As a plant-based cook and eater, and as a human committed to living with a low impact environmental impact, I compost at home using two huge outdoor bins. It has been a conundrum, as we planned our vanlife, to understand what to do with “wet” trash while we are on the road — wet trash being coffee grounds, egg shells, veggie & fruit scraps and stems, and what little would be scraped off of our plates after dinner. As I began to research options, electric compost machines came onto my radar.
Researching brands, assessing the machines sizes and ease of use, I settled on the Vitamix FC-50. I tried it once at home, successfully. Veggie scraps, stems and coffee grounds are transformed!
I am quite pleased to report that after our first 2-week vanlife trip, this composting machine is a game changing phenom! I saved all of the wet plant materials, which went into a 9-cup compost bucket, kept under the sink. When the bucket became 2/3 full, about every 2.5 days, I’d place its contents into the Vitamix FC-50 composter. We’d run it overnight while we slept, or during the day while we were driving or out on a hike. After ~ 5 hours, the once wet food waste had been transformed into about 1.5 cups of gorgeous soil-like dry residue, which was easy for me to spread on the ground at the campsite. It didn’t smell strongly, or like food, it smelled … earthy.
This composter diminishes my concern regarding placing food scraps into landfill, particularly while traveling, and it is so convenient to use! I am a happy consumer!
