Apartment Composting

I like to think of myself as someone who cares about the environment and growing up we always composted. Once I moved into an apartment of my own I found myself throwing out a lot of compostables and it's driving me crazy. I was raised not to waste - and I feel like throwing out compostables is wasteful! So for the past few years I've been feeling bad - but I live in an apartment - what can I do?

Last spring, I finally got fed up and I called my dad. He suggested that I make my own apartment-sized tumbling composter. The formula was pretty simple.


First, I got a 5-gallon paint bucket and two lids from Home Depot - one lid was leak-proof and the other lid was not leak-proof. Using my biggest drill bit I drilled 3 holes in the side of the bucket a few inches apart (you might not want to do this step) then I drilled several holes in the black (not leak-proof) lid.

Then I put some compostables into the bucket. I used some potting soil that had be leached of its nutrients, I cut up several spinach plants that had gone to seed and I clean out my fridge (I was about to leave for a summer internship). During the week, the bucket sat out on the patio with the back lid on (so air could get in). Once a week, my lovely roommate switched to the leak-proof lid and rolled the bucket 3 times back and forth across our patio (which is probably about 10 feet in length) and she added water (about a cup a week) to keep the compost moist - I'm currently living in the desert so it's pretty dry.

I left a bucket full of dried out dirt and plant stuff on my patio in May and came back to this:

in August!