“I would compost if I had a garden.” This is the most common honest sentence about composting, said in flat kitchens across the country. The good news, and the slight surprise, is that you do not need a garden. You need about a square foot of floor space and a willingness to think a bit differently about your food scraps.
This is a comparison of three composting setups that genuinely work in small kitchens. I have used or watched friends use all three for at least a year. Each has trade-offs. None of them smells if done properly. Two of them produce actual compost. One produces something cleverer.
Setup 1: The under-sink Bokashi bucket
Bokashi is a Japanese fermentation method. You put food scraps into a sealed bucket, sprinkle a bran mixture inoculated with beneficial microbes, and the contents ferment over two weeks into something you can then dig into soil, give to a friend with a garden, or take to a community compost site.
What you need: a Bokashi bucket with a tap at the bottom (around 18-25 pounds, lasts years), and Bokashi bran (around five pounds for a six-month supply). the USDA FoodKeeper app USDA guidance on storing food safely The bucket goes under the sink. Two buckets are ideal so one ferments while the other fills.
What you can compost in it
- All fruit and vegetable scraps
- Cooked food including meat and fish (a rare yes among composting methods)
- Small bones
- Dairy
- Bread, pasta, rice
- Coffee grounds and tea leaves
The fact that Bokashi handles meat, fish, and dairy is a real edge over almost every other small-space option.
The smell question
A properly working Bokashi bucket has a faintly pickled, slightly sweet, slightly sour smell. Not unpleasant. When you open it to add new scraps, you get a quick whiff of fermentation. If the smell is sharp, ammonia-like, or actively rotten, you have either added not enough bran or the seal has failed. A working Bokashi is barely noticeable in normal use.
The slight catch
Bokashi does not finish the composting cycle on its own. The fermented contents need to go somewhere to break down further: either into a garden bed (yours or a friend’s), into a community compost site, or into a council food waste collection if accepted. If you have absolutely no outlet for the fermented material, Bokashi may not be your fit.
Setup 2: The countertop electric composter
These appliances have come down in price recently. They work by drying and grinding food scraps into a coffee-ground-like material, in about three to six hours. The output is technically not finished compost (it has not been microbially broken down), but it is reduced by about ninety per cent in volume and can either be used as a soil amendment or added to a real compost heap to finish.
What you need: the appliance (currently around 200 to 400 pounds), a kitchen socket, and around a square foot of counter space. You feed it scraps once a day, press start, and come back to a small amount of dry granules.
What it handles
Most fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea, small chicken bones (model dependent). It does not handle large bones, oils, or any liquid. Some models can take dairy and small amounts of cooked food.
The pros and cons
Pros: zero smell during operation, very tidy, no insects, no mess, kids love it, and it dramatically reduces the volume of food waste you put out. The output is genuinely useful as a soil amendment for houseplants or to add to outdoor planters.
Cons: it uses electricity (a typical cycle is around half a kilowatt-hour, so a few pence). The upfront cost is significant. The output is not technically finished compost, so it needs to either go into real soil or be mixed with carbon-rich material to finish. The unit will eventually need replacing.
Setup 3: The under-sink worm bin (vermicomposting)
A small worm bin is the most low-tech, lowest-cost option, and the one most people are nervous about because of the word “worms.” Once you have used one, the nervousness fades. The worms stay in the bin. They are tidier than most flatmates.
What you need: a small bin (commercial ones cost around 60-90 pounds, or you can make one from two stacked plastic crates for around 15 pounds), starter worms (red wigglers, around 15-25 pounds for a thousand), some shredded paper or cardboard for bedding, and a willingness to give them a stable, dark spot.
What worms love
- Fruit and vegetable scraps (chopped small)
- Coffee grounds and tea leaves
- Eggshells, crushed
- Shredded paper and cardboard (essential, not optional)
- Bread, pasta, rice in small amounts
What worms hate: citrus peel, onions, garlic, dairy, meat, oils, anything spicy.
The output
Worm castings, often called black gold by gardeners, are the most concentrated soil amendment you can produce at home. A small worm bin makes about a kilo a month, which is enough to top-dress every houseplant in a flat with plenty left to give away. There is also a liquid run-off (worm tea), which dilutes 1:10 with water and is an excellent plant fertiliser.
The honest concerns
Smell: a working worm bin smells faintly of forest floor. Not unpleasant. If it smells of rotten food, you have overfed or buried wet food on the surface instead of mixing it under bedding.
Insects: the most common issue is fruit flies, which appear if scraps are exposed at the surface. Solution: always bury scraps under bedding and cover the top with a damp piece of cardboard. Done correctly, fruit flies are not an issue.
Worms in the kitchen: they truly stay in the bin. In two years of running one, I have had two worm escapes, both because I forgot to put the lid back on properly.
Comparing the three at a glance
Cost: worm bin lowest if DIY, Bokashi mid-range, electric composter highest.
Effort: electric lowest, Bokashi mid, worm bin highest.
Handles meat/dairy: Bokashi yes, electric some models, worm bin no.
Produces finished compost: worm bin yes, Bokashi requires a finishing step, electric requires a finishing step.
Smell risk if neglected: Bokashi some, worm bin some, electric almost none.
Best for absolute beginners: electric. Best for keen, hands-on composters: worm bin. Best for households with meat scraps and a friend with a garden: Bokashi.
Which one for which kitchen
If you live alone and produce mostly veg scraps and coffee grounds, a worm bin is delightful and basically free over time. If you cook for a family and want a low-thought setup, an electric composter handles the volume without fuss. If you eat a lot of meat and fish and have any garden-owning friend or community compost site, Bokashi is the deepest waste-reducer.
A small note on the council
If your council collects food waste, that is also a perfectly good option, and the easiest to maintain. Many councils now process kitchen scraps into anaerobic digestion biogas, which is a genuine environmental gain. The home options above are for people whose council does not offer collection, or for those who want the output for their own plants.
Whichever you choose, the first month is the most awkward. Things go wrong, you adjust. By month three the routine fades into the background. By month six you cannot remember binning fruit peels.
The garden was never really the prerequisite. The square foot of space, and the small commitment, were.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will any of these composting setups smell in my kitchen?
A properly maintained system should not. Bokashi smells faintly pickled, worm bins smell faintly of forest floor, and electric composters are essentially odourless. Bad smells almost always mean overfeeding or wet food exposed at the surface.
Can I compost meat and fish at home?
In a Bokashi bucket, yes. In a worm bin, no. In an electric composter, it depends on the model. For meat-heavy households without a friend with a garden, a council food waste collection is often the simplest answer.
What if I go away for two weeks?
A Bokashi bucket is fine left sealed for a fortnight. A worm bin can also manage if topped up with extra bedding and a damp cloth on the surface before you leave. An electric composter just sits there until your return.
How much actual compost will I get?
A small worm bin produces around one kilo a month, an electric composter produces a similar volume of granules in less time, and a Bokashi bucket produces several kilos of fermented material per cycle that then needs to finish in soil. All of them dramatically reduce what you put out in the bin.
What is the cheapest way to start?
A DIY worm bin made from two stacked plastic crates costs around fifteen pounds plus the worms. After that, it costs nothing to run and produces continuously usable compost and liquid feed.
