The Mill Kitchen Bin Is the Closest a Home Composter Can Get to Perfect

Okay, so the Mill Bin is not actually a composter—composting is a form of biological digestion that breaks down organic material with the help of heat, sunlight, microbes, and sometimes worms. This appliance, on the other hand, grinds, shrinks, and dehydrates your food waste until you’re left with a soil-like end result that’s still food—just without the stink, rot, or heft. It preserves the nutrients so it can remain as food for chickens. That’s why you can’t add things like home compostable bioplastics (like that takeout cutlery) or plant clippings to the Bin.

It has the same look as a step trash can, but it’s fitted with a large, removable bin where you toss your food. Each night the Mill locks and begins a cycle lasting anywhere from 3 to 16 hours, depending on the volume of food scraps you put in that day.

My experience

From setup to Food Grounds shipping day, I had a delightful time using the Mill. It’s a bit heavy and awkward for one person to set it up, so I’d recommend having a friend or partner help. It stayed clean, ran quietly, had an intuitive app platform, and chomped up pretty much any kind of food I threw in it. Whenever I wasn’t sure if a kitchen scrap was allowed, I looked it up in the app’s extensive glossary.

During my testing period, Millie (my pet name for it) ran without a hitch—even after parties…and that one time a dozen eggs expired and I had to put them all in the bin. (Sorry!) I put everything in the bin, from salmon skin to small bones to cooked veggies, and the machine was happy with it all.

I didn’t notice a significant change in my monthly electric bill, which I was pleasantly surprised by. Moreover, it took an entire month for the bin to fill up without the need to empty it. Once it was time, setting up USPS pickup via the Mill app was seamless. About a week after my Food Grounds were picked up, I received a fun email breaking down (wink) my batch of grounds, which helped me understand the environmental impact of food waste in an easy-to-digest way.