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See why.The Best Countertop Compost Bins
There are countless models on the market. Which ones contain smells and are a breeze to use?
Published Aug. 23, 2022. Appears in Cook's Country April/May 2023
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
While composting is a dirty job, a countertop compost bin allows you to neatly store food scraps until you can transfer them to a larger setup. Our favorite is the OXO Good Grips Easy-Clean Compost Bin - 1.75 Gal. It is a breeze to clean, contains odors, has a sturdy handle, and sports a convenient flip-open lid that can detach and also helps secure liner bags. We also liked the Exaco Trading Kitchen Compost Waste Collector, a spacious, no-frills model that is perfect for larger households. Our favorite stainless-steel model is the streamlined, easy-to-clean Package Free Compost Bin Container, a good choice for those who want to stay away from plastic entirely.
What You Need to Know
Things can get messy fast when you’re cooking—especially if you’re doing a lot of prep work like peeling carrots, stemming herbs, or dicing onions. Those scraps can clutter your workspace and all too often end up in the trash. In fact, Americans contribute billions of pounds of food to landfills every year. Composting those scraps can divert a lot of waste from landfills and cut down on the resulting methane emissions.
Of course, composting is not new. Farmers and gardeners have utilized decomposed organic matter to nourish their fields and crops for millennia. This age-old practice has become increasingly prevalent in the homes of non-farmers, too. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of food scraps and yard trimming composted increased by 6.4% from 2015 to 2018. Today, many cities across the nation are rolling out municipal composting programs.
Whether you have space for a backyard composter or you live in a city that offers curbside pickup, you need a countertop receptacle to collect your food scraps and to transport the scraps when the bin is full. Countertop compost bins are often more aesthetically pleasing than plastic utility buckets or plastic bags, and the best models strike the perfect balance between design and functionality. Some also offer helpful features that make storing scraps easier, including filters intended to contain smells. Most models can be used with or without biodegradable bags (we tested ours with 2.6 gallon SuperBio compostable bags, a popular brand that’s widely available via online retailers.) The types of bins we tested are perfect for storing food scraps, but are not meant for turning scraps into compost.
What to Look For
- Lightweight Models: Models weighing more than 4 pounds were hard to lift, both when empty and when full. We preferred bins that were lighter—around 2 pounds or less when empty.
- Secure Handles: If you’re carrying heaps of rotting organic matter, the last thing you want...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
Our winning bin is light—weighing around 4 pounds when filled. Its wide opening made dumping and emptying heaps of scraps a breeze. Even without a filter, it contained odors for a full week. It's spacious, capable of holding up to five days worth of peels, coffee grounds, and egg shells from a two-person household that likes to cook. Cleanup was effortless; the body is dishwasher-safe but easily cleaned by hand with soap and water. Its handle is securely attached to the bin and does not budge, even when swung back and forth while full of scraps. Another perk is the detachable lid, which stays open when adding scraps and has a collar that secures a bag between the lid and body of the bin.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This model received high marks for its spaciousness, odor containment, and easy cleanup. It held the largest amount of scraps—about seven days’ worth for a two-person household—and had a broad opening that made it easy to drop in coffee grounds or scraps without spilling or getting the outside of the bin dirty. It cleaned up in no time and its smooth surface didn’t hide any food or mold. Although its handle wasn’t as sturdy as the OXO model, it was easy to transport and empty.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
Made by a company that focuses on reducing the use of plastic, this stainless-steel bin is attractive and functional. It has a sizable opening, is easy to clean, and offers fuss-free changing of the filter. Although the handle was the less preferable hook-style, it was tight enough that it never came loose or felt compromised even when the bin was filled to the brim. Our one quibble was that we couldn’t easily flip the lid open while cooking.
Recommended
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
This sturdy little bin has a minimalist modern design. Like the winning model, it has a detachable lid with a built-in collar that keeps bags in place. This bin kept odors locked inside but lost some points during our emptying and cleaning tests. Slits along the perimeter of the bin, which were intended to secure the lid in place, proved to be perfect hiding places for gunk, mold, and water. The holder for the filter was also a little challenging to open. Despite these slight design flaws, it’s a suitable bin for a one- or two-person household.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
We liked the sleek, streamlined design of this bin. You can either sit it on your kitchen counter or attach it to your Simplehuman trash can with the magnetic dock that comes with the bin. The exterior was easy to wipe down with a cloth and it resisted fingerprints; the plastic insert is dishwasher-safe. Although we loved the look of this model, we often became frustrated by its narrow opening, and some nooks in the stainless-steel body made it slightly harder to clean. Its capacity was small; one tester noted that it was full after only making fruit salad.
Recommended with reservations
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1.5 stars out of 3.
The only bamboo bin in the lineup, it controlled odors well. Although it was arguably the most aesthetically pleasing model, we found that coffee grounds often got stuck in a tiny gap on its lid. We also noticed some staining on the bin after we washed and dried it. Finally, the handle felt a bit flimsy when we carried the bin to be emptied.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2 stars out of 3.
This bin is perforated with patented air flow channels, which the manufacturer says fosters aerobic decomposition. Because some of those openings are on the bottom of the bin, it must be used with a compostable bag. A ring around its opening locked bags in place and its handle conveniently folded down under the lid. Its lid was one of our least favorites because it never felt like it fit snugly enough. The bin was also one of the smallest in the lineup—and it showed. After the scraps from just one meal were added, it was nearly filled to the brim.
Not Recommended
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Odor Containment: 3 stars out of 3.
- Emptying and Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1 stars out of 3.
This ceramic model had one of the smallest openings in the lineup which meant that scraps constantly fell onto the counter and floor when we tried to add them to the bin. Although its fire hydrant shape was adorable, it was fairly heavy—weighing over 4 pounds when empty and almost 6½ pounds when filled. A ridge under its lid often trapped bits of food and mold, making cleaning annoying. Lastly, its loosely attached hook-style handle fell off even before the durability test, rendering the handle pretty much useless.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Sawyer Phillips
Sawyer is an assistant digital editor for ATK Reviews. She enjoys baking, collecting Prince records, and all things Toni Morrison.