jade32•27d ago

My countertop bin smells like a gym bag after last week's heat wave

I've been doing the whole apartment compost thing for about 11 months now. Last week it hit 94 degrees here in Philly and my little countertop bin went from fine to oh my god. I usually empty it every 3 days into my balcony tumbler, but the heat did something. I think it was the mango peels I tossed in Tuesday. Now I'm terrified to open it and I've just been shoving everything in the freezer bag until I figure this out. I already do the paper towel layer thing but that clearly wasn't enough. Has anyone else had their bin go bad during a heat spike? What do you do for summer months when you can't control the room temp?

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1 Comment

knight.xena25d ago

Did you try freezing the bin itself for a few hours once it gets bad? That saved me last summer when we hit 97 here. I put the whole container in a ziplock bag and let it sit in the freezer overnight, then scraped the worst of the sludge off the sides and rinsed it with hot water plus a bit of vinegar. After that I started keeping a smaller bin that I empty every single day when it's over 85 degrees. Also I stopped putting mango peels in there entirely, they seem to be the worst for turning into liquid fast. For the freezer bag thing, that's smart, I did the same when mine got real bad and it kept the smell contained. Let the bin air out on the balcony with the lid off for a full day before you use it again, that made a huge difference for me.