Best Compost Bins, Tumblers & Worm Farms

Best Outdoor Bins for Composting and Vermicomposting

With a compost bin, you reuse your biodegradable kitchen and garden waste to make your own eco-friendly solid or liquid compost, known as ‘black gold.’ This rich and gentle fertilizer can be added to your garden’s soil to help your plants and grass grow better.

You can choose between a standard compost bin, a rotating compost tumbler, or start a worm farm called ‘vermicomposting’ to create ‘worm tea,’ a liquid fertilizer.

Top 10 Bins for Composting

• Check Top 10 at Amazon
• Check Top 10 at Walmart

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Top 10 Composting Bins

What is a suitable compost bin for outdoor use? We’ve selected ten great composting solutions to use outdoors. These recycling bins generate rich compost for you to use in your garden. Your plants will love it. The most important consideration and decision to make is whether you want a ‘standard’ compost bin or start your worm farm. Read more about this in our composting guide below.

Disclosure: This article is reader-supported. If you click on a product and make a purchase, we may earn a commission – learn more.

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#1 | FCMP Outdoor IM4000 Tumbling Composter

Dual Chamber Tumbling Composter

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#2 | Miracle-Gro Dual Chamber Compost Tumbler

Fast and Efficient All-Season Composting Bin

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#3 | FCMP Outdoor

Compact Outdoor Rolling Composter

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#4 | EJWOX Dual Rotating Composting Tumbler

Durable Constructed Dual Chamber Composter

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#5 | Envirocycle Composter Tumbler

Beautiful & Compact Composter With Unique Design

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#6 | Worm Factory 360 WF360B

Compost Kitchen Scraps with the use of Worms

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#7 | FCMP Outdoor HF-DBC4000 Dual Body Composter

Durable Outdoor Tumbling Composter for Easy Mixing

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#8 | VermiHut 5-Tray Worm Compost Bin

Worm Compost Bin With Small Foot-Print

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#9 | Hungry Bin Worm Farm Composter

Create High-Quality Compost Without Your Supervision

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#10 | Redmon Green Culture 65-Gallon Compost Bin

Large Compost Bin With High Capacity

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By composting organic waste you reduce the need for chemical fertilizers, it reduces methane emissions from landfills and also lowers your carbon footprint.EPA.gov

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Didn’t find the right composting bin?

The list above shows our recommendations for popular and well-reviewed composting bins, tumblers, and worm bin composters. But maybe you are looking for another type of composter, or you want a different color, a larger model, or another brand. Therefore we recommend you look at the best sold composting bins below at Amazon or Walmart.

Top 10 Bins for Composting

• Check Top 10 at Amazon
• Check Top 10 at Walmart

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Small Indoor Compost Bin for Kitchen Counter

More Compost Bins

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Indoor Food Recycler for Kitchen

When you don’t have a garden or don’t want an outdoor compost bin, then maybe you like the idea of an indoor food recycler that you can use in your kitchen. With a food composter, you can make compost inside your home, easy and fast.

For instance, with the Food Cycler. With this electronic compost container, you can reduce your kitchen waste by up to 90% of its original volume. Inside the bin is a rotating blade that shreds your food waste, which enhances the process of composting. The compost container is odorless.

Check Price

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What to look for when buying a composter?

Not sure how to choose the right outdoor compost bin? Or do you want to know the difference between all the types of composting bins? Then check our composting guide below.

Composting Guide

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What is a compost bin?

A compost bin is an enclosed receptacle where organic matter and biodegradable waste turn into nutrient-rich soil building substances, also known as compost. The composting receptacles are built explicitly for the optimal decomposition of organic matter with proper aeration and moisture retention.

This environment results in ideal conditions for microorganisms, fungi, and bacteria responsible for producing your eco-friendly compost by breaking down the material. Also, worms and other small animals help the composting process. Therefore there are also special worm composter bins, also known as worm farms.

Composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter.

The main advantage of a composting bin in comparison with a compost heap or pile is that the bin speeds up the process of decomposition so that you can generate compost more efficiently.

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What is compost?

Compost is the result of the natural process called ‘composting,’ where biodegradable and organic material decomposes into a rich soil amendment known as ‘black gold’ or ‘chocolate crumbly cake.’ The compost is an eco-friendly non-chemical fertilizer that can be used to enrich the soil in your garden. Composting is one of the most natural ways to make your garden grow better.

Good compost is like gold for your garden or lawn. It improves the soil’s structure, texture, and fertility.

Compost is an earthy smelling, crumbly, dark brown material that consists of decomposed and biodegraded organic waste, such as vegetable scraps, fruit peels, and natural garden waste. Good compost contains much organic matter, which improves the soil structure.

Composting is a completely natural process because composting also happens in nature when old leaves, rotten wood, and dead plants decompose over time, creating a rich layer for new plants and trees to grow on.

Advantages of compost:

• It is a natural and eco-friendly way to reduce waste.
• It improves soil structure and texture.
• it improves the fertility of the soil.
• It improves drainage and makes the soil lighter.
• It provides a balanced source of plant nutrients.
• It stimulates beneficial organisms.
• It cuts down on the cost of (chemical) fertilizers.

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What is worm tea or compost tea?

Worm tea is a liquid fertilizer that is created inside a worm farm. The compost tea results from the composting process and contains the liquid residue worm castings and decomposed organic waste with water.

It is rich in beneficial bacteria and microbes that help to create healthy and living soil. It also improves the structure of the soil. The microbe-rich worm tea is a natural fertilizer that can boost the microbiological activity in your garden’s soil. It is also known as ‘liquid gold’ or ‘earthworm tea.’

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Types of composting receptacles

There are many ways to start composting at home in your garden. You can make your composter or worm farm with the help of DIY instructions. Or you can start a compost pile on the ground in your garden, but this ‘open process’ of composting takes more time. The most efficient way is to buy a dedicated composting bin.

There are generally three types of composting bins:

1. Standing compost bin.
2. Tumbling compost bin.
3. Vermicomposter or worm farm.

What is a standing compost bin?

A compost bin is a non-tumbling, traditional, and stationary container in which you can make compost. These composting bins generally have a larger capacity than compost tumblers, around 2 – 3 times the volume. With a pitchfork or compost aerator, you need to turn or mix the composting materials a few times per week.

This is the main downside of a non-tumbling composting bin because it is relatively hard to turn and mix larger compost volumes. The advantage is that a compost bin is relatively inexpensive and has a large volume for a small footprint.

What is a tumbling compost bin?

A compost tumbler is a stationary installation where the tumbler’s chamber can rotate to mix and turn the compost easily without the need to use a pitchfork or compost aerator. Traditionally compost tumblers consist of two key parts.

First, a plastic or metal, aerated barrel or drum with one or two doors depends on the number of compartments you put your biodegradable waste in. This barrel sits on a metal frame to keep it off the ground and to make it possible to rotate the barrel to mix its contents.

It is also less easy for rats or pests to have access to your compost bin. You rotate it with a handle that is attached to one side of the chamber. The downside is that a compost tumbler is more expensive than a regular composting bin, and it offers less capacity since it is standing on a frame.

What is a vermicomposter?

A vermicomposter is also known as a worm farm. With a worm-farm, you also generate your compost, but with a different technique. A worm compost bin uses loads of earthworms that turn your organic waste into vermicompost and worm tea, a liquid fertilizer.

A worm farm’s setup process takes some time and patience, but once it is set up, the worms will do the rest. The only thing you need to do is providing organic waste to the vermicomposter, be nice to your worms and gather the compost and worm tea regularly.

A worm farm looks like a small cabinet with multiple layers, and this is where the worms live in. At the bottom, you can find a tap or spigot to drain the worm tea.

Top 10 Bins for Composting

• Check Top 10 at Amazon
• Check Top 10 at Walmart

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What material can you put in a compost bin?

A rule of thumb is to use a combination of non-contaminated and non-chemical brown waste and green waste materials that are natural, organic, and biodegradable. Brown materials are dry and high in carbon, and green materials are wet and high in nitrogen. For faster decomposing, we recommended making the material smaller or shredding the material.

When you are a beginner with composting, you can use an organic compost starter. This is a natural-based product full of microbes to kick start the decomposing process of your starter compost.

Most people reuse their biodegradable kitchen scraps and garden waste to feed into the compost bin which otherwise would going to the landfill.

Do use brown waste materials:

• Straw
• Dry Leaves
• Pine needles
• Old newspapers
• Shredded paper
• Cardboard (no tape)
• Sawdust
• Small wood chips
• Wood ashes
• Peanut and nutshells
• Wooden toothpicks
• Wine corks

Do use green waste materials:

• Food scraps
• Vegetable peels
• Fruit skins
• Coffee grounds
• Unbleached coffee filters
• Grass clippings
• Garden and lawn waste
• Fresh leaves
• Fresh teal leaves

Try to avoid these products:

When you start your first compost pile it is recommended to avoid a few products that decompose very slowly. These products are biodegradable and not harmful, but it has a negative influence on the composting process.

• Onions
• Garlic
• Eggshells
• Citrus peels.

Try to avoid onions and garlic inside your compost bin because these tend to have a negative effect on the decomposing process. When you first start your composting pile, it is better to avoid eggshells because these will not decompose completely in a new compost heap, which results in compost with small pieces of eggshells. Lastly, citrus peels can also take a while to decompose completely, so it is better to skip these.

Do not use these products:

• Coal ash
• Cat or dog feces
• Meat or bones
• Fish meat or bones
• Oil or greace
• Toxic and chemical materials
• Dairy products
• Tissue paper
• Plastic
• Drinking cartons
• Diapers
• Sanitary products
• Cat litter

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How to start your first compost pile?

Composting is a relatively easy process. Misconceptions are that composting is difficult, hard to do, complicated, smells bad, and requires a lot of time and labor. That might be true when you are doing the process of composting the wrong way, respectively. But with the right tools and guidance, composting is very easy, simple, and fun to do. Especially when you already like gardening or your kitchen garden where you grow your fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

The process of composting is easy, fun and relaxing to do. Over the years it has become an increasingly popular trend for people that want to embrace sustainable practices.

All you need for your starter compost are the suitable materials, the right tools, and the right environment to start the decomposing process of your organic waste streams. But please note, there is one big difference to understand first.

The composting process differs between a regular composting bin or tumbler and a so-called worm farm, known as ‘vermicomposting.’ With the latter, you use special composting worms to turn kitchen waste into rich compost and liquid fertilizer, known as ‘worm tea.’ We walk you through both composting processes briefly.

Composting process with a composting bin:

1. Add a layer of brown material.
2. Spray water over the layer.
3. Add a layer of green material.
4. Spray water over the layer.
5. Repeat this process until the container is full.
6. When you have the right mixture of material and moisture the temperature will rise inside the bin. Use a compost thermometer to measure the temperature. Good compost should warm up between 120 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit, this is called the ‘compost zone’. The heat helps the microbes to break down the organic matter.
7. You speed up the decomposing process by mixing, stirring, or aerating it. This is the easiest with a tumbling composter. With a regular bin, you can use a compost aerator, which is a tool to mix up the compost.
8. Turn your compost pile over at least once a week.
9. The compost is ready within a couple of months, depending on the capacity.

Recommended Guides and tips

• Recyclenow.com – Setting up your compost bin
• GardeningKnowHow.com – Composting how to
• Eartheasy.com – How to make nutrient-rich compost

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Good compost should smell like good soil. When it is not, try to find out if the compost is too dry or too wet and adjust the mixture based on this.

Vermi-composting process with a worm farm:

1. Use a special worm compost bin with multiple trays or compartments with a grid on the bottom.
2. Use recommended compost worms.
3. Follow the instructions that came with the worm farm bin.
4. Place a coco fiber brick in a bowl a cover it with water, the coco fiber expands.
5. Place a few sheets of newspaper on the bottom of one of the trays of your worm farm bin.
6. Layer the coco fiber on top of the newspaper sheets.
7. Now add the worms with wet shredded paper to the bedding and cover them with a warm blanket or old fabric towel. You can use a paper shredder to turn your old documents into tiny strips or particles that you can use as bedding for your worm farm.
8. Close off the bin with the lid.
9. Let your worms acclimatize to their new environment for a week.
10. After a week you can add your food scraps and cover it with the worm bedding, replace the blanket, and cover the bin with the lid.
11. Feed your worms regularly, but don’t overfeed your worms.
12. When your first tray is composting correctly you can start preparing your second tray and place it on top. The worms will migrate to this tray when they are out of food in the bottom tray.
13. When the composting process is done you can harvest the rich compost from the finished tray and you can tap worm tea which is a liquid fertilizer.

Recommended Guides and tips

• EPA.gov – How to create an indoor worm composting bin
• PlanetNatural.com – Worm composting 101
• ModernFarmer.com – How to build a worm farm

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Recommended tools & equipment

Essential Compost Tools

Tools for Compost Bin or Tumbler

Tools for Worm Farm

Helpful Equipment