Taylor McCarten is the Co-founder & CEO of Build A Better Earth, Ltd, the parent company of BinBreeze.

Separating your organic waste from the trash can be a smelly, inconvenient, and insect-ridden experience. We all want to compost, but it is tough to welcome decomposition and insects into the clean and sacred place we prepare our food – and for those who compost their food scraps themselves, the buffet of unpleasantries and additional labor makes the reward of nutrient-rich compost seem distant. Why does composting have to be this way? Well, it doesn’t…

United in the desire to make sustainable habits more attainable, a student-teacher team at the University of Victoria created BinBreeze.

What is BinBreeze

BinBreeze is designed to make composting simple, rewarding, and more convenient. This means no more fruit flies, no more odors, and no more dripping bags. You can now actually wait until the bin is full instead of emptying out a bin early due to the smell. Even more amazingly, by treating your compost with BinBreeze, you are sequestering carbon, reducing the methane emissions that compost can produce, and making a more nutritious soil for your compost or your municipal facility.

Now you may be asking yourself: how is this possible? Well…

BinBreeze is made up of recycled wood waste, fossilized algae, soil-boosting minerals, and essential oils. Each ingredient in BinBreeze plays a crucial role in combating these everyday smelly, moist (ew), fruit fly-infested composting problems. Let’s break it down:

Fruit Flies

Fruit Flies were created by the Norse God Loki to annoy humanity into submission; they materialize whenever humans want to make something particularly tasty in the kitchen. Okay… that statement is completely FALSE, but it does feel like those pesky fruit flies seemingly appear out of thin air, right?

The truth is, fruit flies enter your house in three ways:

• From eggs and larva in the fruit you purchase, which then hatch inside your house
• From open windows and doors
• Or… they are already inside your house ( o_o)

In the last decade, invasive species of fruit flies, like the ‘Spotted-Wing Drosophila,’ have invaded North America and now infiltrate fruit while it is still on the tree! We bring that fruit home, and place the offspring in a haven for fruit flies – your compost bin. From that launch point, they infest food matter wherever it can be found in your home.

So how does BinBreeze address this major issue? The fossilized algae in BinBreeze are sharp and hyper-absorbent, and through a mechanical process, they suck the moisture entirely out of fruit flies. This renders them unable to fly and eventually they compost right alongside your food waste. Diligent application of BinBreeze into the bin ensures that any larva present does not infest elsewhere.

Smell & Moisture

BinBreeze was scientifically designed to encourage aerobic decomposition – the non-stinky kind! Applying BinBreeze in between layers of food waste creates a natural filter that provides carbon and allows air into the composting process, changing the chemical reaction and neutralizing the smell of decomposing scraps. BinBreeze also has scented versions such as lavender from essential oils, so your compost smells great!

Applying BinBreeze to your compost also helps with moisture built-up from the natural decomposition of food waste. The wood combined with the fossilized algae soaks up excess liquid due to their naturally absorbent properties.

Part of a Circular-Economy

BinBreeze is not just a solution to your composting problems, it’s a green solution.

Sequestering carbon

The wood waste used in BinBreeze is sourced from industrial operations that may otherwise have to burn that waste for disposal, creating harmful emissions. BinBreeze captures around 70% of carbon emissions back into the soil that would otherwise be released directly into the atmosphere. The remaining 30% is lost during the natural decomposition process of compost. Without the wood carbon, your compost will go anaerobic, creating even more harmful methane instead!

Reducing methane

Food waste does not wait to start decomposing. This means that while it sits in your kitchen, on the curb, or in transport to the green waste facility, the food waste is in an anaerobic state that releases harmful methane gas. By adding BinBreeze, you are adding carbon into the process sooner, reducing methane emissions.

Conclusion

BinBreeze makes composting rewarding and convenient. Our hope is to encourage the use of compost bins by eliminating all the hassle composting would otherwise bring. To those who already use a compost bin, thank you for making a sacrifice for sustainability. We hope BinBreeze allows food waste diversion to be so easy, it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice at all.

Your beautiful kitchen should not be swarming with fruit-flies, or the smell of last night’s dinner. A compost bin should be a proud staple of anyone’s kitchen, and BinBreeze can make that happen.

The story of BinBreeze is particularly unique in that as entrepreneurs we set out to solve a sustainable problem, with a sustainable solution. The way you do something, is as important as what you do. To learn more about the students and teachers that made BinBreeze a reality at www.BinBreeze.ca. BinBreeze can be found at participating grocery and hardware stores, including Sobeys and Canadian Tire, or you can purchase it directly from the website and have it shipped directly to your door.