Bokashi Composting

By Rebecca Gardiner from Urban Revolution, a Perth based Eco Store dedicated to improving the planet.

We are all so passionate about composting here at Urban Revolution. In our humble opinion, composting is the number one positive climate action every individual can take at home to reduce their impact on our precious planet.

The easiest way to get started, particularly in an urban environment, is with a Bokashi System as it doesn’t require a backyard, is quick and easy, takes more inputs than any other composting system, and turns your waste into valuable resources.

Why is Composting Good for the Earth?

Organic waste sent to landfill does not receive the right conditions to be able to break down and compost properly as it is an anaerobic environment (without oxygen).

It results in it decomposing rather than composting and releases one of the most harmful greenhouse gases, methane, along with carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A huge contributor to anthropogenic (man-made) climate change, which we are now unfortunately bearing witness to with our warming climate.

By composting your organic waste, you are not only preventing further greenhouse gas emissions, but you are returning the carbon to the Earth where it belongs and will remain stable for a very long time.

Bokashi also allows you to create your own nutrient-rich soil input – a valuable resource – for free!

Adding composted organic waste to your garden also actually increases the carbon sequestering ability of your soil with all its associated benefits such as increased water retention, and more nutrient rich soil to grow nutrient dense food!

The Easiest Way to Start Composting in Any Home 

If you haven’t heard of the Bokashi System before, here is the lowdown!

The Bokashi style of composting requires only a kitchen bench-top bucket for your food scraps, some magic microbial bran, and some soil to dig it in to.

For those in apartments – no backyard is required as long as you have a large pot or what we like to call a soil making factory – more on that later.

Bokashi is actually a fermentation process using beneficial microbes that can handle more input types than any other composting system and turns your waste into an amazing microbe-rich soil conditioner and a liquid that can be used as a fertiliser or as a natural drain cleaner.

The Bokashi bucket is designed to ideally sit your kitchen bench (to remind you to use it instead of your rubbish bin) and be a super easy and manageable way to compost all kitchen scraps.

How To Use the Bokashi System

• Press each layer of waste down to remove air gaps in the bucket – an old potato masher can come in handy here.

• Sprinkle a light covering of Bokashi Composting Bran (approximately 1 tablespoon) over the top of every layer of scraps put in the bucket. An average layer depth estimate is about an inch. The microbes in the bran are what ferment the organic matter and also mitigate odours.

• Once the bucket is full, leave it somewhere out of the way for a couple of weeks to allow for full fermentation.

• The system works best as a two-bin system; start filling up the second bucket while the first is finishing the composting process. Our Bokashi Starter Kit comes with everything you need.

• At the end of the fermentation process, the contents of the bucket should have reduced by about a third of the fermented matter, and you may have Bokashi juice liquid in the reservoir to draw off.

• Both of these outputs are full of diverse nutrients and alive with micro-organisms so while the resulting mass won’t look too pretty, it is absolutely gold for your garden and will smell a little like other naturally fermented foods such as sauerkraut or kimchi.

• Use the Bokashi juice neat as a natural drain cleaner by pouring directly down any drain in your house. It is amazing for stopping fat building up in your kitchen drains! This is because a by-product of the fermentation process is lactic acid which helps to break up any fats or materials that accumulate in the drains.

• Alternatively, dilute 20ml of Bokashi juice in a 9L watering can for an amazing microbial rich fertiliser for all established indoor and outdoor plants. Just keep away from any new delicate seedlings until they are well established in the garden.

• Bury the solid matter directly in your garden. If you don’t have anywhere to dig it directly, you can add to another compost system such as the Gedye’s Standing Compost Bin as a great activator – just remember to add in lots of dry carbon-heavy materials to balance the Bokashi mass.

• You can also make what is called a Soil factory which works well for those with only a balcony or a small courtyard. Simply take a big pot and fill the base with some course mulch, then a layer of soil.

• Add in your Bokashi mass, then cover the whole thing with at least another 10cm of soil and leave it for a minimum of 4 weeks to break down into the soil completely. The finished soil will be amazing for refreshing old potting mix or adding to raised garden beds.

• Rinse the empty Bokashi bucket. But don’t be too precious about cleaning the inside as your bucket is now inoculated with microbes to get your next batch off to a flying start!

Have you heard about Share Waste? You can also donate your Bokashi Mass by registering as a donor on the  Share Waste app as a valuable fertiliser input to other savvy composters in your local area who recognise the value of your scraps to turn into black compost gold!

The Bokashi Microbes and the Free Fertiliser You’re Creating for Healthy Soil

The Bokashi Composting Bran that you sprinkle over your food scraps in the Bokashi Bin is made here in Australia and is full of beneficial micro-organisms that exist freely in nature.

The dry ingredients you can see in the mix are actually carriers for the beneficial microbes which are dormant in the dried bran and become active when added to your waste.

These living organisms ferment your food waste without it putrefying inside the Bokashi bucket and also accelerate the breakdown of the waste when later buried in soil.

For those who are interested, this means that these microbes can work both anaerobically (without air like inside the Bokashi bucket) and aerobically (when the waste is added to soil later).

The microbes also secrete beneficial substances such as antioxidants, vitamins, organic acids and chelated minerals which, when buried with the waste in the garden, build a healthier, stronger and more disease-resistant soil.

All of these goodies are also concentrated in the Bokashi juice that’s drained from the bucket which is what makes it such a great liquid fertiliser when diluted.

By composting your food waste using the Bokashi system, you’re not only diverting waste from landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions but you’re also producing your own incredibly valuable, soil-enriching fertiliser for free. 

Through adding microbes to your soil as opposed to synthetic fertilisers, you are enhancing the soil’s structure which promotes root growth for your plants, retains more moisture, encourages the presence of soil organisms such as worms, and makes more nutrients available to your plants, which promotes a healthier, happier garden.

Get Started with Bokashi Composting

Our Bokashi buckets and Bokashi Mix are available in our Perth and online eco & garden store or choose our Starter Kit which comes with everything you need for a full system! 

The Bokashi Starter Kit comes with two buckets and two 1kg bags of the Bokashi Mix microbial bran. If you’re local and need to top-up your Bokashi Mix supply, we offer a waste-free fill-your-own-container option in our Victoria Park store or you can always order more 1kg bags of Bokashi Mix online.

Composting your organic waste really is one of the best things you could do for the Earth and the Bokashi System is such an easy, low-effort method for anyone to use which is why we love it.

Please ask our knowledgeable team for tips or advice any time or if you would love to know more about the fascinating subject of Composting and the other methods we recommend in an urban environment, you can book into our 2 hour Urban Revolution Composting Workshop which is run 6 times a year. We hope to see you soon!