Do you know that mixing your food waste with microbes can move our economy towards circularity ? One of the oldest and best practices of decomposition is bokashi composting at home. It is a way of fermenting food waste including meat, dairy and oil. By inoculating bran with lactobacillus and mixing it with organic matter, you can produce your own fertilizer and amendment for fruitful soil in a Co2 neutral way.
Other than that, separating your organic waste from recycables like plastic, glass, metall or paper makes it easier for landfills to bring these materials back to live and therefor make them part of a circular economy. At the same time, it solves one of the biggest challenges when it comes to adopting to a zero waste lifestyle in the kitchen.
This article will cover the benefits of bokashi composting, explain what it is, how it works, what is compostable and how it can take a turn for the better in our daily lives and for the environment.
Benefits of bokashi composting at home
Bokashi is the japanese word for fading away and is among the best methods to start a more sustainable lifestyle in an easy and affordable way — especially if you live in an urban environment and other ways of composting, like vermi composting or sheet composting are hard to put into practice in a small kitchen or a household without garden.
To name just a few benefits of this amazing way of being more ecofriendly at home, have a look at these 10 facts about bokashi composting:
- Bokashi composting is odour free.
- It can be used in every urban household.
- You can even compost meat, cheese or oil.
- Can be done all year round.
- Decomposition of organic waste within 1–2 weeks.
- Produces fertilizer for your urban gardening.
- Bokashi can be transformed into fertile soil.
- The Bokashi bin and bran can be easily produced at home.
- It does not produce any Co2 emissions.
- Is not attracting insects, mice or rats.
However, there are also a few things that bokashi can´t do in comparison to other composting methods. For example, it is not going to turn your food waste into soil once you add the bran to it — this is why you will need to bury it. It looks more like pickles and has a high acidity. For that reason you need to add it to another composting system. Be careful not to put it too close to plant roots in order not to kill them. Other than that, there is not much to say about disadvantages.
What is a bokashi bin ?
A bokashi bin is a container that decomposes organic kitchen scraps within a short time period and can be used perfectly in an urban environment. Therefore, the easiest and cheapest — although not the prettiest — way of producing a bokashi composting system is done by buying two 5-gallon plastic buckets, one lid and a brick. You drill about 30 holes in one bucket and set the one with the holes in the other — in between you set the brick and tadaaa: this is your bokashi composter. Next, you add mixed layers of food scraps and the so called bokashi bran and close the lid airtight to start the fermentation process. Have a look at this video that shows how to produce your own bokashi bin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k3PTUnDHSI
If you are more into aesthetic details or just too lazy to make your own bin, just google bokashi and you will find a bunch of companies that offer solid solutions, prices varying from € 50,- to € 100,-.
How does composting at home work ?
Bokashi composting is a way of fermenting organic matter. It works similar to the process of making pickles. You add a mix of microbes and lactic bacteria to your organic waste. This mix is called bokashi bran and can be produced from any carbon rich material like cardboard, leaves, sawdust, ashes, wood, etc.. In a next step, the infusion of these materials with bacteria starts the anaerobic fermentation when it comes in touch with food waste. Most commonly it is inoculated with lactobacilli. Close the lid of your composter and the process of pre-composting begins.
After 1–2 weeks of fermenting your organic waste it is ready to be used as a soil amendment. Important ! It´s not going to decompose to earth. It will look like pickles and it will be ready to be buried in your urban garden and used as a soil amendment. If you don´t have the possibility to bury your waste, you can search if your municipality offers support — which they mostly do. Just inform yourself about the possibilities. Additionally, the fermentation causes a liquid that will build up on the bottom of your composter. Fertilize your plants with itor give it to those who can make a good use of it.
Once you understood the principles of circularity by using them on a daily basis a general mind change has automatically happened.
How to start bokashi composting
To start bokashi composting at home you neither need knowledge, nor a lot of money or time. It is pretty easy and once you adopt throwing your organic waste into the bokashi instead of your normal bin, you will see the various benefits of its use.
- Make or buy a bokashi bin
- Throw your food scraps and add bokashi bran
- Close the lid and let it ferment for 1–2 weeks
- Use the “bokashi tea” as a fertilizer for plants
- Add the fermented mix as a soil amendment
At some point you can even think about producing your own bokashi bran. It is a mix of a carbon rich material infused with lactobacteria.
What can be composted ?
You can compost pretty much everything with Bokashi from your old fries to pet waste to your own nails — I know, sounds like a weird mix ;). In comparison to other composting systems you can throw even hard to decompose matter like:
- Dairy products including cheese, joghurt, milk
- Citrus fruits including lemons, limes, oranges
- Meat including ham, bacon, kotlettes, bones
- Vegetable oils including olive, sesame and almond oil
- Paper including teabags, tissues, coffee filter
- Fruits & vegetables including cores, seeds & leaves
So even if you live in a city and you are not following the trend of being vegetarian or vegan, you can still make a change and contribute to a more sustainable environment by reducing waste through the use of fermentation.
Bokashi composting as part of zero waste living
As most people know already, zero waste is a philosophy with the aim of minimizing waste as much as possible. Bokashi supports the 5 major pillars of being zero waste and helps understanding the roots of our climate crisis.
Here is how bokashi composting influences zero waste living:
Refuse: having a bokashi composter at home causes a mind shift and will help you to refuse packaging.
Reduce: bokashi makes you aware of how much organic waste you produce
Reuse: you can reuse your waste to fertilise your plants
Recycle: bokashi keeps your recyclables clean
Rot: that is what bokashi is all about
Seeing things through a wider lense, helps us understand the principles of being part of an ecosystem and seeing things from a holistic point of view. By being aware of the whole lifecycle of a product you will become more conscious about your impact on the environment. If you keep things in the loop without wasting, you can see the bigger picture.
And once we are able to close the loop with bokashi compoasting, we can regenerate our soil for healthy people and planet.
