Composting in a Flat or Small Space: What Actually Works in Scotland

A flat doesn't rule out composting. A worm bin or a bokashi bucket works indoors, a tumbler needs a balcony or shared yard, and Scottish councils must provide a food waste collection, which is the answer if you have no space at all.

Why this matters in Scotland

Tenement flats are the most common type of home in Scottish towns and cities, around 28% of urban housing (582,000 dwellings) in the Scottish Government's 2024 housing survey. A lot of Scottish gardeners and would-be composters have no garden to put a heap in.

They do have a legal fallback. The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 require every Scottish council to provide households with a receptacle for separate food waste collection, in force since 1 January 2016, with exceptions including some rural areas. England's weekly food waste collections only became required from 31 March 2026.

The four options compared

Worm bin: the main indoor option

A wormery usually has two compartments: a lower sump that collects liquid, and an upper area where the kitchen waste goes in and the worms work. The worms are brandling or tiger worms, not ordinary earthworms, and a kit comes with them. It can sit in a kitchen, utility room or balcony, but if it's neglected it can produce odours, so look after it.

Setting up. Put an 8cm layer of moist bedding such as old compost or coir in the bottom, add the worms, cover with no more than 8–10cm of kitchen waste, and leave it for about a week for the worms to settle. Then add small amounts of waste often, chopped small so it's eaten faster, and either place it on top or bury it in feeding pockets.

What goes in. Raw and cooked vegetables, all fruit except citrus peel (limit it, or cook it first), tea bags, eggshells, coffee grounds, a little bread, and limited newspaper, shredded paper and cardboard, but not glossy magazines. Use onions, shallots, leeks and garlic in small amounts, or cooked. What stays out: dairy, fat, grease, meat, fish and bones, which attract pests and flies. Seeds in scraps can germinateA seed sprouting: breaking dormancy and putting out its first root and shoot, given the right warmth and moisture. Full definition → in the bin.

Temperature. Worms are most active at 18–25°C, which suits an indoor flat, and their activity noticeably declines below 10°C and above 30°C. Keep the bin where it won't get too cold in winter or too hot in summer, and keep up the temperature in winter if you want it to work faster. It takes 8 to 12 months to fill, and you must separate the worms before using the compost. An established wormery can be left for up to four weeks without food, for instance on holiday, but drain off any liquid that builds up so it doesn't waterlog.

If it smells. Too much waste is the usual cause: remove the excess or undigested food, and wait until the worms are digesting the top layer before adding more. Too much liquid is the other: drain it off, add shredded paper or card to soak up moisture, and make sure the bin has drainage holes. Fruit flies, which are harmless but a nuisance, come from strong-smelling waste, and you can avoid them by burying new waste in the decomposed material or covering it with damp newspaper. Don't use chemicals on the flies, as they would harm the worms. Check the worms are alive if the bin has been left unattended.

Over a Scottish winter. A wormery on an unheated balcony or in a stair cupboard may get too cold for the worms. Bring it indoors, wrap it in a duvet or bubble wrap, or feed it less and check on it more often.

Using the results. Worm compost works as a general soil conditioner or part of homemade potting compost, and the liquid can feed plants once diluted one part to ten of water. With a balcony or window boxes, that's your use. If you have no containers, a neighbour or allotment holder may take it.

Bokashi

Bokashi ferments waste in an airtight bucket, using bran that carries beneficial bacteria, so cooked food, meat and dairy decompose without air. It's the other method that works indoors. The output is a pre-compost that still needs burying in soil or finishing in another system, which is the step that catches flat-dwellers out. See bokashi composting for the steps and what to do over a Scottish winter.

Tumbler composter

A tumbler is an enclosed drum on a frame that you turn by hand to mix the contents. It works like a small compost bin, so it takes raw kitchen waste and garden waste but not meat, dairy or fat, and it needs outdoor space such as a balcony or shared yard to stand in. In a shared back court a sealed tumbler is a better choice than an open heap, because rats are the usual objection, and meat, dairy and fat draw rodents however well the container is sealed. Keep a balance of green and brown material and turn it regularly, because a drum overloaded with wet scraps turns smelly.

Council food waste collection

This is the option that needs nothing owned, and it takes cooked and uncooked food, including meat and dairy that you can't home-compost. How it works for flats depends on your council. In Edinburgh, nearly every household has a weekly collection, either at the kerbside or through a communal bin, and kitchen caddies are free. Food must be bagged or wrapped, in a compostable liner, a plastic bag, a bread bag or paper, so it comes out of the bin. Edinburgh's food waste is treated at the Biogen plant at Millerhill by anaerobic digestion, which makes gas for the grid and fertiliser, and the plant recycles 10,000 tonnes a year. A caddy complements a wormery, since the council takes the bones and cooked food a wormery can't. If the caddy smells or draws flies between collections, freeze the scraps until collection day. Other councils run it differently, and set-ups for tenements vary, so check your own council's page.

Community composting

Some community composting schemes collect garden waste from local households, shred and compost it centrally over several months, and sell the finished compost back to the community. Coverage isn't universal, so look for a scheme near you, such as through an allotment association or community garden. Allotment sites and community gardens often take food waste or compost from non-members, and contact details are usually on their website or noticeboard. Waiting lists for plots can be long, so don't join just for this.

Common questions

Sources