By: Lily S.

I had heard about electric composters online as a crucial way to diminish the amount of trash we produce worldwide by turning it into a fertilizer you can use for gardening. While researching composting, I stumbled across several articles that suggested these electric composters are often inoperative, leaving you with a product that hardly resembles proper compost. I was captivated by these mixed reviews, realizing this was the ideal topic for my project. And just like that, I was inspired to get my very own composter!

An electric composter can compost your food waste in seven hours, but the natural process can take up to two years. You can put all sorts of food waste in your composter, such as fruits, grains, soft shells, vegetables, soft bones, meat scraps, dairy products, cereal and grains, coffee grounds, and nuts. 

The Airthereal composter has a trinity blade that is used during the grinding process right after it dries the waste. After the whole process, you sprinkle 20 ml of the compost starter in the finished product, which enriches the soil for gardening, accelerates composting, and reduces odor.

My composter came with a compost starter, a shovel, two carbon filters that last six months each, biodegradable bags, and, most importantly, a user manual. The composter has three processing cycles: drying, grinding, and cooling. It starts with drying, lasting anywhere from 30 to 70 minutes. The grinding is the most extended cycle, with a max time of 5.5 hours. The cooling light is the last mode, lasting up to 10 minutes.

It might seem unbelievable that such an extensive process can unfold in just a few hours. Conventionally, the average time taken was around seven hours.  The procedure may have been shorter, but the composter grinds every last component to reduce the size. I ran a test before collecting any data to understand better how the composter works. I tossed in some fruit and vegetable scraps and a few seeds and pressed the button. However, the result was a strong odor that filled the entire kitchen. The Airthereal support team suggested adding coffee grounds or a lemon to help mask the smell. 

Eliminating the odor developed from composting is nearly impossible, so carbon filters are essential for handling most unpleasant scents.

For my first trial, I threw in fruit and vegetable scraps and some egg shells and tried the coffee grounds. After that, all I had to do was to press the button, and it would begin the composting process. I calculated its volume, which was the same before every procedure due to the line limit in the bucket, at 132.73 sq. in. with a capacity of 2.5L. One composter can be enough for a family of four. I also measured its weight, coming in at 2.1 kg. The coffee grounds had worked miraculously, and there was no odor. The volume had decreased by 75%. And the composter reduced the weight by 20%. 

I did the same thing a few more times. In my second trial, the weight decreased by 25% and the volume by 87%. The average volume was an 83% decrease. The website says it can reduce the volume by up to 90%, which is accurate. I put in the compost starter and the composted waste and gave it to my dad for his plants.

It is a very efficient process. For example, I scraped the excess food into the composter bucket while washing dishes. When baking cookies, I threw the eggshells into a bucket. It was a lot better than just simply throwing it into the trash. And even during this whole process, the yearly estimated cost is 25 dollars.

Coffee grounds were more effective in reducing the odor between lemon and coffee grounds. The lemons didn't eliminate the foul odor, but there was little to none, unlike the coffee grounds, which had no smell. Sometimes, the process takes much longer than usual when I put in hard fruit shells, like watermelon. I recommend cutting the fruit scraps if they are too big to speed up the process.

Overall, electric composters actually do work. And it was especially easy to use. It significantly reduced the volume of the food waste. After every trial, I gave my dad the composted food waste mixed with the compost starter so he could use it for his plants.