Tag Archives: compost

Bokashi composting

Bokashi is a method that uses anaerobic fermentation to compost almost anything.

You can use the bokashi system to pre-process food waste that normally can’t go into your compost bin and worm farm so it can be used there after it is processed.

All types of food waste can be processed, including:

  • meat
  • seafood & fish
  • cooked food waste
  • cheese
  • dairy
  • bread
  • onions
  • citrus
  • garlic

Since fermentation is much faster than composting, the bokashi system can produce fermented material in one week, that breaks down quickly when dug into the soil. When in the ground, the fermented material breaks down into soil in 4-6 weeks. Ideally, from start to finish, you can turn raw kitchen scraps into soil that can be used for plants in 30-45 days.

electric indoor compost bin

I’m upset, because I was going to invent this.

Oh well, I suppose I didn’t really have time to invent it, or know how to do it. If it really works as well as advertised, it’s potentially a big advance in closing the loop.

I have to point out that aerobic compost won’t actually reduce carbon emissions compared to landfilling the same waste or putting it down the garbage disposal. But the carbon is the same carbon absorbed when the plants were grown, and in this case you haven’t produced waste at all, but instead turned the carbon and nutrients in your groceries into healthy soil and plants on your own property. You’ve saved a few trips to the Home Depot, which means you saved energy and reduced pollution from the gasoline you would have put in your car, reduced your risk of injury or death in a car crash, reduced the amount of chemical fertilizer produced in natural gas refineries and phosphate mining operations, reduced energy required to truck bags of topsoil and fertilizer around, reduced the risk of death and injury that entails, diverted nutrients from surface water or groundwater (where they are pollution) to your soil (where they are a resource), maybe grown some food, gotten some exercise and squeezed in some precious leisure time out in the garden. Or maybe you gave some compost away, made a friend or even sold the stuff. If there are enough people like you, Home Depot may not need to have such a big parking lot, which would reduce stormwater runoff, urban heat, demand for pavement (which really will reduce carbon emissions), and open up land for more economically or ecologically productive or leisurely uses.