If you are looking for a simple, stylish solution to in-kitchen composting then the Simplehuman Compost Caddy was designed for you. I bought one for use with my Simplehuman kitchen garbage bin, and here are my thoughts.
How The Compost Caddy Works
The Simplehuman Compost Caddy is a 1 gallon device that hangs on the side of your standard Simplehuman trashcan. There is a small dock component that you hook onto the trashcan part of the main garbage can and then you also hook the bin holder to that piece. Inside the holder is a plastic bin which is seals to prevent leaks.
A 1-gallon compostable bag goes into the plastic bin. These “Z” liner bags are compostable with home compost bins, which is an important feature! Many compostable bags sold online can only be composts in commercial facilities, like your town dump, but won’t biodegrade in a standard home compost bin.
30 bags (aka “liners”) are included with the Compost Caddy. After that you can get bags for under 10 cents each, depending on how many you buy at once.
The Compost Caddy has a magnetic dock that hangs off the side of your Simplehuman trash bin. It can be lifted off this hanger when you want to take the the caddy to your compost bin. There is a magnetic lid so it’ll stay open if you are spending a period of time when you are adding a lot of produce, say when you are chopping vegetables.
There is a lid with a reasonably good seal, so no smell escapes from the caddy. This lid isn’t enough to prevent fruit flies from appearing though, so you’ll want to empty the compost caddy frequently, particularly in the summer when overripe fruit — like peaches and tomatoes — will bring fruit flies into your kitchen. Compost like this, even when changed regularly is an ideal home for fruit flies, so they are difficult to avoid when you are doing kitchen composting.
Inside the bin there is a plastic liner bucket so any compost liquid doesn’t leak out. The outside of the caddy is stainless steel and coated with Agion, an anti-microbial material so the bin stays free of mold, mildew, fungus, and so forth.
Compost Caddy Video Review
Here is out video review of the Caddy…
Verdict
Having bought the Compost Caddy ourselves and having used it for some months now, I have mixed feelings about it.
At $50 at most resellers, the Compost Caddy isn’t cheap. It isn’t even cheap relative to the full Simplehuman bin, most of which areat least 10x the size and cost 2x-3x more!
Even so, the Compost Caddy is super convenient and you can’t help but use it. It has single-handedly caused us to compost way more, which means less garbage. This is good for the environment and actually saves us money. We save by needing less topsoil for our garden, but also because in our area, like many others, home garbage pick is an expensive service that only picks up so much each week, so less garbage is a very good thing!
Ultimately I like the convenience of this thing and it’s much nicer than just keeping a metal bucket in my sink and emptying it into my compost bin each night. On the downside, the lid can’t prevent fruit flies, the unit is a bit expensive, and the bags are neither cheap nor easy to find.
So, yes, this is a good product, but it does come with some issues.