Bokashi Composting

Compost ALL Your Food Scraps

Unlike conventional composting, with a bokashi indoor composter you can safely turn ALL your organic kitchen waste, including meat, fish, dairy and cooked foods, into fantastic, nutrient-rich compost.

The bokashi concept originated in Japan. It’s accelerated composting using bokashi bran, wheat bran that has been inoculated with effective micro-organisms (EMs), which act to anaerobically pickle your kitchen waste.

There are no odours and the system doesn’t attract flies, so you can safely store your bokashi bin inside the home. And, when transferred to the garden, bokashi compost breaks down incredibly quickly and doesn’t attract vermin.

Just add your plate scrapings, and food waste, including meat, fish and dairy products to the container. Sprinkle over a handful of bokashi bran and upon fitting the airtight lid, the composting process begins. Once full, the material needs to be left to ‘pickle’ for 2 weeks. Then, the contents of the kitchen composter can be added to your home compost heap, or mixed into the soil in your garden. It’s a great way to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

An unexpected bonus of the bokashi bin is the wonderful bokashi juice produced. This rich liquid fertiliser can be drained off every couple of days and diluted with water to give your plants a boost, or simply poured straight down the drain to prevent algae build-up and eliminate odours.

What is the Bokashi Kitchen Composting System?

Instead of composting only selected kitchen waste, the Bokashi Kitchen Composter System allows you to transform ALL your solid food waste – including cooked foods, meat, fish and cheese – into special nutrient-rich compost. It’s a great way to reduce your domestic waste and do your garden some good at the same time. The bucket is small and neat enough to slot into a corner in your kitchen and with an airtight lid, there are no smells and no flies.

Recycle all your food waste

After each meal, just pop your food scraps into the airtight container along with a handful of bokashi bran. Bokashi is a Japanese word meaning ‘Fermented Organic Matter’. It is a pleasant smelling, bran-based material made with a culture of effective micro-organisms, which help to ferment your waste and act as a compost activator.

Bokashi Juice: A Miracle By-Product

The ‘pickling’ process is anaerobic, so each time you add waste to the bin, you should compress it down to get rid of any air, and replace the lid making sure it is sealed tight. As the organic matter breaks down it produces a light brown liquid called bokashi juice, which is alive with beneficial micro-organisms and can be drained off and diluted as a plant feed, or poured down drains to prevent algae build up and odours. The process does not produce smells or attract flies, so the container can be safely kept inside the home.

What are the benefits?

No smells because friendly, safe bacteria is used
No flies because the bokashi bucket has an air-tight seal
Small and compact, so slots neatly into any kitchen
Meat, fish and dairy products can all be safely composted
Fermented organic material will improve the soil structure in your garden and decontaminate the soil from harmful pathogens and pollutants
Plants will bloom when planted with bokashi compost
Bokashi juice, the liquid fertiliser by-product will give your house plants a boost

Be part of the low-impact living solution by recycling and redirecting food waste away from landfill.

Bokashi Instructions

The kit includes:

2 x bokashi indoor composters complete with drainage tap, lid, handle and inner drain tray
A scoop/drain tray to collect excess liquid
A plastic press to compress the material down
1000g of bokashi bran (about 3 months supply)
Full instructions

Setting up your Bokashi Bin

Before use, fit the tap to the bokashi bin. Make sure you put 1 rubber washer on the inside and outside of the container and tighten the plastic bolt just enough to create a watertight seal. Insert the inner drain tray and you’re ready to add organic kitchen waste.

How to use the Bokashi Kitchen Composter

Add your food scraps, whether cooked or uncooked, to the bokashi bucket.
Tip: Organic waste will compost more effectively if cut into small pieces.
Sprinkle a small handful of bokashi bran on top of the food scraps. Ideally, all the waste should be covered with bokashi bran.
Press the material down lightly using the plastic press supplied with your kit or a small plate. The fermenting process is anaerobic and this will help extract air from the organic matter.
Keep the lid on tight at all times – the less air, the better.
Draw off any excess liquid produced using the tap at the base of the bucket approximately every 2 days. This allows the waste to break down at a quicker rate.
Tip: Dilute the bokashi juice at a rate of 1:100 parts water. This can then be used as plant feed or poured undiluted down the sink to prevent algae build-up and control odours.
Repeat the process until the bokashi bin is full.
Once the bucket is full, leave it with the lid on tight for around 2 weeks. This allows the fermentation process to work its magic. Excess bokashi juice should be drained off at regular intervals throughout fermentation.
Tip: In the meantime, you can start filling your second bucket. When the second bucket is full, empty the first. Give the bucket a good rinse before filling it again.
After 2 weeks the bokashi compost is ready to use. It can either be directly dug in to the garden or added to your compost heap.

Tip: If you want to add a full bucket of fermented bokashi waste to your compost bin, spread it thinly on the heap and ideally cover it over with a shovel full of soil. Emptying the bucket as a solid mass will slow down the composting process.

Bokashi and your Garden

1. Dig the bokashi compost into the garden

Fermented bokashi waste doesn’t necessarily have to be thrown on the compost heap, it can easily be dug straight into the garden. For a full bucket, all you need to do is dig a trench about 1 metre wide by 40 cm deep.

2. Drain off excess juice

Before you tip in your waste, make sure any excess bokashi juice is drained off, or the mixture may be too acidic for the plants. Remember, bokashi juice is potent stuff and needs to be diluted 1 part juice to 100 parts water before being used as a plant feed. Empty the contents of your bokashi bucket into the ditch and spread it evenly. Ideally, it should be spread about 1 inch thick. As the newly fermented compost is quite acidic, try not to empty it too near to plant and tree roots. Don’t worry, it quickly becomes less acidic after being buried.

3. Bury it and wait

Cover the waste over with around 3 to 4 inches of soil and forget about it – that’s all you have to do! After about 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the type of waste and time of year, the bokashi compost should be completely broken down and you should have a rich dark brown soil to plant into or transfer to other parts of the garden.

…or simply empty it into your compost bin

Of course, the fermented bokashi waste can equally well be added to your home compost bin. Again, drain off any excess liquid and spread the contents of the container thinly on the compost heap. Ideally, cover the waste with a shovel full of soil or other organic material, such as grass clippings, to help it break down.

Bokashi FAQs

What food waste can I put in my bokashi kitchen composter?

You can add cooked and uncooked meat, fish, small bones, pastry, bread, dairy products, eggs, plate scrapings, fruit and vegetables, cooked left-overs, tea leaves and coffee grinds and dried tea bags. Only fresh food waste should be added to the bucket, never anything mouldy or rotten, and no liquids, such as milk or fruit juice, or very wet foods, such as leftover soup. Large scraps of food and bread need to be cut up into small pieces. You shouldn’t add bones, paper, cardboard, or any liquids, such as fruit juice and milk.

Can I or can’t I add tea bags and tea leaves to my bokashi bin?

Whether or not you can add tea bags to a bokashi composter has nothing to do with the tea itself. It has to do with how moist the tea bags are. The EMs (effective micro-organisms) won’t work properly if the contents of the bin are too wet. If you let the tea bags or tea leaves dry out, on a saucer on the windowsill for example, you can then safely add them to your bokashi bin.

What’s the best way to store my bokashi bran?

The best way is to transfer your bran to a tupperware container or an old ice cream tub with a sealed lid. This way your bran will stay fresh and won’t dry out, and the EMs will be more effective.

The contents of my kitchen composter smell bad. Why is this?

This could be down to one of, or a combination of, 3 factors:

Not enough bokashi bran has been added
Add a bit more bokashi bran each time you add material. Try to sprinkle the bran evenly over the material so that it is covered more or less completely. Cutting your waste into small pieces will make this easier.
There’s too much liquid in the bucket
Drain off the bokashi juice more frequently. For best results, you should try to to draw off the liquid about once every 2 days. It is also important not to add material that is too wet to the bin. The effective micro-organisms will stop working properly if the material is too moist. If you want to add tea bags, let them dry out first and throw wet food scraps like melon pulp and seeds directly onto your compost heap
Air has interupted the process
Make sure your kitchen composter’s lid is sealed tight each time you add waste. The pickling process is anaerobic, so the waste needs an air tight environment to ferment properly. For this reason, it is also important to press the material down each time scraps are added to exclude any air pockets.

White mould appears on the material, what should I do?

Absolutely nothing. White mold is nothing to worry about and your waste is fermenting properly. You should carry on doing what you’re doing.

To successfully ‘pickle’ your waste, the lid on your bokashi bin must be sealed tight. As an extra precaution you can place a sheet of plastic over the waste before replacing the lid.

Green mould appears on the material, what should I do?

Oh no! Unfortunately, this is a sign that your bokashi compost isn’t fermenting correctly. It may be too moist, or the lid may not have been sealed tight. You’re going to have to get rid of this batch the old fashioned way – empty it into a plastic bag and put it in the dustbin.

My Bokashi bin leaks, what should I do?

If your bokashi bin leakes, your container’s tap may not be functioning properly. The tap may have been over-tightened, breaking the seal. Try loosening the bolt, make sure the washers are in place and do it up again but only finger tight.

Bokashi Troubleshooting

My Bokashi Bin Leaks! How do I Fix It?

This is a problem for two reasons:

It smells bad

The composting process is anaerobic; a leaking bin means air can get in and your waste may not ferment properly.

So, what do you do?

Well, you need a two pronged attack – fix the leak and reduce the juice. If, after that, your bokashi bucket still leaks, you’ll need to replace the tap’s washers.

1. Fix the leak

Assuming the leak is coming from the tap at the base of the unit, the likelyhood is that the silicon seal isn’t doing its job. Remember, it should only be finger tight. Any tighter and the washer may stretch. You can’t access the nut without first removing the waste, so try to tighten it by turning the tap clockwise. If this doesn’t work, try applying some silicone sealant to where the tap joins the bokashi bin. Otherwise, I’m afraid, it’s a case of removing the waste, replacing the seals and making sure the nut is only finger tight.

2. Reduce the juice

You can easily reduce the amount of juice your bokashi bin produces by only adding dry material. Avocado skins, egg shells, potato peelings and bread crusts, for example, won’t produce much liquid. Fruit scraps like pineapple peelings and apple cores, and tea bags do produce a lot of juice, and for now at least, should go straight on the compost heap, or dug directly into the garden. While your bin is drying out, stand it on a tray just in case there is any further leakage.

3. Replace the washers

The tap screws on to the bokashi bucket and a rubber washer should be placed on both the inside and the outside of the unit. If the nut holding the tap is too tight, the washer may stretch and the seal will be broken. Consider replacing the washers with good quality washing machine inlet hose washers to ensure a water tight seal. These won’t stretch, which means you can tighten the nut more than you could with the standard issue silicone washers. Once the tap is in position, fill the bucket with water and test for leaks before adding your next batch of bokashi compost.