5 Best Kitchen Composters, Recyclers, and Bags of 2025

Maybe your area just established mandatory composting; maybe you want to change up how you deal with food waste. Either way, the best kitchen composters can make your life easier and your home more sustainable. “Composting organic materials such as yard trimmings and food scraps provides many benefits, including reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills or combustion facilities,” a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) tells SELF. “Reducing the amount of organic waste sent to landfills reduces the production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.”

How you approach at-home composting will depend on your space constraints and personal preferences: A compact bin will work great for those with limited countertop room, while folks who feel icky about their food scraps sitting around may prefer a high-tech food recycler. (A quick note on electric food recyclers, per the DEC: You’ll still have to take the by-product from these appliances to your neighborhood drop-off site—they don’t produce finished compost, so it can’t go straight into your garden’s soil. But on the bright side, it’ll be far less of a schlep, thanks to their dehydration processes.)

After consulting with experts and tapping SELF staffers for recommendations, we found a top-notch option for everyone. Read on to shop our picks and learn more about composting at home.

Our top picks

1. Best Kitchen Compost Bin: Oxo Good Grips Easy Clean Compost Bin, $23
2. Best Food Recycler: Lomi 2, $379
3. Best Trash Can Style Option: Mill Food Recycler, $999
4. Best Compost Bags: GreFusion Compostable Bags, $14
5. Best Looking Bin: Enloy Compost Bin, $33

Shop the best kitchen composters

Let’s break it down (heh).

Best Kitchen Compost Bin: Oxo Good Grips Easy Clean Compost Bin

OXO

Good Grips Easy Clean Compost Bin

I’ve been using this countertop compost bin in my studio apartment kitchen for over a year with basically no complaints. It tucks away into a corner of the counter; holds a couple days’ worth of kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, and paper products; and completely masks any unpleasant smells. Sometimes I’ll forget that the bin is nearly full, it’s so inconspicuous.

I have the smaller, 0.75-gallon size, but it’s also available as a 1.75-gallon container. Both options have a sturdy handle that makes it easy to carry the bin out to your drop-off spot and are made of smooth, easy-to-clean plastic.

Best Food Recycler: Lomi 2

We reviewed the Lomi when it first came out, and our tester loved how easy it made her composting routine. “When I’m prepping my meals, I can throw just about anything in the bin knowing that it’ll break down,” she wrote. She explains that the Lomi processes fruit and vegetable scraps, paper products, grains, meats, dairy products, and yard waste by heating and grinding it into small, lightweight, soil-like fragments. You can run the appliance overnight or as you go about your day, without worrying about it emitting odors or attracting pests like fruit flies.

Best Trash Can Style Option: Mill Food Recycler

For families that produce a lot of food scraps, Mill’s sleek food recycler holds up to 40 pounds(!) at a time and sits directly on the floor, blending right in with your regular trash can. It breaks down just about any type of organic waste, including small bones, raw meat, and fibrous plant matter like corn cobs, leaving shelf-stable grounds that you can bring to your nearest composting facility.

The Mill is undeniably expensive, but with a filter that lasts a year and a three-year warranty, it’s worth the investment if you live in a big household. It also comes with a money-back guarantee if you return it within 90 days of your purchase.

Best Compost Bags: GreFusion Compostable Bags

GreFusion

Compostable Bags

If you have zero counterspace to spare (or you’re looking for a more cost-effective option), you can skip the bin altogether: “We buy compostable bags, then store our scraps in the freezer before taking them to the community compost every weekend,” one SELF staffer says. I use GreFusion’s compostable bags to line my Oxo bin before moving them to my freezer to await drop-off. They add an extra layer of odor control, which I’ll never say no to, and help keep my bin cleaner overall.

Best Looking Bin: Enloy Compost Bin

Hannah Pasternak, SELF’s director of special projects, has been eyeing this cute metal compost canister for her kitchen. It has an air-tight lid with a built-in carbon filter to help limit odors and a rust-resistant stainless steel design. Plus, it just looks nice compared to a lot of other, more utilitarian-looking containers on the market. Instead of keeping your bin under the sink or in a corner of your kitchen counter, you can leave this one out in plain view (and wait for the compliments to roll in).

How to compost your food scraps

Your approach to composting can vary depending on where you live, how much indoor and outdoor space you have, and how much time and effort you want to commit to the process. In light of city- and state-wide composting programs popping up around the country, we’re going to focus on how folks who live in smaller spaces or don’t have much backyard space for their own composting system can dispose of their food scraps. If you want to learn more about larger-scale backyard and worm composting, check out our comprehensive composting guide here.

Some areas, including New York City, offer curbside composting, which makes the process as easy as getting rid of your regular household trash. Simply purchase a bin from the department of sanitation, fill it with your kitchen waste, and roll it out to the curb on your set pickup days.

You can also bring your compost to drop-off sites at community gardens, farmers markets, and other food waste facilities around town. BioCycle, an online publication on all things composting and organic recycling, recommends searching Better Earth’s national database to find a location near you (as a nice bonus, this database also notes what types of materials are accepted at each site).