There's little doubt that food waste is clogging up our landfills and emitting dangerous amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere. So, the goal of reducing food waste is a noble one. It's part of why I was intrigued when Neakasa reached out and asked if I wanted to review their new 12L Moreborn Food Waste Composter. 

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After all, I've been hearing quite a bit about electric composters (also called food recyclers or digestors), but I've been on the fence about whether or not to invest in the purchase. Since I tend to cook frequently, and generate a fairly hefty amount of food scraps, I also liked that the unit was larger than some of the composters on the market. It was definitely worth a try.

The idea behind an electric composter like the Moreborn is that it provides a faster, more convenient way to reduce waste while creating a 'nutrient rich fertilizer'. The machines utilize sensors and temperature controls to dry out food waste, metal blades to break down food scraps and increase exposed surface area and microbes to break them down faster.

To test out its functionality, I used it for about a month. I threw food scraps into it daily, rinsed the filter screen when it looked dusty and cleaned the exterior when needed. I also spent some time reading up on the science behind electric composters.  Here are my thoughts.

My situation

I've been an avid backyard composter for years, using a bin to collect fruit and vegetable scraps, plant matter, egg shells, coffee grounds, leaves and shredded paper which ' over the course of 3-5 months ' break down and give me nutrient-rich 'black gold' to add to my vegetable gardens, flower beds and houseplants.

The advantages of composting are extensive. I love the fact that I'm reducing the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill and (in turn) the amount of harmful greenhouse gases (primarily methane) released into the air. The byproducts of composting are also beneficial for gardening. They enhance soil structure, assist the soil in retaining moisture and feed beneficial microbes in the soil, reducing the risks for disease and warding off harmful pests. Thanks to its beneficial properties, compost also reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.  

Traditional composting isn't difficult. It just takes a bit of attention and patience. But there are two things I don't love about it.  First, it's inconvenient during the winter months. Even though my bin is located in a convenient location that I can access all year long, the composting process does slow down when it's cold outside, so I generally have quite a bit of undecomposed food built up by the time spring rolls around. Since I'm not always great about alternating green and brown, especially in the winter, it can take longer for my four months of winter compost to break down in the spring. And, if I don't take the time to turn it and incorporate some brown materials, it can be smelly. 

If Milwaukee had a city-wide composting program I wouldn't even consider an electric composter. But since we don't, here I am.

The good

It's easy to use. Setting up the Moreborn was easy. It comes with an activated charcoal packet (for odor control) that needs to be placed into the filter box on the machine. It also comes with a packet of substrate that needs to be added to the Moreborn with water and allowed to process for 20 hours to activate the microorganisms. The Moreborn also comes with a small scooper (to scoop the finished product out of the machine) and a cleaning brush.  

After 20 hours, you can begin adding food waste to the machine. From there, it's simply a matter of adding waste, cleaning the unit and rinsing the filter routinely and checking the machine every now and again to ensure it's running as it should. That's easy, since there are indicator lights on the top of the machine that tell you what the machine is doing and if anything needs adjustment or replacement.

Just watch!

There's even a QR code you can scan to access a cheat sheet if you forget what food waste you can and can't add to the bin. 

It processes a nice variety of things. It efficiently broke down a wide range of food scraps from spent lime halves and banana peels to coffee grounds, onion peels, vegetable trimmings and egg shells. It will also process pieces of meat, fish, shrimp shells, bread and cheeses (things you can't normally put into your compost pile since they tend to smell very bad and attract rodents).

For best results, it's advised to cut food scraps into smaller pieces for more efficient breakdown, and while that added a moment or two to my food prep time, it wasn't a major inconvenience. 

It holds a lot of food waste. That means it doesn't need to be emptied on a daily basis, or even weekly. According to the instructions, the Moreborn performs at its best when adding no more than 800 grams (just over a pound and a half) of food scraps per day. That was no problem whatsover. Every day I added my coffee grounds and spent tea leaves to the bin. Most days I also added onion peels and some vegetable trimmings. On bigger cooking days, I added a larger volume of scraps, but I never hit the maximum threshold. Also, since the machine is constantly breaking the food down, it took me the better part of a month to get close to filling up the canister.

It doesn't stink. Unlike my compost bin, which tends to smell of fermentation or decomposition after a day or two, smells while using the Moreborn are vastly minimized. Any foul odors produced during the process seem to be effectively mitigated by the carbon filter. There is also a deodorizing button that you can press before opening the lid. It takes a moment or two to 'clear the air', but if you want to be spared the smell of decomposition, it's effective.

The one time I noticed a smell emanating from the composter was when I added a fairly large pile of spent botanicals (from steeping tea) to the canister. Truth be told, when I walked into the kitchen, it smelled a bit like potpourri. So, I can't even complain.

It's reasonably quiet. The unit emits just a slight whirring sound (reportedly under 45 decibels) while operating. Occasionally, the unit would let out a slight squeak or farting sound as it ground up its contents. Sometimes it was surprising. But it was nothing I'd consider to be bothersome. My dishwasher and ice maker are both far louder. 

Considerations

The Moreborn is large. I know I said I was excited about that (and I still am). But I'll admit that it was a bit like getting excited about buying a huge tub of something at Costco and then realizing it doesn't fit in your cupboard.

The Moreborn is roughly the size of a small trash bin. It  measures in at 14.1" deep by 11.8" wide by 16.5" high. That doesn't sound so bad, but it takes up a chunk of counter space, especially if you have a small kitchen. It's definitely something to consider. Putting it on the floor is an option, but it's not tall enough for that to be super convenient.

It's limited in what it can break down. While there are a few machines on the market that claim to be able to break down items like chicken and beef bones, crab and lobster shells, pasty items, fruit pits, fibrous items and nut shells, the Moreborn is not one of them. 

While most acceptable items broke down just fine, I did find a few that were problematic. Onion peels were gobbled up in no time. But the peels and stems from fresh garlic I purchased at the farmers market were problematic. The fibers wound themselves around the metal blades in the composter and clogged up the mechanism. Unravelling the garlic skins wasn't all that difficult, but I'd definitely consider either skipping them or cutting them up smaller the next time.

Some random biodegradable items I tried also failed to break down. One was the empty tea sachets from Rishi Tea. Unlike paper or traditional plastic sachets, they are made from plant-based PLA, an inert, non-petroleum plastic that is made to biodegrade easily in commercial composting systems. While the Moreborn isn't a 'commercial' system, I hoped it might have enough oomph to gobble them up. Alas, it did not. They didn't gum up the system at all, but they were still visibly intact after 48 hours (the timeframe noted to complete a round of composting).

It does not have a removable bucket. Some composters come with removeable composting buckets. Instead, the Moreborn comes with a scooper that you can use to remove the processed food waste from the machine. But all that scooping can get to be a bit tedious. A removable inner bucket/insert that could be dumped directly into my compost pile or another bin would be convenient.

Is the end result compost?

While I was using the Moreborn, I also did some research. And I think it's important to be transparent. 

Although the Moreborn is called a 'food waste composter,' it doesn't technically create compost. Scientifically, compost cannot be created in just 48 hours. It does create a smaller volume of waste, as the food scraps have been dried and broken down (by as much as 93%). But the result is dry biomass ('pre-compost', if you will) that is devoid of the good bacteria (and bio-available nutrients) that make compost so beneficial. 

But lower volume means less waste, right?

Well, yes and no. The food waste is reduced by weight and volume, due to the loss of water during the heating and aerating process. However, the organic matter that was present in the beginning still remains at the end of the process. So, even though its volume has decreased, it would create the same amount of methane if it was sent off to break down at a landfill. You also used electricity to reduce the waste's volume. 

So keep in mind that, from an environmental perspective, a machine like this is only more environmentally friendly if you use the byproduct. 

The claim is that the Moreborn's byproduct can be used as a "quasi-organic fertilizer". But I'd want to see the matter tested for bio-available nutrients before I used it in this way. 

What would seem to be more beneficial is to allow it to finish breaking down into compost by exposing it to soil-born microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes. Only then are the bulk of compost's nutrients bio-available to plants. To get there, you can mix the pre-compost with soil (10 parts soil to one part pre-compost) so that the microbes in the soil can assist it in being broken down further. You can also put it into a compost pile and wait for it to degrade with the other food scraps.

All of that said, I definitely think the Moreborn is useful. And I'll continue to use mine. 

Is it vital? No. Is it convenient? Yes. It also has some advantages that could pay off over the long term.

Since my yard isn't large and my compost bin has a limited capacity, I'm looking forward to seeing if I can speed up the composting process during the summer months by processing at least a percentage of my food waste with the Moreborn. If that's the case, I'll be able to save a bit of money buying compost for my planters and gardens.

The Moreborn will also be useful in the winter when my compost pile isn't working at full throttle. The pre-compost is dry, takes up less space and won't fill up my compost bin even if it gets very cold outside. If I alternate it with some leaves or 'brown' materials, it's also likely to break down somewhat faster than full-sized food scraps when the weather warms up.  

I've also heard of people using an electric food composter to quickly break down items like fall leaves, which can then be used as a soil additive in place of peat moss (not eco-friendly) or coir. I've not tried it, but it sounds like it could be worthwhile. 

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What does it cost?

Whether the Moreborn is worth the cost is going to be a pretty personal decision, and it really boils down to how strongly you feel about the convenience of an electric composter and whether or not you have a way to use up the byproduct it creates. 

The suggested retail price for the Moreborn is $599.99. If purchased from Amazon, it's consistently priced at $499.99 (and occasionally lower) which is competitive with other composters, though none of them seem to have the large capacity that the Moreborn boasts, which is one of its assets. 

If you think an electric composter might be for you, they are offering 10% off the Neakasa 12L Moreborn Food Waste Composter before Sept. 30, . Just use discount code NAJULYKC when you purchase the Morborn at Amazon or directly through the Neakasa website.

It's recommended that the activated carbon used for odor filtration be replaced every 3-6-12 months, depending upon use. When I priced out loose activated carbon pellets on Amazon, I found a package for $6, which would be large enough to refill the filter container. The cost is even less if you purchase the pellets in larger quantities.

The microbial packet that comes with the Moreborn contains microorganisms that assist with the breakdown of materials. The instructions indicate that, when you remove the dried byproduct from the machine, you leave a percentage at the bottom (there is a minimum scale marker to use as a guide).  If you do this, there's no need to replace the substrate more than once a year, making the Moreborn more affordable than other units, which require more frequent replacement of their microbial blends. At the time this article was written, the Neakasa pack was available for $39.99.  

As an added bonus, you get a free box for your cat, which can be recycled when they grow tired of it.

Other options

This section isn't part of the review. But, if you've read this far, the information might be useful to you.

If you don't grow plants, compost or have a way to use the byproduct from a food composter, but you'd like to reduce your food waste, a good option is compost pick-up.

I'm a big fan of composting, but it doesn't always go according to plan. Recently, a rat moved into my compost pile. It seemed to have a particular fondness for coffee grounds. After several frank exchanges of views, I persuaded Colin the Compost Rat (as I christened him) to move on. That's one of the occupational hazards of composting: A pile of rotting stuff is considered a delicacy by many creatures, and however well you protect and fence your mixture of kitchen scraps and garden trimmings, they will find a way in. While I celebrate all the fauna of the earth, I don't necessarily want them living outside my bedroom window, especially when one of them is getting a caffeine buzz.

So, what's the alternative to an outdoor, open-air compost pile? Home composting devices are one, simple machines that are meant to be used indoors, right there in the kitchen. A variety of devices exist to take your compostable waste and cook it down into a nutrient-rich, soil-like mix that you can dig into your flower bed. I tested some of these devices: the $300 Vitamix FoodCycler FC-50, the $499 Pela Lomi, the $429 BeyondGreen Kitchen Waste Composter, and the $429 Reencle Prime.

Composting Break Down

Before you can really decide whether one of these machines is for you, we should talk about what 'compostable' really means. There are many products currently on the market'everything from disposable utensils to baby wipes'labeled as compostable. For a quick caffeine fix, I use Woken coffee pods, which the company describes as '100 percent compostable.' However, as Colin discovered, in a backyard compost pile the pods become a handy little lunch container because the exterior shell won't break down for a long time. In its FAQ, Woken says its pods 'turn into CO2, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass in municipal composting facilities.' That means they need industrial composting, which uses heat to break things down more aggressively than my pile of veggie leftovers, leaves, and rat poo.

So, can these home composters'all of which use heat and agitation to break down waste'turn a pile of food scraps and coffee pods into something useful? My top pick, the Reencle, produced a light, well-broken-down mix from pretty much anything I threw in it. All of the products struggled with tougher food waste, like banana skins and the coffee pods, often taking much longer to break these down.

In some cases, it might be better to leave your composting to the experts. As Joe Ray noted in his original review of the FoodCycler FC-50, if you have a municipal composting service, you can just throw the waste straight into the collection bins (and possibly get compost back from the agency for your trouble). If you don't have access to a local composting service, making your own compost heap isn't that hard, as long as you aren't visited by Colin the Compost Rat. You could also pick up a barrel designed to process compost outdoors. But if you don't have space or the desire for outdoor composting, these devices can produce compost from your everyday food waste and compostable stuff right there on your kitchen counter.

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Best Overall

The Reencle Prime (Rating: 8/10, WIRED Recommends) tries to replicate processes from the natural world inside a container in your home. You set it up in your kitchen, put some water in the chamber, add the included Reencle Microbe mix, and then throw in the food waste. This tasty brew is quickly turned into a nutritious mix by fermentation. It is similar to the Bokashi process, which uses bacteria to break down food waste. The Reencle Plus works faster and more efficiently than Bokashi, though. Once the Reencle was up and running, most of my food scraps were broken down within a day, although tougher fibrous waste like banana skins and the Woken coffee pods took longer.

The ReencleMicrobe mix at the heart of this process contains rice husks, vermiculite, nonpathogenic bacillus bacteria, ammonium sulfate, and wood pellets, according to the company. You only add this once'as long as the device is turned on and gets fed occasional food waste, the bacteria responsible for breaking down waste will continue to breed and thrive inside the mix.

The device itself looks like a fancy trash bin, complete with an automatic lid that opens when you wave a foot in front of a sensor at the bottom. The lid closes automatically after a few seconds to seal the waste in. Buttons on the front turn the device on, dry the waste, purify it, and open the lid.

The idea here is that you put the food waste in continuously, and the mix digests it as it is added. So, rather than having to wait for a pile of stinky food waste to grow large enough to run the device (as with the Lomi and the FoodCycler, rated below), you throw scraps in when they are produced, and the Reencle runs continuously. The Reencle sucks air out of the digestion chamber and through a large carbon filter on the back of the device, so the aroma of decomposing matter doesn't leak out.

The company claims that the Reencle can handle up to 2.2 pounds of food waste a day when running properly. I found that it worked fine with differing loads: A big batch of veggie peelings on one day and a few coffee pods for the next couple of days didn't phase it.

When the Reencle is full, you scoop out some of the processed waste, which comes out ready for you to dig straight into your vegetable patch. I found that this mix was always sufficiently broken down'only a few pieces of food and the odd bit of coffee pod were still intact, which probably wouldn't encourage birds or other animals.

You don't remove all of the mix. Some has to remain behind to provide enough bacteria to keep the process going. The device automatically warms, stirs, and occasionally dries the mix out to keep the microbes happy.

It isn't completely automatic. Sometimes when you open the lid to add more waste, you get a distinct whiff of rancid pickles from the fermenting action. This process can also go awry when the wrong bacteria starts to grow, which you'll know about because it starts to smell worse. This can happen with too much food waste, or too much moisture in the mix. If this happens, Reencle recommends that you hit the dry button for a few days to dry the mix out. The purify button can also be used to pump air through the carbon filter, removing the odor.

The Reencle definitely works, but it shares the same problem I found with most of these devices: cost. The device is $439, but only if you preorder it now. The company is selling them through the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, and current orders should ship in May. At some point in the future, the sale price will go up to the full cost of $699. That is a lot of cash to lay out, especially with more and more towns now offering bulk composting services. So, is it worth the investment? For city dwellers who are serious about composting, yes. Once it gets going, it works flawlessly. I've had one processing waste in my kitchen for several months without any problems or nasty smells. Still, the price is steep.

A Good, Cheaper Option for Most People

The new composter on the block is the Lomi by Pela (Rating: 7/10), a toaster-sized device that holds a bucket that can fit about one cubic foot of food waste. When you put the lid on and activate the Lomi, this bucket is heated, and a metal arm at the bottom stirs the waste and crushes larger bits, rather like a slow-motion blender. Meanwhile, warm air is wafted over the waste and pushed out through a pair of carbon filters.

The Lomi has three modes: Lomi Preferred, Eco Express, and Grow. The Lomi Preferred mode is the best overall mode for handling a combination of food waste and bioplastics: It grinds and breaks down the waste over about eight hours. The Eco Express mode produces the same compost mix as the Preferred mode, but it does it over about 12 hours to save energy. The Grow mode is specifically designed for use with food waste only, taking about 12 hours to process the waste with the addition of water and a LomiPod, a bacteria-rich pod that helps break the food down. A handful of these pods are included with the Lomi, and more are available from Pela'though the price is still TBD at this moment.

I found that all of these modes did a good job, crunching the waste down into a light, even mixture that could be combined with soil to produce a nice mix for planting. The Lomi Preferred mode made short work of the Woken coffee pods, breaking them down so that only small chunks of the bioplastic cases remained intact. This mix was light and ready for use as soon as the cycle was finished.

An Even Cheaper Option

The OG of these devices is the Vitamix FoodCycler FC-50 (Rating: 7/10). We reviewed this food recycler before, but I am retesting it now so I can compare it to the newer products in this roundup. Vitamix's entry is about the size of a large bread-maker and looks similar; the twist-off lid reveals the lift-out bucket where you throw your compostables. This chamber holds about a cubic foot of food waste and comes with a changeable carbon filter in the lid. That's good because the container can get kind of stinky if you leave it sitting around for a couple of days waiting to fill up. The idea is that you keep the container on your countertop, then move it into the FC-50 when it is full. Vitamix claims that you can throw in vegetable scraps, pet food, coffee grounds, and pretty much anything else produced while cooking (except oil and grease). Vitamix says that the key is variety: The best results come from a mix of types of waste, not just one.

The Vitamix guide gives conflicting info about adding in meat and bones, saying that they can be added in small amounts. Contradicting the company's own advice, the manual says 'Do not incorporate any dehydrated food waste (DFW)... that contains animal protein' into your soil,' which seems to rather defeat the purpose. Either way, I wouldn't put meat and bones in this: The risk of Listeria and other nasty bacteria getting into your soil and your veggies is too high.

Once the container is full and placed inside the device, you hit the start button and the FoodCycler does its thing, drying and grinding the waste down into smaller chunks over a four- to eight-hour period. A series of LED lights on top keep you posted, and the lid remains locked until the process is complete.

The result is a dry, crumbly mix that you can stir into soil and dig into your flower bed. I did find that it struggled to grind my compostable coffee pods. They were partly broken down at the end, but large chunks of the containers and other tougher food waste remained in the mix, which could attract animals like Colin. So, the final mix would benefit from being well dug into the soil, or left for further composting.

A More Natural Option

Photograph: Beyond Green

BeyondGreen Kitchen Waste Composter

The BeyondGreen Kitchen Waste Composter (Rating: 7/10) works a little differently from the rest. Rather than heating and dehydrating the mix, it heats and stirs everything in a sealed container surrounded by heat-resistant foam to encourage the natural bacteria to break the waste down. To get the process started, you add wood chips and a little baking soda (small amounts of both are included) to produce the right mix of what composters call the brown, the wood-like fibrous plant material, and the green, the growing plant matter that is food for the microbes. The Kitchen Waste Composter then heats and stirs this mix, encouraging the microbes to do their thing. This takes days rather than hours: Typically you won't get finished compost out until at least seven days after it goes in.

The downside is that it gets a bit stinky. Although the foam cover that surrounds the device is well sealed, you have to open it to add more food waste, and you then get a face full of the smell, which is ' well, food waste getting eaten by microbes. Think of a pile of rotting leaves. It's not a pleasant smell, so this device is best put in a garage, basement, or other out-of-the-way place. Tougher waste such as banana skins and stringier vegetable parts may also need to be chopped up before dumping them in since this device stirs (rather than grinds) the waste.

Once the compost is ready, you hit the transfer button, and the compost is shoveled into a container at the bottom of the device, where you can easily remove it and add it to your soil. It produces a nice, well-mixed, and broken-down compost from most food waste, but you might still find chunks of food and larger bits in there. So, it should be heavily mixed, buried, or further composted to break it down further. I also found that our compostable coffee pods didn't break down completely. I found chunks of the bioplastic casing still in the compost after a week. To avoid this, I had to crush and break down the coffee pods into smaller bits before putting them in.

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