Choosing the Best Food Recycler for Your Food Waste

Using a food recycler or composter is a fantastic way to reduce waste, improve your garden, and minimize your carbon footprint. But with so many composting options available, which one is right for you? We’re here to help you choose the right one for you.

Mint green kitchen appliance on countertop with bread, mushrooms, garlic, and chopping board.

The best food recycler

Lomi Food Recycler

Price: starting at $299

Community: Lomi is in more than 200,000 happy homes!

Subscription: Not Required

Lomi transforms your food scraps into a garden-ready natural fertilizer all in a matter of hours: it’s clean, easy, and convenient. Plus, almost anything you eat can go into Lomi: from fruits and veggies to meat and dairy. Lomi uses Smart Cycles™ to run short and energy efficient cycles.

Compared to the others:

SUBSCRIPTION: Not required. Lomi uses activated carbon filters so your home stays smelling fresh: replace after 45 cycles (Filter Refills, $29.99)

SIZE: Lomi is compact which means it’s not taking up valuable space in your kitchen and weighs under 20 pounds so it can easily be moved.

MODELS: Lomi has 2 models, a connected and a non-connected version which means you have more choice to find what’s right for you.

A person scraping food from a plate into a waste bin with an orange backdrop.

The electric garbage can

Electric Kitchen Bins

Price: $999

Community: In only a few thousand houses

Subscription: Required

Electric kitchen bins mill your food scraps turning them into grounds. The grounds sit in the bin for many weeks before the users must package them and send them back to the company to be repurposed: food grounds are not recommended for garden use.

Compared to the others:

SUBSCRIPTION: Required to have the grounds repurposed. If you have chickens for your grounds you don’t need a subscription, otherwise, each month subscription adds $35+ of costs for you.

SIZE: Over 3 feet tall and weighing 68 pounds, it is difficult to move around and takes up a lot of space.

MODELS: One.

Woman holding a compost bin full of kitchen scraps, making a displeased face.

The best compost bin

Traditional Compost

Price: Up to $700 to get started

Traditional backyard composting or its outdoor alternative, vermicomposting (which uses worms to break down food scraps), entails a large space in your yard where you periodically mix the contents over a number of months to turn it into garden-ready compost.

Compared to the others:

SUBSCRIPTION: None available. You must purchase anything required individually and when you remember to.

SIZE: Recommended to be 5 feet high and five feet wide - that’s a lot of smelly food decomposing in your yard and attracting animals!

MODELS: There are lots of ways to do traditional compost from tumblers to worms. Each one requires regular manual labor to turn and rotate to ensure proper aeration.

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