Moving into residence or an apartment usually means that “avid composters” lose their motivation to put organic waste in what my family calls “the slop bucket”.

In Toronto and surrounding area, the green bin program allows residents to put their compost at the side of the street, much like garbage or recycling. The bin can even take things like used paper towels, paper plates and diapers. Since its introduction in 2005, the program has seen, on average, each participating household divert 200 kg of organics from the landfill annually.

Unfortunately, the program is not available for apartment (or college and university residence) habitants. The city doesn’t know how effective the program would be in multi-unit buildings.

Although, a friend of mine recently moved into a Toronto apartment and the landlords have set up a green bin system for residents of the building. My friend is a very active “green binner” and couldn’t be happier… I’m not too sure whether her neighbours are as eager as she is, though.

So what can students do to encourage composting in their newfound homes? Well, you can be like the students at McGill University who want to implement university-wide composting. They hope to divert almost all compost materials produced by students and staff from the landfill. They’ve started by gathering organic waste from select locations across the campus and are working towards making their project more comprehensive, including creating services for those who live off-campus. The program is offered a little or no cost to students, which is always an incentive.

Students could also consider vermicomposting. It’s composting with worms and it doesn’t take up too much room. It’s also a relatively cheap system. But with the strict pet rules that most residences have, would worms be allowed in your room?

Michel also showed me several ideas for the keen “wannabe-apartment-composter”. There are several pay-options for patio-owners including what I think is the fastest compost machine ever… Plus Edition Indoor Composter:

Compost is ready every 2 weeks, and the best thing is you can add food waste any time, any day. Waste items are processed continuously, mixed every 4 hours.

And over at eHow, they tell you how to make your own composter. If it’s done properly, it won’t be too messy and can be an inexpensive, green project.

Does anyone have a good cheap and effective composting idea? What do you do with all your organic waste in your residence or on campus?