How to make the most out of composting when you have limited space

Feb 4, 2021

In this day and age you are more likely to find environmentally friendly warriors cooped up inside townhouses and apartments, rather than houses with large backyards and miles of space to call your own. 

This new way of living has made us resourceful yet compacted, limiting us to only a few square feet of space for our green-thumbs or sustainability practises to thrive. 

Of course there are options these days for small home living - Tiny greenhouses for growing vegetables, Mushroom farms displayed on kitchen benches, and hanging plant baskets in every room. 

But how do you get the most out of composting without playing host to a large compost bin full of 1000+ worms? Well there are a few things you can do…

Firstly, why not think small?

Compost Bins don’t have to be the size of a small Fiat, these days you can get small, design focused bins that can still do the task of a regular farm but just at a smaller scale - perfect for smaller households with less organic waste. 

A suggested option is the Tui Tower Worm Farm, which plants directly into any soil you have and takes the work out of caring for the worms. This also means you don’t have to worry about harvesting worm pee if that’s not your vibe, it is however liquid gold for houseplants.



Sitting just above the soil’s surface, the Tui Tower is compact, and basically out of sight once it’s installed. 

If you’d rather not deal with worms at all, then there are plenty of options available that are space conscious and without the need for them. The Maze 12 Litre Indoor Bokashi Composter is a small, compact and portable indoor composter ideal for recycling food waste without the need for space in the backyard for worm farms or compost bins.



The Maze Bokashi composters use a special spray that contains beneficial microorganisms that ferment and break-down food scraps, rather than allowing them to decay as with traditional compost methods. 

However if you’re low on space and would like something a little more design focused, I would suggest looking at the Living Compostor, or as I like to call it, the Tesla of home composting. 


Stunning.


The Living Compostor, besides looking like it was designed by Gwenth Paltrow, is an odourless, biomorphic composter that turns food scraps into fertiliser. The designers of this biomorphic worm house collected data for almost two years, then created an algorithm to figure out the best shape for both worm health and human convenience.

Now that we have covered our bases for compact, wormless and design led, there are plenty of options within those spheres to get moving on your own compost journey. 

However, if you’ve done your good deed of buying compostable, and you’d like that to be the extent of your efforts, then have no fear for there are several options available for those looking for a little bit of help with their composting. 

We Compost is Auckland’s leading commercial compostable waste collection service. Each week the team collects over 50,000kg of organic waste to be composted. With We Compost, the simplicity of the service is perfect for those looking for an easy out. 

Simply purchase their own reusable waste bags, fill them up with your organic waste, and they will come collect it for you and do all the rest. From their shop you can purchase different bags for waste and one specifically for coffee grounds, as well as their own benchtop caddy’s for easy storage and removal. 

So now you are armed and prepared with the tools to succeed. Composting doesn’t have to be this ominous chore that puts you off playing your part, in fact once you get a system in place that works for you, composting becomes second nature. 

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