Kepta
Composting Kitchen Scraps When You Don't Have a Yard
Most composting advice assumes a backyard, a bin and a pile of leaves. Plenty of home cooks have none of those. The useful part is that the composting that matters most for a kitchen may not happen at home at all.
Why it's worth the trouble
Food in the trash isn't harmless. In a landfill it rots without air and makes methane, and the EPA estimates food waste is about 58 percent of the methane that escapes from municipal landfills (EPA). On the EPA's Wasted Food Scale, composting ranks well above the landfill (EPA).
City food scrap collection
Some towns collect food scraps the way they collect recycling. BioCycle counted 14.9 million US households with access in 2023, up from 10.0 million in 2021 (BioCycle). That's growth, but it's still small, so look before you assume. Search your city or county website for "food scraps" or "composting."
A city program can often take more than a backyard pile. The EPA keeps meat, fish, bones, dairy, fats and oils out of a home pile (EPA), but many city food scrap programs take meat, fish, bones, dairy and oily food. New York City accepts meat, bones and dairy, and food-soiled paper too (NYC Sanitation, NYC Sanitation). Follow your own city's list, since it decides.
In some places, it isn't optional
- Vermont has banned food scraps from household trash since July 1, 2020 (University of Vermont).
- New York City made curbside composting mandatory, with fines for building owners from April 1, 2025: $25, $50 and $100 for buildings with one to eight units (NYC Sanitation, NY1).
- California's SB 1383, in effect since January 1, 2022, requires homes to put food scraps in the green organics bin, with enforcement handled locally (City of Santa Monica).
What a kitchen collects
For a home pile, the EPA's list includes fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags and eggshells, mixed with "browns" like leaves and paper (EPA). For a city program, use the city's list instead, since it may take more.
Be careful with "compostable" plastics
Compostable bags and cups are not a sure thing. A CalRecycle survey cited by San Francisco in 2023 found only 3 of 17 responding compost facilities accepted compostable plastics (San Francisco). Use them only if your program says it takes them, and never put them in the recycling bin (EPA).
If there's no program near you
Then, unless a law like the ones above applies where you live, the trash is the honest answer for most scraps, with one firm exception: grease and cooking oil never go down the drain. Let it cool in a can or jar, then throw it out (City of Sacramento).
And the best option on the EPA's scale doesn't need a yard or a program at all. The top of the scale is preventing wasted food in the first place (EPA).
That last part is where Kepta fits. It keeps track of the food in your fridge, freezer and pantry, shows what to use first with freshness colors, and keeps a money count of what gets used and tossed, at the price you enter or a plain typical price you can change. It helps you use food before it goes bad, so less of it ends up in the bin to begin with.
