Core77

"Living With" product review: NatureMill's Automatic Compost Bin is a miracle machine

By Rain Noe - June 2, 2010

in Object Culture

Food is completely compostable, yet we throw it out all the time. That's a damned shame because once it goes into landfill, it mixes with the other crap in there and turns into a toxic stew of cheese-topped keyboards and plastic bags filled with rotting meat.

This is a huge problem. Food, along with paper, makes up about half of all landfill--New Yorkers alone throw out about two pounds of food per person per day, once you factor in all the restaurants--and food is the #1 least recycled material according to the EPA.

To do my part for the environment, last year I began looking into composting, which can be tough whether you live in the city or country; it requires a vermin-resistant facility of a certain temperature consistency, not to mention the discipline to regularly agitate the mix and/or maintain a worm population, if you go that route. In short, composting is not an easy option for the time-pressed.

So I was very excited to review NatureMill's Automatic Compost Bin, which promises to turn food into dirt with very little hassle--indoors and in a space-considerate way, which is important to us urban dwellers with tight apartments. In the first few weeks I was surprised at how easy the process was; I then decided to do a long-term review, covering six months of usage, to see if it continued to be easy or if unanticipated problems would crop up. Form Factor

The machine is roughly the size of an Apple G5 or similar desktop PC tower. It's meant to go in an under-counter cabinet in your kitchen, though the aesthetics are unobstrusive enough that it could go on a countertop or on the floor next to the 'fridge without drawing an interior designer's ire, aside from its mass.

The entire top is a swing-up lid, hinged in the back like a waste pail. A removable panel on the bottom front lets you pull out the bin that will hold the composted end product. On the top front is a simple panel containing a single button that you press when your compost is ready to go. (More on this later, in "Operation.")

I was a little puzzled by the choice of the housing material, which appeared to be styrofoam; but in fact it's recycled (and recyclable) polypropylene, which is both eco-friendly and durable. This machine was built to last and to be recycled at the end of its life.

The side of the machine I tested was covered with large decal-like panels that come in different colors. Because these panels are smooth, it makes it easy to wipe off any food or liquid that gets on them as a result of you dumping food into the top and spilling a little. It's easy to keep the machine clean.

Initial set-up

You plug the machine into the wall, and it draws an extremely low current--about 5 kwh per month, which adds about 50 cents to your bill. Needless to say, energy-wise this takes "less than a garbage truck would burn in diesel fuel to haul away the same waste," as the literature points out.

The very first time you use the machine, you need to dump a little dirt inside of it, about a cup's worth, in order to "establish the cultures." (After that you needn't do it again.) This has to be ordinary soil, whether frozen, sandy, or clay, and can't have any rocks in it. It also can't be packaged soil. I stopped by a local park and filled a paper coffee cup with dirt. This worked fine.

You then add a dash of baking soda, which helps balance the acidity of whatever food you throw in there.

The final starter material you need to dump in is a cup's worth of sawdust or sawdust pellets, which some lumberyards stock. If not you can order them from NatureMill on the cheap, and this isn't one of those business scams, like disposable razor blades, where they try to squeeze you into regularly buying expensive ancillary materials: A six-month supply of sawdust pellets only runs you eight bucks, which is less than I spend on lunch each day.

First-time use

I eagerly dumped several days' worth of leftovers into the machine--a mixture of bread, rice, beef, chicken, sauce, and various vegetables. The machine makes a grinding noise every four hours as it turns the ingredients over, mixing everything up; a low-wattage heating element inside speeds the break-down process. The results? After just a few days, I opened the lid and found a machine full of dirt!

Let me clarify that--"full" is a relative term, as during the composting process a rather amazing thing happens: Roughly 70% of what you've thrown in simply disappears. The water in the food evaporates, and what's left breaks down.

Practical daily usage

Over the course of the next six months, I used the machine daily, and was surprised by how many times a day I had cause to throw something in there. It never occurred to me how often we throw organic things into the trash. Coffee grinds, cooking detritus like eggshells and vegetable waste, banana peels, fruit rinds, leftovers, stale bread. Some of the takeout places I order from throw free bags of potato chips in there, which I don't eat; rather than throw those out, I opened the bags and dumped the contents into the NatureMill.

To balance out the mixture, you add a dash of baking soda and roughly one cup of sawdust pellets for every five cups of food. This isn't terribly complicated, and after a while you subconsciously learn to estimate how much sawdust to throw in there, the same way you estimate how long to microwave something by its mass or weight.

You can even throw liquid-y things, like yogurt past its prime and tomato sauce that's gone bad, into the machine. I balanced out the wetness with sawdust pellets and leftover starchy stuff like rice and bread to soak up the liquids. Any excess water gets caught in a little cup in the compost bin at the bottom of the machine, and it's easy to remove this cup and dump it out. If you dump too much liquid into the machine though, you can get mold; this happened to me once, and I just scraped the mold patch off the inside of the machine and dumped it into the middle of the mix. It never reappeared.

I was worried about bad smells coming out of the machine, and amazed to find absolutely none, even when there was meat and cheese in there. Opening the lid, the only thing you smell is a pleasant, earthy odor. The carbon filter inside the machine does a kick-ass job. I was also worried food scraps would attract vermin, and it did not, probably because there is zero food smell.

There are certain things you can't throw into the machine, as listed in the instructions. It's basically common sense--super-hard things like bones, clamshells and walnut shells won't quickly break down and could damage the machine. Also, long stringy things like banana peels I would cut in half cross-wise, to make sure they're no longer than roughly five inches. Any longer than that, and they might tangle up the agitator as it rotates around.

Removing the compost

I emptied the machine about once every three weeks, a figure that will vary depending on the size of your household. It's easy to tell when your dirt is good and ready by just opening the lid and looking inside: It either looks like dirt or it doesn't.

Once it's ready, you press the singular "OK" button on the front of the machine, then go do something else. The machine spends maybe 45 minutes transferring the contents into the bin at the bottom. Once that's done, you open the bottom compartment and remove the bin.

This is the point where I found there is some further work to be done. Things break down at different rates, and because I fill the machine daily, there is always a mix of compost and not-ready-for-primetime chunks of stuff in there, like fruit rinds or chicken pieces that have shrunk and turned brown but have not yet become dirt. These I would sift out with a small plastic colander or slotted spoon and throw back into the top of the machine.

What's left over is the dirt, which I dump into empty orange juice cartons. I then donate these to my friend who has a garden, or if she's at full capacity, I simply take them outside and sprinkle them into a local sidewalk flowerbed or planted tree base. Your food waste has thus gone back into the Earth, harmlessly.

Living with the NatureMill

For the first few months, the machine may or may not be noisy for you during the few periods where the agitator kicks in. This largely depends on your living situation--for example, if you live in a suburban house where your bedroom is far from the kitchen, you won't hear the thing at night.

Me, I have a special situation as I live in a New York apartment with substandard kitchen cabinets. The 19.5"-tall NatureMill wouldn't fit into my cabinets, so I had to leave it on a countertop. My bed is just a few feet from the collection of cabinets I call my kitchen, so I would hear the unmuffled machine when it kicked in at night. I'm a heavy sleeper so it wasn't a problem for me, but a friend who was housesitting for me commented that it sounded like something noisy happening far away, like a power drill being used down the hall.

After a few months the machine gets broken in, and the motor becomes less noisy. After six months of use I now rarely notice when the machine kicks in, to the point where I'll sometimes check it to make sure it's still on.

You may want to measure your kitchen cabinets to see if the machine will fit. You'll need an inch or so more than the 19.5"-height of the machine, because you'll have to install a sliding shelf so you can pull the machine out, to be able to open the lid.

Alternatively you could leave the machine on the floor, say, next to the refrigerator, which I wish I could do for the sake of convenience--a foot pedal on the NatureMill Pro model makes it easy to pop the lid open and dump food in. But I was unable to have the machine on the floor because I own two dogs. (The dogs are so good at opening things I wouldn't be surprised to find them reading my mail.)

Conclusion

NatureMill's machine remained easy to use throughout the length of the testing process. Because there's so little required in the way of maintenance and activity, I basically look at it as passive recycling; rather than dumping food waste into the garbage, I just scrape my plate off into the NatureMill. The machine does the rest, except for the five minutes of sifting I do every three weeks, which I consider a worthwhile time trade-off. (For details on how the NatureMill process works, click here.)

So many of the products we own are for entertainment or business, so it's nice to use an object whose sole purpose is to better the environment. It is simply amazing to be turning waste into beautiful soil on a regular basis, and an added benefit is that your kitchen garbage will no longer smell, because there's nothing in there that can rot.

I wish they made high-capacity machines like this and that it was law for every restaurant to install them. If you walk through, say, New York's Chinatown with its high concentration of restaurants, at night you can see and smell bags of discarded, rotting food everywhere. Night after night, every night. Imagine if all of that could be returned to the earth as soil, and make the city smell better to boot!

There are plenty of products that I love and use every day, but I can't recommend an iPad or a Dyson vacuum to everyone because not all of you have the need for them. But NatureMill's product is different, because all of us eat and all of us generate food waste. They've come up with a convenient, low-hassle way for us to avoid adding that stuff to landfill, and if every one of us used one it would make a huge difference in the planet's well-being.

o

Favorite This
Q
33

Comment

Comments

Vikas Aggarwal

6 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Please provide a video of complete process

!Report as spam
Sarah Isko

6 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Dear Sir
I hope this email finds you well.
I would like to get more information how I can market your product related to food recycling in Lebanon - Middle East. kindly let me know what the requirements are.
Thank you,Sarah

!Report as spam
Direct Compost

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Great way of composting waste material.

!Report as spam
Dalton Sexton

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I was fortunate enough to find a unit in a local thrift store minus the 12v power supply. I happened to have a suitable replacement lying around. It sat for months in the cabinet where I intended to install. My wife started a juicing diet and I jumped on the obvious composting material and have not regretted it one bit. When you add items, pay attention to the condition of the system. If interior material looks wet, add dry or "brown" material. Like a quick handful of rolled oats or sawdust. If it looks too dry, add a little water or a wet leftover. If it smells acidic, baking soda, if it smells rancid or trashy, add some brown and, just in case I damaged the cultures with sonething too acidic, a small handful of soil from outside. As long as it smells "earthy" like fresh mushrooms, you are in great shape. My plants have exploded from the benefits of this compost!

!Report as spam
Yogesh Mahadik

8 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

We purchased one machine in Mumbai, Agitating shaft found broken within 3 months.We complain to supplier in Malaysia but nobody respond.

!Report as spam
vanda emuelson

10 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Unlike Toronto, San Francisco, and a few other cities, curbside pick up of green waste is not available. In most cities in the world, the only options for compost right now are to throw it in the trash, or a big outdoor compost pile. And in many places a big outdoor compost pile is not even an option, due to long winters, critters like raccoons, homeowners associations or local laws which prohibit composting, or just general lack of space.
!Report as spam
dawn moulton

11 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I have a nature mill composter and the exterior fell off after 5 months of use. It needed to be reglued and some styrofoam split. Nature mill agreed to make good on the warranty - but customers pays shipping! This is a big machine and not cheap to ship-so i chose not to. Anyways yes the machine is low quality and I am wondering when the rest will fall apart. I am not impresed with a company that makes the customer foot the bill for their quality issues.
!Report as spam
Howard Mayne

11 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

The idea of the NatureMill composter is good. We have purchased several models over the years, and have been impressed by the beautiful compost product. However, within a few months the composters inevitably break down: The electronics has failed; Trapdoors jam; Seams split. Customer service throws up every barrier it can to actually replacing their defective product. Regrettably, a thumbs down to the whole organization.
!Report as spam
Viviana

12 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I've had the NM for about 2 and a half years. It works OK if you are eating from a box or cooking only every now and then. I cook every day and this is not an appropriate product. Vegetable peels will get stuck if you don't chop them. There are a number of things that you can't put in there (roots, and everything fibrous, i.e., almost all vegetables). If you really cook, forget about this product. It is very expensive and it does require a lot of maintenance. I have to clean it almost every month, it is constantly stuck. It does smell quite bad and it leaks.
However, if you don't really cook and buy ready to eat produce, this might be OK.
!Report as spam
SWRC

12 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

We had the Nature Mill tested by an avid composter. The heat was impressive, and did speed up the process. However, praise stops there. While the NatureMill was fast, it fell short in other ways. It was noisy, smelly, attracted flies, jammed frequently and following the instructions that it came with was onerous and inconvenient. And using electricity to compost when it can be done in a much more sustainable manner seemed odd, to put it mildly.
At first, the machine was kept in the house but it was so noisy it was moved to the garage. In the heat of summer, a swarm of flies hovered over top. The rotating "mill" jammed frequently and had to be manually loosened and restarted. The odour was unpleasant despite following instructions to add baking soda. "The baking soda didn't seem to make a difference," reported our tester. "The bugs were attracted by the smell so it was a disgusting machine to have indoors."
For every five cups of food waste, she was instructed to add one cup of sawdust pellets and one tablespoon of baking soda, but the instructions also restricted the makeup of the waste: just two pieces of acidic foods such as orange peel, lemon rind, tomato, pineapple and grapes. "It was odd to count what went into my compost bin," she says.
While the finished compost was ready to spread after just five days, she found it to be dry and lifeless, not rich and moist like the compost produced by her worms. Final word: "If you want to process as quickly as you can, and get that much compost out, then go for it. But if you're looking for something that's sustainable and environmentally friendly, it's not easy to live with."
NatureMill Composter - thumbs down.

!Report as spam
Jon Salsamendi

12 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I bought my composter Naturemill Plus Edition (serial number is SM52-11240116) from your online shop in July 2011 from Spain. The cabinet or the black cover around it broke in two sides, it got opened and the compost falls apart. It has a bit more than a year (14 months) and the outside and inside walls of the machine broke. They say I have to send it back to Ohio to be repaired and the cost of the shipment is more than 100 euros (around 130 dollars) from Spain. I contacted the dealer in Spain and they said they can not help me with the repeating. So my composter last 14 months and it is broken. I lost more than 400 dollars for nothing. Naturemill sent an e-mail that if I get a new one they can discount 50 dollars, and I appreciate this is not an answer. My case in their client service department is 00168879.
!Report as spam
Ed

12 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

We bought one a few years ago and it was a complete waste of money. The unit never operated properly and NM basically refused to stand by their product. Their only solution was to ship out replacement parts. After the third time we just pitched the unit. We'll never by another NM product and I would not recommend to others.
!Report as spam
Naomi

12 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I've been researching these and just wanted to share that NatureMill came out with the third generation in January 2012. It is called the eco-series and they have the three models, Neo, Metro, and Ultra.
!Report as spam
lucky lucy

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

It works pretty well. follow the instructions. Don't add broccoli (it does not smell good). You will see that others have discovered this fact as well. If you just put the recommended foods in, it smells nice actually.

!Report as spam
Robert Shannon

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Run away. This thing is stinky no matter what you do or they say. And they will not take them back. We compost all the time outdoors and have never had a composter get this stinky. This is a piece of over priced junk! I would never put this thing in a kitchen cabinet.
!Report as spam
Dan

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I've have two of these for a couple of years. I stopped using them for about 12 months after our condo building implemented organics recycling, but recently restarted both machines as I am running low on compost for my balcony garden.

My experience from from first year of usage was that not everything composts easily. I was doing a lot of experimentation (e.g. using shredded newspaper for the browns) and sometimes things didn't work out well (e.g. jams, smells, etc.)

After stopping for a year and then restarting the NatureMills again, below are my learning points:

1. Go to Walmart and buy the 20 lb bags of pine pellets. Skip the home-made "brown" materials. You end up with better compost. Coffee grinds do NOT count as browns (they are 20:1 carbon:nitrogen, below the 30:1 threshold). If you don't use enough browns (and baking soda), the compost process becomes too wet and smells.

2. Follow the directions 100%. No bones, no citrus peels, nothing overly adventurous. In this case, being less adventurous will save you lots of aggravation. Luckily, my building has organic composting so I just recycle those items there.

3. Cut food items into as small pieces as possible. I rarely have pieces above 2".

4. To avoid smelling up the kitchen, collect scraps in a bin and only do once every few days. No need to keep opening and closing the lid.

5. That said, the slides of the mixing chamber requires to be scrapped down periodically as the mixing bars are overly effective in mixing the entire contents.

Good luck!
!Report as spam
Anthony

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Thanks for the review.

There is always cheap stakes (outdoors, dirty with worms, even indoors still has worms you have to look after) and those that generally complain (we have an unused mill sitting here, I nitpick because I can.. and could afford to burn up $300 and have it sitting here unused, typical Eco Freak).

I just wanted to know if the thing worked and it does. For installation in a kitchen this would be perfect behind some very modern and stylish Scandinavian or German cabinets I had in mind.

Again thank you for the review.
!Report as spam
Green

13 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I have had my NatureMill for over a year. I like the idea of composting indoors, especially since I live in a cold climate area. However, the quality of their composter is not the best.

I'll start with the really bad negatives:
(1) The mixing bar breaks
(2) The release tray for the compost sometimes get stuck
These two things make it really hard to use the device. According to customer service, they have fixed these issues in later manufactured versions. This even includes using a stronger gauge of steal for the mixing bar. However, I did not contact customer service within the year warranty, so I was given the option of fixing these things myself (with their supplied instructions) or sending it to a repair shop.

Next for the not-so-bad negatives:
(1) It leaks
(2) It is loud
It seems like a major design flaw to have a leaking composter, however they do include a drip tray which does catch most of it. Also, when the motor turns the compost, it is very loud. However, I have gotten used to it and it only goes for a minute or two.

The only positive thing about this device is being able to compost in cold climates. If I lived in a warmer climate, I would definitely not recommend this device. Also each composter, has a manufactured date on it. If it is manufactured before 2011, you probably want to be on the lookout for my first two issues.
!Report as spam
go fish

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Here is an update on our new compost maker: We have had this machine for about 6 months now. We are a family of 4 plus one dog. At first it took some getting used to - I mean scraping your food into a black bin instead of tossing everything into the trash. It was kind of like deja vu re-learning to recycle all over again. But now it is second nature.

Most of what we dump in the machine is actually from the preparation of food, not from scraps after a meal. The machine performs its job well but grinding and mixing all of the materials and letting nature take it's course. There is no smell other than a faint salad aroma. I like the stylish look. Like the other reviewers, I noticed a little noise in the first month but once it broke in the noise went away (or maybe I just don't notice any more because it has become background noise to me).

Our dog is jealous because now she doesn't get as much scraps on account of we prefer to compost it so we get something a little more useful out the other end for our garden....
!Report as spam
alden brooks

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Don't believe all those negative people - most of them have never used or seen the product. I have the Naturemill at home and have been using it steadily for nearly two years. It works well and my garbage output is almost zero now (we also recycle quite heavily at home). Yes it is light weight plastic material, but that seems to be designed to hold the heat in and accelerate the composting reactions. Overall this is an ingenious contraption, very simple and durable in its design, and has worked flawlessly for us for several years. I wish I could say that about most of the gadgets I've purchased over the years.
!Report as spam
Steve in Denver

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I hate throwing away food scraps, and over the past six years I've tried three methods of indoor composting in my small, one-room condo: bokashi was expensive and drew incredible numbers of fruit flies no matter what I tried, not to mention I still had to find a way to dispose of the "pickled" waste; vermicomposting took up far more visible space than I preferred, and sorting the worms from the finished compost was a messy, time-consuming process, considering that I have no yard, only a very tiny balcony. For the past couple of years I've been putting food scraps in a five-gallon bucket in my tiny storage closet, stirring daily (often a smelly process as the bucket fills), and then driving the full bucket to a friend's compost bin. This sounds like something I'd really use and enjoy. I'm disconcerted by some of the negative comments, but your review is positive and detailed enough that I think I'll start saving for food mill. Thank you!
!Report as spam
Stefan

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Stick with vermicomposting or bokashi! You get a much better value with a worm bin and a pound of red wigglers. And they will not die as long as you feeding them and keep the matter moist and out of extreme temperatures.
!Report as spam
steve myers

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

We have one. It works pretty good. It is a little "out there" in the sense of having a compost inside your house, but I gotta say it really works and we use it every day as a habit. Takes a little getting used to at first but it is nice and quiet, easy to operate, and like second nature once you get into it.
!Report as spam
Dean

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

We have one of these and I have to say it is a very good invention. It chuggs along all day making compost. It makes a little noise when it runs empty but it's still quieter than our refrigerator.

Whatever you put inside in the morning is basically compost by night time. It is really that fast. It is also very easy to use although the first time you use it there is some setup and getting used to it. Sure, worms are cheaper but they die and then you have to constantly buy more and it's kind of gross.
!Report as spam
Ken J

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

So where is the $400 in this device?? I don't see it. Styrofoam chassis, limited mechanisms, simple controls...
!Report as spam
Ryan Wetjen-Barry

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Yet another manufactured product for our ADD culture- intended to expedite an already natural process. I find a 5 gallon bucket or larger in direct sunlight works fine on its own. Their use of recyled/recyclable materials and low power draw is good; however, upcycling an old bucket and using the sun's energy is certainly better, not to mention "greener". I understand this solution makes sense in urban environments, but still I have a problem with more manufactured product solutions to address environmental issues.
!Report as spam
Scott

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Our Nature Mill has been sitting unused for over a year. We have a regular hot pile outside and also a worm box. I was really unimpressed with the NM engineering and design (especially at the price). The agitator is especially flimsy and leaves a lot of caked up crap where the arm doesn't reach.

The worst part is the way the agitator is designed to rotate against and then past the metal tab that acts as the trap door actuator when the motor reverses direction. That is extremely noisy in operation (like a loud bang every time the motor rotates), and the shock of it grinding past that tab always opened the hatch a little bit and let a bit of food through into the bin below. After a few days, almost all the food would end up down there. It's an incredibly kludgy and amateurish detail, and the fact that you didn't mention it makes me think they must have changed it.

Design-wise, it's unattractive and feels cheap. From the styrofoam-like finish of the case, to the cheesy press fit on the lower door. The unattractiveness I can forgive, given that it's meant to go in a cabinet, except ours didn't fit in our cabinets, and thus had to sit out. It looks like a cheap beer cooler or something.

One of my most regretted purchases of the last decade.
!Report as spam
dishonor

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Fantastic review. I have been looking for a good composter for a while (even tried making a few of my own with some success) but this device seems amazing. I honestly almost impulse bought this, the price tag was my only delay.
!Report as spam
gmoke

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Try a worm bucket. I've used one for over thirty years in my kitchen. No odors, worm tea for my potted plants, and compost any time I want it.
!Report as spam
Troy Barber

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

We have a worm farm that has worked well for us, but it tends to take longer. We just blend up everything not meat-related and poor it into their resort. They seem to like it and they make terrific mulch. They also love shredded office paper.
!Report as spam
Jomy

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Thanks for the great review!
!Report as spam
frenchpress

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

That only really works if you have a city that actually supports composting. And, like everything else that requires people take the time to sort through something, I imagine a large handful of people would do a half-assed job, making it expensive and less efficient than it could be.
!Report as spam
Brian

14 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Why not just have a separate green bin for compostables like in Toronto. The compost gets picked up by the garbage folk and everyone doesn't need to buy personal machines. It's just another form of recycling, no?
!Report as spam