Keeping a Clean Bin
Here are some tips to keep pests and smells down in your compost bin between pickups.
With the summer heat, it’s hard to keep pests out of your bin. Flies are amazing creatures and can get into your contertop bin or your outdoor bin and leave an unexpected surprise… maggots. While it is an unpleasant surprise when your not expecting, it is next to impossible to prevent. It happens to bins across the country and we have found no silver bullet to prevent it.
Smells are another thing that can be unpleasant. Things break down a whole lot faster with the summer heat and smells can come quick. What can you do to prevent pests and odors? Here are some ideas.
Clean your bin out after it has been emptied on your collection day. Make a quick stop by your garden hose and spray it out into the grass. Keeping the lid closed as much as possible will keep flies out and add more browns to keep it dried out. See the difference between brown and green material below.
Compostable bags. Using compostable bags keeps material contained within your bin and will keep flies from spreading throughout the bin. We sell 3 gallon bags for countertop collection bins and 13 gallon bins to line 10 gallon bags. We can deliver these when we pick up your compost each week! Order them here!
Brown material. This material has a higher presence of carbon in it vs. nitrogen. The carbon can absorb the odors and the typical dry nature of browns will absorb moisture that can cause odors. If your bin is smelly, try to add in more of this material.
Leaves
Napkins
Paper towels
Brown cardboard, newspaper
Sawdust
Straw
Hay
Green Material. This material will commonly have more nitrogen and will create odors as it breaks down. Some folks will wait to add this material until a day or two before collection day.
Coffee grounds
Meats and dairy products
General food scraps
Grass clippings
While no one likes to see some of these unpleasantries, we dont mind collecting matial that contains them. Don’t ever worry about your bin being too smelly for us. It will all go toward making great compost!