Two months ago, I got a Lomi. I’d been holding off buying one to see what people said about this new electric composter, but once I saw the amazing reviews roll in, I knew I needed one for myself.
In my first few months using this product, my kitchen has become cleaner, simpler, and less smelly, and Lomi has truthfully transformed the way I view food waste. While I originally wanted the product for the unlimited supply of free dirt for my plants, I’ve been shocked at the game-changing convenience it’s added to my day-to-day life.
Let's dive into all the reasons I fell in love with my Lomi.
#1.Lomi is so convenient and easy to use
Lomi promised a lot: reduced food waste, a mess-free and smell-free trash, minimized carbon footprint, and increased convenience. With all these benefits, I almost expected it to be sneakily difficult to operate. But no! There’s no installation, confusing features, or malfunctions.
To use Lomi, I literally click a button. Once it’s done, the bucket is easy to remove and I just mix the dirt in with other soil. When I had a question about what could go in Lomi, I reached out to customer service and they replied in two hours with a complete and simple answer. Lomi is so simple and I know the Pela team is always there to help.
#2. It took garbage off my to-do list
The most shockingly amazing aspect of Lomi is how much time, effort, and trash-loathing I now save. Smelly garbage hasn’t crossed my mind–or nostrils–in months. Leaky trash bags don’t exist in my life. Instead of taking out my small under-the-sink garbage bag several times a week, it only fills up once every 10 days.
Owning a Lomi allowed me to realize that the majority of “grossness” in your garbage bin is food waste. Most other trash is dry, leakproof, and relatively clean. With a Lomi, garbage has become very simple and mess-free.
#3. My plants have never been happier
I’m a plant mom. I love my succulents, spider plants, and orchids. While I’m good at caring for them, I’ve always struggled with soil quality. As plants grow and I repot them, I need to buy or find more soil, which is a hassle. Not to mention, I have no idea if the soil I’m using has the proper nutrients.
Now, I mix in my Lomi dirt with other potting soil and use it for my plants because it’s packed with helpful nutrients and microbes. I’ve noticed that one of my plants gets noticeably fewer dead leaves since I started doing this! Plus, I don’t have to water my Lomi-ified plants as much because Lomi dirt has such a high water holding capacity.
#4. I’m lowering my carbon footprint
Another fun fact about me: I’m an environmental sustainability major at McGill University. That means that I literally spend most of my days thinking about the environmental impacts of various actions. You might not think about it, but food waste is likely one of your biggest personal daily contributors to climate change.
If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of GHGs globally, behind only China and the U.S. This is because food waste releases methane as it breaks down in landfill. Not to mention, food waste contains nutrients that have value and should ideally be brought back to the earth.
By using Lomi, I prevent the emissions of hauling my food waste to the landfill in a garbage truck, plus the methane emissions of my rotting waste. This is the easiest way I’ve found to lower my carbon footprint.
#5. It’s an awesome conversation starter
My kitchen is a gathering place at home, and Lomi adds a very sexy spin to my countertop. It looks sleek and blends into my backsplash while somehow standing out as an interesting appliance. Because of this, I get a lot of questions about it!
Many of my friends, family, and coworkers know about Lomi, and get really excited to see that I have one. That starts an awesome conversation about the quality of the product, use of the dirt, and how I’m reducing my carbon footprint.
On the flip side, I also get a lot of people asking “what is that?”. Those conversations are my favorite, because I get to introduce them to the magic of Lomi. Soon, we’re two cocktails deep and someone is still asking “So your food waste turns into dirt in a few hours?”. It’s always a good time.
#6. No more fruit flies or rats
Fruit flies are the bane of my existence. I don’t even understand where they come from… they just seem to appear! I used to think that whole fruits on my countertop were the main culprit for attracting flies, but I’ve now learned that it was mostly rotting peels, rinds, and excess fruits in my garbage bin that were attracting them.
Lomi’s carbon filter and locking lid keeps all smells trapped inside, meaning I don’t get fruit flies anymore. Plus, while I’ve personally never had an issue with rats, I’m aware that it’s a large issue for many people. With Lomi, you no longer give rats any food waste to snack on in your trash, so they simply don’t come!
#7. I eliminate unhealthy kitchen fumes
Garbage is gross. Garbage fumes are grosser. Rotting food releases acids, mold spores, and bacteria into the kitchen air which is breathed in by you and your family. You might not think about it, but you can’t smell something without first inhaling it. Gross.
With Lomi, my kitchen never smells. I’ve completely eliminated the stink-factor in my trash by trapping odors in Lomi’s carbon filters. The carbon filters also prevent mold spores or any hazardous fumes from floating into my kitchen air. All that puts my mind and nose at ease.
#8. I’m supporting a Climate Neutral company that I love
I’ve been following Pela for several years now. I love their phone cases, and so do many of my friends. I love Pela because they are a Climate Neutral and B Corp certified company, which means they are one of 5,299 companies that are certifiably socially, ethically, and environmentally responsible.
I personally think it’s important to support companies with a moral compass and to encourage the development of a more just economy. Lomi arrives at your door 100% carbon neutral, since Pela pays to offset all emissions of the production process. They are also on an ambitious mission to eliminate 10 billion pounds of waste from the world.
#9. I don’t feel bad about throwing out kitchen scraps
As I’ve mentioned, food waste is a significant problem. It’s a huge driver of climate change, an economic burden, and plays into the inequality of food insecurity. For those reasons, I used to feel guilty about throwing away spoiled food or even vegetable scraps like cores and stocks.
It’s a huge relief not to think twice about what I’ll do with my broccoli stems. While I still actively try my best to consume all the edible food in my fridge, sometimes things go bad or have inedible parts. Now, I can throw it into Lomi where I know it will be repurposed into a valuable fertilizer.
#10. Kids love Lomi
I’m not a mom, but I do have young family members who adore using my Lomi. It’s so amazing to see kids interested in the natural process of food breaking down into fertilizer. Normal composting is too slow to engage children and have them understand natural cycles of food biodegradation, but Lomi gives them an engaging before and after snapshot.
I also gifted a Lomi to a family member with young kids, and they’ve made it into a post-dinner family activity! Every night, they add scraps to Lomi, and in the morning the kids take the dirt to their plants and garden. They’ve even taken Lomi dirt to school for show and tell.
#11. It’s (pretty much) the only way to compost in an apartment
I live in an apartment building, which means I don’t have yard space to compost. Lomi is about the size of a toaster oven and sits peacefully on my countertop. Compared to the space normally required to compost at home, it’s so compact and convenient.
Traditional composting also requires maintenance, turning, and monitoring. It can also be smelly and grow to occupy a larger-than-expected space. Not only is this not an option for most city-dwellers, it’s simply not as convenient as Lomi.
#12. Lomi breaks down bioplastics and paper products
Have you ever wondered what happens when a restaurant gives you a “compostable” straw? Well, I have. So I looked into it. Most people throw them in the garbage, making them environmentally useless. When they’re put in the green bin, industrial compost facilities typically confuse them for normal plastics and sort them out to landfill.
Lomi has a mode called “Lomi Approved” which is designed to accommodate bioplastics and paper products. Pela specifies which products are Lomi Approved so you know what has passed their rigorous testing process. Lomi is one of the only solutions to making bioplastics eco friendly!
#13. I’m putting nutrients back where they belong
If mother nature had it her way, food waste would never end up in the landfill. Organic material is meant to be part of nature’s many nutrient cycles, meaning food is designed to go back to the earth and deliver nutrients to the soil. This isn’t hippy-talk, these are real biological cycles.
Normally, food waste goes to the landfill where it is combined with inorganic material like plastic, metal, and glass, and compacted by large machinery. In these junk piles, the nutrients are never reused by plants, and therefore lost forever.
Lomi helps you return food scraps to the earth and nutrients to the soil, where they are naturally repurposed to feed plants. My food scraps are no longer garbage; they now provide value to me and my plants. This is one of the main reasons why I’m obsessed with my Lomi.
#14. It’s freakin’ fun
Maybe this is the nerd inside me, but Lomi it’s just convenient–it’s fun. I get actively excited when my Lomi fills up and I get to run it, because that means another transformation I get to witness. Plus, more dirt for me!
If I have a lot of food waste, I sometimes wind up with extra Lomi dirt that I can’t use up myself. When this happens, I throw it in a tupperware and mosey on over to my elderly neighbor who absolutely loves to receive fertilizer for her plants. So yeah, Lomi helped me make a 78-year-old friend!
I’m so grateful for how Lomi has changed my relationship with food waste and added convenience to my everyday life. My kitchen is free of flies, leaky garbage bags, and unwanted smells. I also feel great about the service I’m doing to the planet by repurposing my food waste.
This is truthfully one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. I can’t imagine my life without it. Oh, and please don’t tell my boyfriend that I’m head-over-heels for my Lomi.
Written by: Cassia Attard