Seeing more brown paper bags in my building's recycle bin gave me an idea.

I started using them to line my kitchen compost caddy. It makes cleanup a breeze.

3 comments

3 Comments

Oh that's so smart! I do the exact same thing. My compost caddy used to get so gross and sticky on the bottom, and scraping it out was the worst chore. Now I just drop a paper bag in there, and when it's full I can toss the whole thing in the big bin. It keeps the plastic caddy totally clean. I usually fold the top of the bag over the rim too, which seems to help keep any fruit flies contained. Honestly, it turned a nasty job into something that takes two seconds.

fisher.thomas2mo ago

Why buy special liners when normal stuff works, @anna_grant?

the_angela2d ago

And then you get soggy paper bags that rip when you try to lift them, leaving coffee grounds and eggshells all over your clean caddy anyway. I tried paper bags for a month and had more messes than just scraping the bin. Plus flies can still crawl through the bag's folds unless you tape it shut, which is more work than just rinsing the caddy. The whole paper bag thing feels like a Pinterest hack that works great if you never actually fill your compost.