Occasionally we are asked about potential products, techniques, or habits for One Simple Swap, such as the Lomi Countertop “Composter.”
The claim:
Kitchen scraps including meat, dairy, bioplastics – home composting no-nos – break down in a few hours on your countertop without smells, usable the same day. Miraculous!
Not really. We think this is a case of greenwashing.
Theoretical benefits:
- Keeps food waste out of landfills – yea!
- Methane, generated from decomposing food in landfills, is a potent greenhouse gas and a major contributor to climate change. Reduce that methane!
- Sits on a countertop, without smells or fruitflies.
- Year-round use.
- Nutrient-rich end-product, not actual compost.
Questions:
- How much electricity does it use?
- Is it noisy?
- Will it heat up the kitchen area?
- What happens when the results are rehydrated? Is it slimy? Stinky? Absorbent?
- Does it blow away in the wind if not buried?
- Does it actually decompose once buried in your garden?
Cons:
- Individually expensive ($400-$650), but… landfills are communally expensive. Climate change is unquantifiably expensive.
- Requires filtration materials and bio-activators (free in compost).
- Only soft bones allowed.
- Methane will be released once this material is rehydrated. BAD.
- Kitchen scraps are considered “greens,” aka nitrogen rich. Once dehydrated, they are mostly carbon “browns”, needing other greens to fully decompose.
- A dehydrator kills good microbes your soil seeks.
Other thoughts:
- This is a dehydrator-heater-fan-grinder, not a composter.
- Compost is biological decomposition of “greens and browns,” and micro-organisms,.
- Real compost kills weed seeds and pathogens.
- Some states/municipalities are limiting/prohibiting food waste in landfills. Have a plan on how you are going to deal with food waste.
Much better options:
Planetarily,
Laura & Gil
Our friends Laura & Gil Richardson are, in their own words, “imperfect” but they are much further down this Planetarian path than anyone I know. They are a treasure trove of sustainable living inspiration and we’ve asked them to share one simple swap per week that they’ve made (and the products they love) in hopes it might inspire you to make them, too.
