Turning your everyday food scraps into garden gold is an appealing concept: Spend between $180 and $1,000, plug in your food recycler, dump in your leftovers, and press a button. Voilà, you’ve got compost—or fertilizer—for your garden.
Look at you, doing your part for a greener and better world!
If only it were that simple.
These food recyclers—often referred to as countertop composters—don’t actually produce compost. Yet the companies behind these machines have some awfully big marketing boasts. “Be an Eco-Warrior With the Push of a Button,” crows FoodCycler. “Fight Extreme Poverty Through Tree Planting And avoid methane emissions through composting with Reencle!” this company gushes in an unconventionally capitalized marketing statement.
