Right now you do not have compost, you have a jug of waste in water. The bacteria, anaerobic in this instance, will be digesting that material and in the process creating a stinky mess. You need to get that out into the garden, buried deeply in your soil since you don't have a compost pile. That jug in the kitchen will not have enough volume to properly get what is there, even after the water is dumped, digested.

Do some internet exploring on compost bins/tumbler/containers and you'll see that all come equipped with lots of air holes and water drainage holes - even the kitchen counter type. You don't mention in your post that yours has any of these. Correct?

Oh yuck, I would never keep something like this in the house. What made you think that? It is outside on the side of the house. Are you saying that this won't compost because of the type of container it is? Or does it need more holes? I do stir it up about once a week.

Growingup: What kind of container is it? Is it a compost bin, a garbage can, a bucket? Lots of big holes on top, bottom, and sides?

Karen

If it smells, it's gone anaerobic. You probably have lots of greens in there and not enough browns, and too much moisture and not enough air. You get a newspaper, so shred that and mix it in, not just putting it on top. That'll do for browns if you don't have any other regular supply. Also cardboard works, just shred it up. You don't say what kind of bin it is, just that it's "closed" - are you using a garbage can or something like that? If so, it needs holes, including holes on the bottom to drain excess liquid - it's supposed to be moist but not wet.

It needs air. You're going to have a nasty sloppy stinky mess for a long time in a closed container. Mixing once a week- you'll have a mixed up nasty, sloppy stinky mess that needs air.

Dump it on the ground, add shredded leaves, and read the FAQ's here for some good tips. You heart is in the right place- you just need to start with the basics.

Best of luck

It is in those tubs that you store things in. I have shredded more newspaper and I will be drilling in some more holes for air circulation. Thanks.

so i have it out side of my apt building i don't want to bring it in side it smells. and iv'e never done this before i need some help ,p.s lots 'o' mold in it and its a coffee tin.HELP PLEASE!!!

I recently had the same problem when I grabbed the piles of grass from mowing the day before, and tossed them into my empty composter. Just grass and nothing else... until two days later when I noticed that the grass had brought a buddy to keep it company.... furry stinky mold. So I shredded some brown grocery bags in my office shredder, and threw in my old coffee grounds and coffee filters, turned it three to four times a day, and kept it aired out for a few days without adding water. My compost is back to normal. It needs lots of air. If mold is a continuing problem, set it in the sun with the lid off for a couple of days and add some shredded brown paper. Sun kills mold of all kinds. When you poke your holes in your coffee can, be sure to puncture from the inside to the outside so as to not trap water inside. I might even find some small stones to set it up on so it has ventilation under. If you have a metal lid it will build more heat. Compost turns to mulch faster if it is really hot, like sitting in the sun. You can put any kitchen food scraps in except: meat, butter, salt, so don't butter or season food before it hits your plate, and watch your canned goods. Once you get your composter three quarters full, stop filling. It will shrink, but don't add more. This will take approximately one month to turn to mulch. Remember, if it has a strong smell, you need more brown, if it's not breaking down, you have too much brown. If you set your coffee can on top of another coffee can, and collect the 'tea' when you water it, you can use this brown liquid on any other plants around your yard or garden, and they absolutely love it. This way, you don't have to wait until it's mulch to start benefiting your yard!

Back when I was a kid, in the 50's, we had garbage pickup once a month, there was a pail in the ground in the backyard that the garbage people would pick up the garbage from, the garbage was destined to go to a piggery someplace far away. My mom had this container on the edge of the sink with holes along the bottom edge. Any liquid in the garbage would drian into the sink, thereby keeping the food waste as dry as can be, we had no moldy growth issues, although mom emptied the garbage every day or so. My point is, if you can keep the garbage dry, the fuzzy mold won't happen as quickly. I have seen at fairs these food waste containers, stainless steel, they will have an elevated bottom for the liquid to drain to, a place for charcoal odor absorbers, and you can get disposable liners for the pails as well. They cost $40 or more in New England. Way too much money to invest in food waste. Are we elevating food waste to some high place in the kitchen. What is needed are containers like we had in the 50's that could drain into the sink to keep the fuzzy mold at bay.

Let's back up here a minute and consider the basics. Composting is just what nature does all the time. Think of a natural forest floor. What does it consist of? Mostly dead leaves and twigs. Sometimes a whole branch falls. Or a tree. Over time it decomposes into humus - a loamy brown crumbly material that is mostly carbon and is great at holding nutrients in the soil for plants.

Note that almost all of the debris on the forest floor is a high carbon ("brown") material. What does that tell you? Composting begins with the brown material. You need brown material to compost. You need high-carbon plant material + air + moisture. A big pile of fall leaves will compost on their own in about two years. If tree trimmers leave a big pile of chipped wood, it will start to compost pretty quickly - if there were green leaves mixed in there it would even start to get hot. Again, give it several years and nature will take care of it and you will have compost in the end.

Why do we add greens (high-nitrogen)? Mostly to make it go faster. Greens encourage bacteria which break down sugars and easily digestible material. They make the pile hotter, and the hotter it gets the more active bacteria are working. Eventually bacteria consume all the easy stuff, leaving behind the tough woody parts of the plant. Then fungi go to work slowly digesting the hard lecithin. Unfortunately, you can't speed up fungi. It's going to take them as long as it takes to finish off those tough structures.

Moral of the story - you can compost with all brown material (slowly), but you can't compost with all green material. You get smelly anaerobic sludge. Composting is all about the browns. They are not optional. If you want to compost, you need a supply of brown material. A cheap thing to buy is wood pellets made for stoves. But there are so many free natural sources of chipped wood or sawdust or fall leaves, it seems a shame to pay for it.