i can see why they didn't speak highly of it - starting price: $300!!!!!!!!! they beauty of compost is that it's nearly free, i understand that some people might have restrictions such as their home's size and location or perhaps personal handicaps that may prevent outdoor composting, but geez, that's a crazy price. you can get an outdoor tumbler (easy enough for nearly everyone) for a better price than that. i'm not very good in this field but if you put kitchen scraps only in one of these bins, it wouldn't have the ideal C:N ratio, so how could it decompose efficiently???

I live in a condo with a balcony so NatureMill was the only option I was willing to consider. At first I kept it indoors. It is odourless when the lid is closed, but there is a strong organic mushroom/sourdour odour when you open the lid to add more stuff in. It's not overly unpleasant but I'm very sensitive to smells so I moved the NatureMill to the balcony (thankfully, I have a power outlet outside). Yes, the machine can be finicky but if you FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS, it works fine. I'll admit that I burned through my first machine by not doing so - NatureMill sent me a replacement. My new moto: Nothing stringy, only 1 inch pieces of stuff (my scissors are now very active! much better than using a knife to chop things up), don't overload. If it's too wet or smells sour, I add more pet pine litter or cross-shredded newspapers and baking soda. Above all else - being patient helps. There were times when I was tinkering the inside of the mixing chamber with a screw driver and a knife trying to free up a jam, instead of waiting forty-eight hours like the instructions advised - that wasn't a good idea and contributed to my first machine's demise. If you stick to the motto, you shouldn't be getting jams. I love it when the organic waste gets cooking and really steams up! I've been using the NatureMill Pro for a few months now. We do a lot of cooking using fresh veg and eat lots of fruits so we generate a large amount of organic waste. Add to that coffee grinds and egg shells. In fact, for just two people, I find that my NatureMill is not fast enough to process the organic non-meat waste we generate. The waste from eating just one watermelon or a couple of cantalopes will keep the machine busy for at least a week. In the meantime, I generate several small bags of organic waste waiting to be processed! So I get backlogged regularly. In two months I have generated 3 trays of compost and will have a fourth in a couple of days. It's rich, black and looks like a nice soil. There is one full tray in the machine being heat-cured, and I have the contents from two trays sitting in planters on the balcony being air-cured. I intend to air-cure the compost for at least two weeks before I put it on top of my growing suger snaps and tomato plants. I can comfortable say that I've reduced my landfill waste by around 70% since I bought the NatureMill. As for the future, I'm going to add small chopped up pieces of corn cob and used kleenex tissues next.

I would be quite reluctant to pay $400 (plus shipping?) for this gadget. OK, never in a million years would I try it. Even if you can return it, you would have to pay shipping both ways. There was no info on this site about it, so I used Google to find the site. This gadget is a medium-sized wastecan appliance that sits in the kitchen. For $15 you can buy enough hardware cloth to make a large mesh bin; for another $15 a compost thermoter will let you know how the pile is doing. If a main point is indoor composting, read up on worm composting. For under $50 you can buy a couple of plastic containers and the mail-order worms. Being one of those people suckered into a compost gadget, I favor the cheap do-it-yourself methods of composting. I paid $65 for a plastic bin from Jerry Baker which was not large enough to retain the heat. Then I paid $300+$50(s&h) for a tumbler. The tumbler required more work than just a simple pile would have. It was only after reading posts on Gardenweb that I discovered that cheap and simple bins are the best ways to compost.

http://www.stacksandstacks.com/kitchen-compost-bin-with-filter-lid?id=176&sku=15772&utm_medium=gan&utm_source=gan This is what I use. I have two of these under my sink which is a pull out. I have them on the counter top when I am prepping. When I am done cleaning up, the buckets go under the sink, out of sight. I line them with biodegradable compostable bags. They sell them at Costco at a reasonable price. I stopped buying garbage bags since I am really trying to practice reduce/reuse/recycle concept. I am using bags from groceries to line my garbage bags, which is what we did growing up. I ask for paper bags. Yes, it can get wet at times but we do not have much wet garbage since most wet stuff goes into the compost. We take out the compost nearly everyday. Our summers are not that hot here in the pacific NW. We have food waste pick up so I put in what i do not put into our own backyard compost in there. Back yard compost: peelings from raw fruits and vegetables only. City pick up: any food waste including meats, dairy, bread etc. Food contaminated paper products such as pizza boxes The key to not attracting bugs is that the lid has to be tight. There is also a filter for smell. Over time, the comopst bin lid gets worn and bugs can get in them. You need to get new compost bins then... The stainless system that you make a hole on the countertop only works if the lid is very tight and bugs cannot get into it AND you take out the compost everyday.