The Kitchen Compost Pail

Tired of stinky kitchen waste? Use a kitchen compost pail to hold food scraps and plant waste until you can take them to your compost pile or rotating composter outdoors. Compost pails come in a variety of styles, from a simple bucket with handle to a stainless steel compost pail with a lid and filter. There are also compost crocks made of ceramic, and plastic compost pails with carbon odor removers. Here's how to shop for and use a compost pail in your own kitchen.

Choose a compost pail. You can use anything from a small plastic bucket with a snap-on lid to a stainless steel compost pail with specially designed odor filters in the lid. You might choose one based on your kitchen decor (there are several colors available in the ceramic compost crock model), or it might come down to the budget.

Start collecting compost. Use your new kitchen compost pail to collect fruit peels and scraps on a daily basis. Add onion and garlic peels as well as other vegetable scraps to your kitchen compost pail. You can also toss in dead leaves or stems pruned from indoor plants. Some items should not be composted, such as chicken bones, meat scraps and leftover milk.

Begin composting. When full, empty your kitchen compost into a compost pile or composter outdoors (near the garden is a great place to set up your compost). Add garden waste and dead leaves to your compost pile and turn the material every couple weeks to ensure even composting.