Disposable Compost Bins

I garden. And I compost. You'd be surprised just how little trash makes it out to the street most weeks, especially when you added canning my own stuff on top of that. And my compost bins are sometimes so full that I worry I won't have enough room for more. But life happens, and compost composts, and quickly enough there's more room.

But one of my continual issues is having a small bin in the house for composting. You know, one of those counter top ones for when the amount is small. Somehow, it never gets emptied before it gets gross. And I don't want to clean that in my sink. And I don't want to toss a container that cost me money.

About a year ago I looked into compostable bags that could be put in the small bins. Bags that would contain all the gross and take it all out to the pile. Except the only bags that were meant for home composting were insanely expensive for something I was going to throw on the compost pile. And there are a lot of complaints, and I do mean a lot, about the bags starting to disintegrate as soon as something wet got put in them. Most of my compost materials are tea bags and veggie/fruit scraps. So yeah, not happening.

So I tossed the problem to the back brain and let it go.  A few months later the back brain tossed back the solution. Wipes containers, coffee containers, juice jugs, vinegar bottles, etc. All of them can easily be used as compost containers, either as is or with a simple hole cut.  All of these items are destined for the garbage or recycling pile anyways. So now they get a second, third, maybe even fourth life before they head there. And if they are super gross when I empty them - they just move on the the garbage or recycling, if a quick garden hose rinse can't resolve it. And sometimes, even if it can.

So far this idea has worked and helped keep me composting things that I might otherwise be tempted to just toss in the garbage for convenience.