Recycling scraps is a crucial step on the way to creating a sustainable household. While climate change is a wicked problem, and one that ultimately required intervention on a global and governmental scale, there are steps you can take that are within your control, and composting at home is one of them.
By composting food and natural scraps like coffee grounds, vegetable cut-offs, matches, newspaper, even compostable bioplastics, you’re removing and repurposing what would otherwise be sent to landfill. In fact, it’s estimated we could all reduce our waste footprint by 50%, just by returning these materials to the earth in an eco-friendly way.
Composting at home is really easy, and there are a number of ways you can do this; with little scrap bins, composting bins, worm farms, and bokashi bins. But there’s soon to be an even easier, even faster way to turn your scraps into nutrient-rich soil.
Lomi is a new benchtop compost bin by the good folk at Pela, creators of the world’s first compostable phone cases. The team has created a device that takes your household scraps — whether food, garden, or paper — and turns them into compost in 24 hours, at the touch of just one button.
The Lomi can process anything from vegetables, fruit, bread, garden trimmings, animal products, bioplastic, wooden cutlery, compostable utensils, and anything marked as biodegradable or compostable. You pop it all in the stainless steel bucket, turn it on, and come back later to find your compost.
“Lomi speeds up the breakdown of organic waste into smaller fragments — similar to how earthworms break down and mix plant tissue into soil, except Lomi does this without the smell and mess,” said Daanvir, materials scientist.
“Fragmented waste provides more surface area for microbes to accelerate the composting process. The end result is a natural source of soil nutrients that increase the organic content of soil, helping boost plant growth and soil enrichment.”
Lomi uses heat, abrasion, and oxygen to work its magic, and it does so on three different settings: express mode, which reduces volume by 80% and in just four hours; Bioplastic mode, which breaks down compostable plastics in 10 hours; and Eco mode, which takes over 20 hours — best run while you sleep.
Designed to run on low energy, the device is good for the environment in more ways than one. By helping you slash what you send to landfill, you’ll be saving around 60kgs of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, while storing 40kgs of carbon dioxide in the soil you create each year. Owning a Lomi provides around the same environmental benefit as planting 2,690 trees.
The Lomi is in the crowdfunding phase currently. It launched on Indiegogo just three days ago, and has already raised $4,118,827 from 9200 backers, absolutely smashing its initial fundraising goal of $64,537 by 6,382%.
Australians can still back the campaign and place their orders for a Lomi, which retails at $515. Estimated shipping is for September 2022, so until the device arrives, you’ll just have to stick to home composting for now with our expert guide.
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