OXO Good Grips Easy-Clean Compost Bin, Charcoal, 1.75 Gal/6.62 L

Why it's worth it

The OXO Easy-Clean Compost Bin is a 1.75-gallon collection vessel with a lid that stays open when you need it and a smooth interior that rinses clean. It doesn't compost anything, and for a lot of people, it doesn't need to.

Most people asking about indoor composters don't actually need an appliance. If your city collects scraps, or you have a pile in the yard, or you drop off at a farmers market, all you need is something to hold three days of coffee grounds without stinking or attracting flies. That's this. Wirecutter named it their top passive countertop pick after comparing six bins over six months, singling out the lid mechanism as the most functional one-handed opening in the group.

The lid design is the whole product. It stays open while you're chopping, so you're not tapping a foot pedal or setting down a wet knife to lift it. It closes soft. And it's removable, which matters when you're dumping a full bin or scrubbing it out. Small things, but they're the things that determine whether a bin gets used or shoved in a cabinet.

From our review of 7 indoor and countertop composters, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +Most people asking about indoor composters don't actually need an appliance
• +The lid design is the whole product
• +OXO built it to be cleaned, which is where cheap bins fail
• +At 1.75 gallons it's genuinely sized for a busy kitchen — enough for a few days for most households, small enough to sit beside…

What to know

• –There's no charcoal filter, and some owners wish there were
• –It's a bucket. It won't reduce your waste volume, produce anything for your garden, or spare you the trip outside