Chomp, chomp! What Are Food Digesters and How Do They Work?

Stop wasting food. Seriously, just stop it. If you must throw some food away, consider using food digesters.

To learn how food digesters can solve your food waste problems, keep reading.

What Are Food Digesters?

Food digesters basically eat the food that you don’t. They safely compost pretty much any food waste from your kitchen that you feed it. Fish, meat, fruit, bread, small bones – you name it, a food digester will compost it.

Different digesters work in different ways.

The Green Cone, for example, can process both cooked and uncooked household food waste. It can process as much as the average amount of waste produced by a family of four. What’s great is that it doesn’t actually produce compost in the process.

To set up the Green Cone, you put it in a hole, with the digestion chamber underground. Sunlight heats the air inside the cone so that bacteria can grow. The cone also lets earthworms go in and out of the basket so they can break the waste down and remove it.

Eventually, all that’s left in the cone are water, carbon dioxide, and a little residue. So little’s left in the cone that families of four will only have to empty it every two to three years.

Using a Green Cone is as easy as lifting the lid, dropping in what’s in the kitchen waste caddy, and closing the lid.

What Other Food Digesters Are There?

There’s more than just the Green Cone to take care of your food digesting needs.

Check out the Hotbin. The Hotbin slightly resembles a tall garbage can. You’re supposed to use it between 104 and 140 °F.

It composts garden and kitchen waste 32 times faster than a cold bin, churning out mulching compost in 30 days and finished compost in 90 days. The Hotbin can take it all: vegetable and fruit peelings, fish and meat leftovers, and plate scrapings. It can even take grass clippings and other garden waste.

To keep it hot, you’ll have to add at least 1.3 gallons of garden or kitchen waste to it twice a week. That’s the typical amount of waste produced by a three-to-five-person household with a small to mid-sized garden.

The less waste in the bin, the lower the temperature at which it will operate. As a result, the waste will break down more slowly.

Another food digester that takes less effort to maintain than the Hotbin is the Green Johanna.

The Green Johanna can handle the average family of five’s amount of food waste. This cone-shaped composter is crafted from recycled plastic. It makes its home in the shade.

If the bin’s interior gets too hot, the micro-organisms that deconstruct the organic materials will die. Place this bad boy directly on the soil, and your compost will be ready four to six months later. Just remove it through the base’s two doors.

Here’s another food waste disposal solution.

Eco-Friendly Food Waste Solutions

In 2020, thankfully there are myriad food waste solutions to choose from. Food digesters are very eco-friendly, low-maintenance, and efficient devices.

To explore more cutting-edge solutions for your life, browse the site’s Technology section.