Starting in January 2024 France made it mandatory to separate food and other organic waste from general waste. For households this means that they need to take their bio waste either to collection bins provided by their municipality (that’s how it is organized in Grenoble) or to their individual or community compost (this is how it is done here in the Grésivaudan valley). Even though our  communities support individual households’ composting efforts by educating them and handing out free composts, or encouraging people to share composts with their neighbors, our situation is a bit tricky since we have neither yard nor balcony where to place the compost: the particular model offered needs to be placed outdoors in shade and on permeable surface that is not subject to flooding or forming puddles. Also all our neighbors have yards, where they (probably) have their own composts.

So we did quite a bit of studying of options available to us: to take our organic waste to the community compost on the schoolyard about a kilometer away, or to find a solution that would work indoors. After some searching we learned about Bokashi kitchen composters, which instead of rotting the waste ferments it, and  should be easy to use and odorless. We got one about three weeks ago, and started filling it immediately. After two weeks the material in it should be ready to be added to a proper compost — problem that still needed a solution! However, with our consumption of fruit and vegetables, Bokashi was full in less than a week. We bought another one, which also filled up in a week. Last weekend we visited a couple of gardening stores to scout their selection of household composters, and  found a couple that could be kept in a garage or balcony. We did a bit more studying online, and went back on First of May to buy the one we preferred over a vermicomposter.

Tomi assembled it right away, and emptied our first Bokashi in it. It is quite an understatement that there is no odor problem with Bokashis. That might be the case when it sits closed on the kitchen counter, but when opened and cleaned after emptying, the smell is quite strong. We go with this arrangement for now, and see if we need to change something or come up with another solution.