Here are some comments residents have made describing how they collect their food scraps in their apartments. The main thing is to control the moisture – the compostable bags are made to, well, decompose, so if they get wet and soggy, they are likely to leak and split open.

I keep the compostable bag in the freezer.

My favorite way to keep the food scraps:  I put a plastic container in the small shelf of my fridge door. It is about 4″ x 4″ and about 1″ high.  I sit a compostable bag in the container and add food scraps to the bag.  If it gets full before the week is up (having left room at the top to tie the bag w/ the bag corners), I tie that bag and sit another compostable bag on top of the first one.  So far no falling bags!

I have plastic containers and they reside in my refrigerator until transfer to a compostable bag on drop off day.

I store the scraps in plastic containers, pint size, with covers. They fit well in the last bottom section of the fridge door. I store them, 3 or 4 per week, full, covered. I see them there without trouble, until I collect them in the compostable bag, the night before collection and store them in the freezer. The next morning, I take them to the collection point.

I’ve been collecting my food scraps and fill up one or two bags before delivering them to the community bin.  The freezing solves the problem of attracting bugs and hardens the contents for delivery to the bin without drips.  I found this works fine for me.

For myself, the best way to collect scraps has been to keep a compostable bag in my freezer and add the scraps as they are produced.  No mess, no drip, no odor. Of course, this only works for those who have freezer room.

I keep my food scraps in a plastic container in the freezer, but my tea bags and paper towels in a countertop container, and combine them into a compostable bag on drop-off day.

I store them in the refrigerator.

I keep all food scraps in a compostable bag in the freezer.  When peeling, coring fruit or messy scraps I place it all on a paper towel and wrap it up and put in bag in the freezer.

I keep them in a compostable bag in my refrigerator, on the door. I have a piece of hand towel in the bottom to absorb any liquid which will be minimal because I do not put liquid stuff in the bag.

While preparing a meal, I place scraps on a paper towel on a counter near the sink to remove water from the scraps, and later I transfer them to a compostable bag that I store in the (colder) drawer for meat/fish.  I put the compostable bag(s) in either a plastic container with a tight lid or a tightly closed plastic bag until the collection day. When I forgot to take my food scraps to the collection site, I store the scraps in my freezer until the following week.

In my freezer in a compostable bag.

We got a metal countertop bin and line it with a green compostable bag.  Now it’s easy and if it gets full we’ll put the bag in the freezer.

I eat a lot of plain Greek yogurt and use the empty 32 oz containers for my scraps which I keep in my refrigerator.  I generally fill two containers each week with scraps.  The morning of the collection I just pour the scraps from the yogurt containers into 3-gallon compostable bags and tie the bag corners to close.  Generally, each 3-gallon bag will hold two full yogurt containers. I then wash out the containers and use them again the next week.

I purchased a compost bin to leave on my countertop next to the sink. I line it with a compostable bag. When it is full, I remove it and put in the freezer until time for pickup. It has a filter in the top that works great to keep bugs and odors away.

I have a small metal garbage can that fits in one of my base cabinets  If it gets too full, I freeze it and start a second bag (which rarely happens).

I’ve kept mine in the freezer.

I now have a good bucket-with-top, plus compostable bags.  Previously someone donated a heavy metal bucket that smelled bad. Couldn’t live with that.

We purchased a compost bucket on line for about $20.00. It has a removable charcoal filter in the top. We just put the compostable bag in it, drop in the food scraps, close the lid, and leave the container on our counter. We don’t notice any smells coming from it.  We then take the bag in it to the drop off site.

I kept a composable bag in the fridge and put food scraps in it as a regular thing. I rarely really cook anything from scratch so the amount I generate is small. There is no room in the freezer.