Composting in an apartment: every option, from worm composter to bokashi

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No yard, no compost? That's the misconception that discourages more city dwellers than any other. Yet living in an apartment doesn't stop you from putting your food scraps to good use. There are several options, some you set up at home, others just a few steps from your door. None of them suits everyone, and that's exactly what this guide is about.

Here are the strengths and constraints of each, to help you choose. For details on each method, see our dedicated guides.

No yard: is it really possible?

Yes, and it's well worth doing: organic waste makes up about a third of what goes in our trash cans. In France, the law has required local authorities to offer residents a way to sort their organic waste since 2024, whether or not they have a yard. In the US, a growing number of cities offer food scrap collection. Check with your city or waste service to find out what applies where you live. We cover this framework in our guide to mandatory organic waste sorting.

The options fall into two groups:

• at home: the worm composter and bokashi, which fit in a kitchen or on a balcony;
• away from home: the shared composter for your building or neighborhood, and the food scrap collection run by your city.

The worm composter: the go-to option for apartments

This is the option to choose first when you don't have a yard. Composting worms (Eisenia) digest your food scraps in a compact bin, at room temperature, without heating up. A worm bin can be set up indoors or outdoors, in the shade and protected from frost. Allow about four months before you get compost that's ready to use.

Its strengths: it works year-round, doesn't smell if it's well balanced, and produces vermicompost and worm tea, which plants love. Its limitation: it doesn't take everything. Meat, fish, dairy products, and large amounts of citrus don't belong in it, and like anything alive, it needs a little attention.

We've devoted a whole guide to the subject. To choose the right spot, start with our guide Worm composter in an apartment: how to set it up properly, then follow our method to start your worm composter step by step. A stacking-tray model such as the WORMbox worm composter fits easily in a kitchen.

Willy's tip

Before buying, check with your city or county: some offer worm bins to residents, sometimes free or at a reduced price, occasionally with a short training session.

Bokashi: fermenting all your kitchen leftovers

Bokashi works on a completely different principle. Your meal leftovers are pressed down in an airtight bucket and sprinkled with an activator, a fermented bran rich in microorganisms. Without air, they don't rot: they ferment, a bit like sauerkraut. After two to three weeks in the closed bucket, you get an acidic, stabilized material.

Its big advantage: it accepts almost all food leftovers, including meat, fish, and dairy products in small pieces, which a worm composter won't take. It takes up little space and stays discreet with the lid closed.

But let's be clear: bokashi is not finished compost. The fermented material still has to break down, whether it's buried in soil, added to a composter, fed in small amounts to worms, or mixed with soil in a large container. In an apartment, this second stage is what you need to figure out before getting started. Another constraint: you need a supply of activator, store-bought or homemade. Everything is explained in our guide to bokashi, and our Bokashi EM compost activator is ready to use.

The shared composter for your building or neighborhood

If you don't want to set anything up at home, shared composting is an excellent option. It comes in two main forms: the composter outside an apartment building, reserved for residents, and the neighborhood composter, often run by a nonprofit in a community garden or public space and open at set times.

The principle is simple: you keep your food scraps in a small countertop compost pail, then drop them into the communal bin and cover them with dry material. In return, you get a share of the compost. Each site has its own rules, often stricter than at home. And if there's no composter near you, nothing stops you from starting one with your neighbors: our guide Shared composter: a how-to guide walks you through the steps.

City food scrap collection

This is the simplest option day to day. Depending on where you live, collection is either curbside, in a dedicated bin, or at a drop-off point, meaning a special container set up on the street. Your food scraps are then processed in industrial facilities, by composting or anaerobic digestion.

You don't get any compost back, but your leftovers no longer end up in the trash. The only equipment you need: a countertop compost pail, ideally ventilated or fitted with a lid, such as the Urbalive 6L compost bin. To find out whether collection is available where you live and what it accepts, contact your city or waste service.

What about electric composters?

More and more kitchen appliances are being sold as “electric composters.” The name is misleading. In a few hours, these machines heat, stir, and grind food leftovers: they dehydrate them, which greatly reduces their volume and limits odors. But there's no composting involved, meaning no slow transformation by the living organisms in the soil.

What comes out is a dry material, stabilized but still immature. To feed the soil, it has to break down in turn: it must be mixed with soil or added to a composter or worm composter, and it's best to wait before sowing or planting in it. You also have to factor in the purchase price (several hundred euros), power consumption of around one kilowatt-hour per cycle according to manufacturers, and filters that need replacing.

Our take: it's a convenience appliance that can be useful if you have no access to any other option and know someone who can make use of the resulting material. It is not a shortcut to compost.

A balcony: a real bonus

A balcony or patio expands your options. A worm composter can go there, sheltered from rain and full summer sun. There are also worm composters combined with a planter, which feed your plants directly: we introduce them in our guide Worm composter with planter.

A compact tumbler composter can sit on a large patio, but let's be realistic: it produces fresh compost that still needs to mature for three to five months in a pile before use, and it gets heavy once full. For apartment dwellers, it mainly suits those with a courtyard or a small patch of ground.

Which option is right for your home?

To point you in the right direction, ask yourself these few questions:

• Do you have plants, a balcony, and the urge to make your own fertilizer? A worm composter is for you.
• Do you want to make use of all your leftovers, meat included, and do you have somewhere for the result to go (a friend's or relative's garden, a large container of soil, a composter that accepts it)? Bokashi.
• Short on time or space, but there's a shared composter near you? Join it.
• None of that possible? Your city's collection is still a real solution.

These options work very well together: many city dwellers keep a worm composter for their food scraps and use the collection for the leftovers the worms won't take.

Key takeaways

In an apartment, the worm composter and bokashi happen at home; the shared composter and collection happen outside. The electric composter, for its part, dries out waste but doesn't produce compost.

In summary

Living without a yard doesn't stop you from composting. The worm composter remains the go-to option for turning your food scraps into compost at home, bokashi lets you ferment everything as long as you plan the next step, and both shared composters and city collection offer simple alternatives with nothing to set up. Finally, the electric composter is a convenience appliance rather than a true composter. Choose based on your space, your plants, and your time, and don't hesitate to combine several options.

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Other topics in the guide

Vermicomposting30 fact sheets →Bokashi24 fact sheets →EM microorganisms26 fact sheets →