it, running it, and disposing of it at the end of its life are not very eco-friendly.
- What are you going to do with the dehydrated food waste? If it is sent to a landfill, you have accomplished nothing for the environment. You have made it worse. If you add it to the garden, compost bin, or send it for municipal composting, you could have done that without an electronic composter.
I can think of only one scenario where an electronic composter is eco-friendly. If you don’t compost and you don’t have access to municipal composting, then an electronic composter makes sense, provided you collect the dehydrated waste and give it to someone who can use it. Even spreading it in the woods is better than sending it to a landfill, but that really should not be done.
This device may also be appealing to people who live in cold climates where they can’t compost in winter. You can use it in winter to dry the food scraps, store them dry, and then compost them in summer. A more eco-friendly solution to this problem is a pail in the garage to collect the material in winter. Mine sits in an unheated sun room.
If I have missed an eco-friendly way to use the device, please describe it in the comments below.
What about Lomi? Is it worth buying?
The Lomi can run in two cycles. The basic cycle is the same as any other unit – no compost produced.
They also have a longer cycle where you can add some purchased bacteria and they claim it works better. However, they are not able to provide and proof it works better, nor have they done any testing of the product it produces – or at least that is the latest info I have from them. This cycle might work a bit better but I doubt it makes compost – it is still a very fast cycle. But – if Lomi is reading this – I am willing to test it and get some lab results.
Seems to me this is a fine way to waste electricity, thus doing harm to the environment.
Run it every day & you’re looking at more than 270kwh expended on doing what a small compost bay does better & for free.
Snake oil comes to mind…
The answer is what the whole article is about. Couldn’t you just read it?
Thanks for all the comments. I am not getting an “electric composter”
I am considering an electric “composter, as I have moved into a retirement community and am learning to use a compost tumbler instead of the big bins I used to use, but I find it painful to put meat and dairy in the trash. My thought was to process the meat and dairy electrically, then add it to my tumbler. Is there a better alternative?
Meat and dairy are still meat and dairy after being processed. I don’t see much advantage but the dry stuff may attract fewer insects?
THANK YOU for writing this. I thought I was the only one screaming, “No, this is NOT compost!!!!!” These companies are going to market us all into oblivion with virtue signalling gadgets that do nothing useful but make us feel better about ourselves. It’s that so many people are that uninformed.
I rehydrate it and feed it to the worms (I am using an Urban Worm Bin). In that rehydrated form it is a broken down slurry that they can compost much faster. For a food that worms already compost quickly (banana), I put it straight in, but other foods I put through the food cycler and then they compost much faster in the worm bin.
Another big advantage is that it is now easy to put meat products in the worm bin after running them through the Food Cycler first (normally you are advised not to put any meat in a worm bin).
I think it gives people the wrong impression to claim the food is just dehydrated. For some extremely fibrous foods, like artichokes, they are not broken down properly at all (I put them in the yard waste pile now). But other food is broken down into an unrecognizeable dust. Dehydrating is done at lower termperatures- the higher temperature of these devices combined with the churning does break things down. It is definitely not composting- it definitely is not producing soil- but it is definitely more than just dehydrating
It’s possible that what you reviewed doesn’t do as good of a job as the Vitamix Food Cycler, which is what I bought. I chose that model because the Food Cycler already has a great reputation after years of use.
Using the Food Cycler also helps me manage the amount of food flowing into the worm bin. It is important not to overfeed the worms- I can store the dehydrated food waste until the worm population builds back up and deals with what is already in the bin. It is also useful for going on vacation- we tend to produce more food scraps than the worms can handle. I can give them some of that extra as a big bunch of the slurry before we travel on vacation, so instead of the population declining, it can be thriving after we are gone for a week.
For me the initial reason that I bought the food cycler was to not have smelly food waste outside that would attract animals, including coyotes which could decide to eat my dog instead. Of course I can buy a quality properly contained composting unit, but that costs a fair amount of money as well and will still attract some curious animals.
“But other food is broken down into an unrecognizeable dust.” – even if it is not recognizable – does not mean it is broken down chemically. You can dry most food and pulverize it, but it has not changed chemically.
I am considering buying the Vitamix Food Cycler to process food scraps that I will feed my worms. How long is the cycle and at what temperature does it run? Thanks.
The compost bins close to my house don’f accept meat and dairy. Would that make sense to use an electric composter with my meat/dairy/fruits scraps and throw it in the compost bins? That way I could avoid my meat and dairy scraps to go to landfills?
Appreciate your feedback
It may be better for the environment, but such calculations are complex. On one side you need to make the machine and the charcoal cartridges. Electricity to run it. You also need to earn the money to buy the machine – that also has an environmental cost. The benefit is less meat and dairy going to landfill – how much is that. Almost no meat goes to landfill from our home, and no dairy.
Then there is your time. If you spent differently helping the environment would that be better?
That’s a cost/benefit analysis all too few bother to calculate.
I work on the principle of not buying anything for my garden until it’s demonstrably better than what I currently have for zero cost & electrical gadgets for producing compost are NOT on my list of good things.
There’s two roe deer carcases, less gralloch & head, plus the remains of multiple fish & fowl gone into one of my bays this year, with zero smell or rats as 65-70°C rapidly breaks down anything but bone.
These bays are 3′ cubes, so nothing big, just well tended.
The bones are retrieved, broken by hand & added to next year’s material – they appear to break down/weather faster than eggshells.
We have a Vitamix at our camp in Vermont because we rent it all summer. We are located yards from the lake. Despite what the state says, there is no garbage hauler who will take kitchen scraps in our comm6, and I can’t ask guests to drive half an hour to the county collection point. This was very informative. I still don’t know what I can ask guests to do with the dried product.
I grow vegetables in styrofoam fish boxes with tight lids (my last ones were available from a Japanese restaurant. Size is about 10 x 12 x 30 inches. Since we do not use the sundeck over the carport, these free containers are very light and do not add much weight to the structure. They are filled 3/4 full with light growing soil with drainage holes at the bottom. Late fall to spring when plants are not growing, I use a blender and make a coarse puree with liquid of all compostable material (sometimes even a small amount of meat), then dig and mix it into the soil with a trowel. I cover it with the tight fitting lid and weigh it down with a small weight. Occasionally I turn the soil, but mostly I just leave it to work until it is planting time. There are no rodents or flies, or slugs, and worms can be added. It enriches the existing soil, and I can add more fertilizer if necessary. This way, I use up 95% of food scraps. In the spring when it is warmer, it takes about 3-4 weeks for the scraps to disappear before planting.
I have tried other outdoor composters (compost tea etc), but because the sundeck is close to our indoors living area, there are usually many flies and some smell. Also, the sundeck is completely private and I can garden in the morning without having to walk downstairs to the ground level or worry about how I am dressed! Dina
Several gardeners I know are very pleased with their all-metal compost bins (made in BC). They are not cheap but perhaps worth the cost when you can be sure no rats will get in.
In my book, WEEDLESS GARDENING, I write of a low tech but very effective methods for dealing with compost in winter that could be used year round in the kitchen. Quoting from the book:
“No matter how neatly a compost pile is kept in winter, not much happens in cold weather. Mounds of old salad, cooked broccoli, and moldy bread just sit. There won’t be odors in winter, but it’s not a pretty sight.
You can actively compost kitchen scraps in winter by doing it indoors. One way is with red worms, which are the kind that live in manure heaps and compost piles, and are sold as fishing bait. Put the worms in a bin with a loose fitting lid along with some shredded newspaper and a smidgen of soil. Then feed them kitchen waste as fast as they can eat it.
You can also compost indoors without worms. All you need are three buckets (five-gallon size should suffice) with loose fitting lids. Fill one with a mixture of equal parts dry sawdust (or peat moss) and dry soil, with a little limestone added.
To begin composting, put an inch of dry straw, leaves, or shredded newspaper into the bottom of one of the empty buckets. Dump your kitchen scraps into the bucket as they become available, each time sprinkling on some of the sawdust-soil mixture to absorb odors and excess moisture. If you have a lot of scraps at once, dump in a little at a time, covering each layer with the sawdust-soil mixture. Chop up large pieces and let water drain from anything that is very wet before you toss it in the bucket.
When your bucket is full, set it aside somewhere warm and start filling the other empty bucket. By the time the second bucket is full, the contents of the first one will be well on their way to becoming compost, no longer looking like garbage and no longer attractive to scavengers. Dump the contents of the first bucket outside on your compost pile and start filling that bucket again while the second one sits.
Keep the bucket you are filling and the sawdust-soil mixture right in the kitchen. Warmth hastens decomposition and the whole setup is odor and fly free and at least as convenient as a sink’s garbage disposal unit or a garbage pail.
Many thanks for both the main article and this composting indoors response. I have relocated from a large property in temperate climate (plenty of room and material for good composting outside) to a very small property in sub-tropics. After looking through many different indoor composting options, I have now decided against the electric ‘dehydrator’ option and will try the 3-bucket (no worms- it’s too hot for them) option described here in my garage. The results should work for my container garden and small-bed plantings. Thanks again, very helpful!