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What We Tested This Week: Biovessel Living Composter
Who This Is Perfect for: Anyone who has felt left out of the composting game because they lack outdoor space
When I came across Biovessel Living Composter online, I was immediately intrigued.
After all, “reduce, reuse, recycle, repeat” has been my personal mantra for as long as I can remember. In other words: I try to do my fair share to help out Mother Earth. After moving to NYC from a rural town that literally stopped recycling (yeah, that’s a real story), I was relieved to learn that an eco-friendly lifestyle is pretty achievable here. City dwellers forgo cars in favor of public transit and squeeze into small apartments, so we have the minimalism trend pretty down pat.
But the eco-conscious activity that intrigued me the most (but I never dreamed I could actually accomplish in a 600-square-foot apartment)? Composting.
"Twenty-two percent of all waste in U.S. landfills is food scraps." — the Environmental Protection Agency
Like most folks, I’m awed and inspired by nature, and it doesn’t get any cooler than witnessing the circle of life up close and personal. Don’t let your mind jump to National Geographic coverage of a lion pouncing on a zebra — I’m talking about the vegetation circle of life, because that’s exactly what composting is.
All you're doing is aiding fruit and vegetable scraps to decay purposefully into new, protein-rich dirt. Then you take the composted soil (nicknamed “Black Gold” by eco-nerds in the know) and put it right back into your garden or windowsill plants to feed new life. Plus, plants potted with composted soil grow bigger and faster because they take advantage of the balanced PH levels, microorganisms, and nutrients the dirt is made up of. Move aside, MiracleGro, amirite? Nature has this all handled on her own.
But how could I even entertain the idea of composting when I didn’t have a speck of outdoor space? I assumed composting was reserved for those who lived practically off the grid — or at least had enough yard space to designate one corner as the fly-attracting, vomit-inducing, no-go composter zone. That wasn’t going to be me. No, thank you. Not in this lifetime. Next.
Then came the gotta-have-it moment of discovering Biovessel Living Composter. A countertop, indoor composter? No wires or tech involved? Take my money — I was ready to lose my composting virginity!
When Biovessel arrived, I set it up on my kitchen counter and carefully dumped in a bag of a thousand red composting worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. As the tiny, wriggling worms started digging down in the dirt to escape the light, I was transformed back into the nerdy kid who loved science projects, experiments, and observing nature (before chemistry got hard and stole my joy). Were there suddenly a thousand worms living in a space-agey pod in my kitchen? Hell yeah, but it was actually cool, and not gross like you’d expect.
That night for dinner, I peeled sweet potatoes and de-stemmed kale, plus cut the tops off strawberries for dessert. I swept everything from the cutting board right into the waste inlet hole. I kept adding to the waste almost daily and I didn't have to worry about overwhelming the worms; Biovessel can break down more than 2 pounds of food per week, making vermicomposting (vermis = worms, from Latin) the fastest composting process by far.
I was so impressed not only by the speed at which my food was transforming back into soil, but at the complete lack of smell coming from the composter. I caught up with Cheng-Hsiang Chao, the founder of the company Bionicraft, which designed Biovessel, and he gave me the 411 on how they banished stink from foul-smelling vegetation decomposition.
It turns out those rotating compost drums you may have gotten a whiff of at your hipster friend's last barbecue only smell because it takes so long to break down the food by motion alone.
"We believe the ecosystem itself is still the main reason why Biovessel has no smell," Chao said, explaining that rather than sitting around and rotting before turning into soil, Biovessel’s reliance on worms ensures they break down food into tiny pieces and disperse the nutrients throughout the layers of soil before rancid fermentation can even begin.
I know what you're thinking: So the smell is non-existent? Amazing! But what about escapees? I’ll admit that in the first few days, I opened one of the top caps to add more scraps or see if I could peep any activity, and a part of me was worried there'd be a rogue worm climbing up the side plotting a slimy getaway into my pristine apartment. But I swear to you, no worms were even interested in the world outside of their little Biovessel.
"Worms are photophobic creatures, and like any organisms, they tend to live in the environment they feel comfortable," Chao clarified. "The ventilated and dark environment of Biovessel is controlled under certain humidity and pH levels to make sure they don't want to escape."
It put my mind at ease to understand the worms have everything they could dream of in the space-agey pod, plus all the food they could ever want (delivered daily by yours truly)!
After a month, the dirt level in my composter was getting high, so I decided it was time to add some of the composted soil to my basil and cucumelon windowsill plants. I removed the top cap of the outlet hole and lit up the dirt with my smartphone’s flashlight for a few minutes so the worms would take the hint and dig down to the lowest layers of the soil. Then I carefully scooped up the top layers of composted soil, checking for any squirmy stragglers, and added it to my plants.
And just like that, my composting journey came full-circle ... and it just keeps going. In fewer than 30 days, I went from eager (but skeptical) composting newbie to obsessed with composting, and mama to much happier plants. The most rewarding part, though, is knowing how easy it is to be responsible with my food scraps instead of adding food waste to the landfills and increasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
Hey, I’m not waiting by the mailbox for a Nobel Peace Prize, but I know every positive habit counts — and the only planet we call home is more than worth my small vermicomposting efforts.
Read More:
These 10 Eco-Friendly Products Can Help You Swap Out Single-Use Plastics
25 Gardening Gifts for the Person in Your Life Who's Obsessed With Plants
I Killed Every Plant I've Ever Owned ... Until Bloomscape
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