Foodcycler Diary

We signed up to be part of a countertop composter pilot project in our town. 

We purchased a Foodcycler at a very reduced price in exchange for keeping a 12-week record of our usage. This will help the town calculate the overall waste reduction that could be had, and the impact it could have on garbage pickup, methane gas release, and landfill use.

We were so excited to receive our Foodcycler and start composting! In the first day we ran 3 cycles. I knew it was coming, so I had kept a few containers of food in the fridge that I normally would have scraped into the trash. We also have a big family, so I expected our usage to be higher than the predicted once-daily cycle.

We eagerly loaded it up and took a picture and then read the instructions lol - it was too full and we had to dump a bunch of the food scraps out and save them for the next load. 

We're saving the resultant compost and will add it to our soil once the snow melts. It is very cool to see the different type of dirt that is created by the different food scraps.

So far I think we have composted the following kitchen scraps:

Lettuce

Peppers

Coffee grounds

Apples

A lime

Orange peels

Banana peels

Leftover chicken

A few pierogies

1 napkin

Grape stems

Egg shells

A few bread crusts

Dry dog food

There is a filter that absorbs odours, and I didn't notice any food smells during the processing except for the dog food when there was a significant amount of it in the foodcycler. I won't put that in the machine again simply because of the smell.

Our container of dirte (*not your ordinary dirt lol) is rapidly filling up! This is the compost produced from 5 buckets full of kitchen scraps.

 

You can see the lime peel and orange peel in this shot. They're thin and crisp but still have their citrusy scents.

Anyway, I know this is probably exciting only to me, but I wanted to have a record of it for my own interest :).  Our Foodcycler is happily humming away on its third bucket of the day.