Hong Kong homes are typically small and composting food often requires outdoor settings with large bins and easily accessible organic scraps, like leaves and dirt. Although food compost initiatives like the Nicole’s Composting Machine have been introduced, those equipments are often used in hotels, restaurants, or cafeterias.
In recent years, innovative zero-waste solutions have increasingly emerged in the market. They include food composting machines that are as small as your household rice cooker, and they work as easily as a regular bin. Food composting machines can recycle food waste into fertilizers that can be used for your own indoor plants and rooftop gardens. The following food waste composite machines are convenient home-composting solutions. These easy-to-manage appliances also encourage children to learn a zero-waste lifestyle and develop a habit of upcycling amid an increasingly circular economy.
Food Cycler
This user-friendly home-composting system is a drastically smaller and simpler system to operate than larger machines like that of Nicole’s Composting Machine. It needs little composting knowledge and maintenance and functions with a simple press of a button. Its compact size was designed to fit onto any kitchen counter-top. It uses agitators and heaters to dehydrate and break down food scraps into your own backyard fertilizer. Though odorless, some users said the machine isn’t very efficient in breaking down scraps. Unfortunately, this shortcoming has been said to form molds in some cases.
Oklin’s GG02
The Oklin GG02 offers a low-carbon footprint zero-waste solution to our food waste challenge. Unlike the Food Cycler, the Oklin GG02 imitates the natural process of food composting as it uses microbes to turn dinner scraps into compost within just 24 hours –a process that would typically take weeks. Although twice as big as the Food Cycler, it holds a daily capacity of 4 kilograms of fruit and vegetable scraps, bread, eggshells and small fish bones. However, it doesn’t take well to large bones, seafood shells, fruit stones, and heavy amounts of oil.
The Zera Food Recycler by Whirlpool won the 2017 Best Innovation Award for Eco-Design and Sustainable Technologies at the CES Innovation Awards. Like the Oklin GG02, it takes almost all types of food waste with the exception of large bones, fruit pits and other scraps. The system uses oxygen, moisture, heat, and agitation to speed the decomposition of up to a week’s worth of dinner scraps and recycles it into rich home fertilizer for your house plants. This device also features digital connectivity to its mobile app to provide live updates and reports.