Bokashi is a fermentation method that originated in Japan. Instead of decomposing food in the open, you seal it in a bucket with an inoculant (bran coated in beneficial microbes) that ferments the waste into a pre-compost material.
How it works
Layer food scraps with bokashi bran in an airtight bucket. Because it is anaerobic fermentation, it can handle meat, dairy, and cooked food that most other home methods cannot. After a couple of weeks, the fermented material is buried in soil or added to a compost pile to finish breaking down.
Pros and cons
It accepts a wide range of food and works indoors, but the fermented output still needs a final step in soil or compost. If handling all food types matters to you, our pickup service sends waste to a facility that can process more than a backyard bin. See what we accept.