Collecting food scraps at home

It is easy to begin collecting food scraps for compost at home! We recommend starting out by using any sort of sealable jar you may have laying around your house and placing your organic scraps inside of it. Depending on how often you are able to empty out at your nearest food scrap drop off location, we suggest storing your food scrap collection container in the fridge/freezer or finding a container with a tighter seal to avoid dealing with any bad smells.

If you don't already have a sealed container to use for collecting food scraps at home or need a larger one, its easy to find large buckets at nearby hardware stores. Also, if you nearest food scrap drop off location accepts compostable bags at their site, you may want to consider purchasing compostable trash bags to line inside larger buckets for ease of use.

Example of collecting food scraps in Baltimore:

Here is a real-life example of how a resident named Jane used the Bmore Food Scraps instructions for how to collect food scraps and interactive compost drop off map to sustainably discard of their organic waste:

Find a sealable container that works for you

Jane decided recently that she wants to start collecting her organic waste for compost. To begin, she ordered sealable compostable bags online to store her food scraps in after seeing that the closest food scrap collection sites near her on the interactive food scrap drop off map all accepted compostable bags.

TIP: Maximizing Collection Accuracy

When you start collecting scraps for compost, make sure to check out what types of organic scraps the organic scrap collection site closest to you accepts (including if they accept items made out of compostable materials, like bags and utensils) before you start collecting using information about that site on the drop off map. This way, you won't accidentally give a collection site something they are unable to accept when you drop off your scraps.

2. Collect scraps and store them

Once Jane found a method of collecting organic scraps in some sort of sealable container that fit her lifestyle, she continued to add her scraps to it throughout the week.

Jane says she likes to use compostable bags to collect her food scraps since they fit the amount of organic waste she accumulates each week perfectly at the moment, but may consider switching to a larger container soon once garden season begins--as she anticipates she'll have more organic scraps from her plants that she drop off for compost then.

TIP: Smell Reduction

Jane decided to store what she collected in the fridge in order to reduce the smells that may result from the scraps being left at room temperature. The longer you store food scraps, the more likely they are to start smelling (just like normal food!). Therefore, storing scraps in the fridge or freezer is a convienent method to reduce smell! Another great way to avoid dealing with smells that may come from collected food scraps is to store them in a well-sealed bin outside.

Here is a photo from a resident who collects their scraps in a reusable bucket they store outside!

3. Drop off scraps

Once the container Jane was using to collect her organic scraps in was full, she used the food scrap drop off map to find a convenient drop off location she could discard her scraps at on the way to work!

Are you interested in learning how to use the food scraps you collect at home to make your own compost? Check out our Home Compositing page to find resources on how to make compost as well!

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