Happy Friday — we’re back with more Hot Bones after a week where pretty much the whole country got to experience the typically Mid-Atlantic-based “swamp ass” syndrome. Hope everyone’s cooling off by now.

This edition is a little special: A while back, I reached out to a company called Lomi because G and I (mostly me) waste a ton of food. They sent me one of their space-age countertop food recyclers and we’ve been using it for about a month now. They’re not paying me for this write-up, but they did give me a free product. 

For what it’s worth, if other brands want to send me sustainable things to review, I’ll happily do so — especially if it’s a comped visit to one of the Aman Resorts.

G and I have known each other for about seven years, and pretty quickly into dating we adopted “our tasks.” I think all relationships have this: It’s a very couple-specific division of labor that comes from one person saying “I hate undoing the dishwasher” and the other person stupidly responding “Really? I don’t mind it.” And then they are assigned that task until either breakup or death.

Do any of these ring a bell in your own relationship?

Thelistgoesonandonnnnn

I’d like to direct your attention to column 1, row 3: Takes out the trash. As you might imagine from yours truly the germaphobe, this chore has been assigned to G for life. Over the years, that’s meant dealing with the trash in the rain, the snow, the heat, and that one time with a raccoon sleeping in our outdoor bin. She’s a superstar. (G, not the raccoon.)

Bundled under the trash category is a niche subset that thankfully I have also shirked (I do our taxes!). G deals with our food waste — which by the way costs the average US family of four nearly $3k every year according to the EPA.

G is the one emptying week-old tupperware full of half-eaten takeout, removing the bags of lettuce that are somehow already past their prime, and of course throwing out the oranges that I’m constantly inspired to buy at the grocery store but never get around to eating before they’ve gone wobbly.

All this to say, beyond illustrating another reason G is a saint, that she’s our resident food waste expert and this edition will need to rely heavily on her expertise for reviewing the Lomi food recycler I mentioned up top.

Unfortunately, she’s in Nantucket for two weeks helping produce their annual film festival (tough life), and I’ve run away to my parents’ place for the free dog care (and I wouldn’t want to disturb their own delicate chore ecosystem by, I dunno, helping with their food trash). So we’re going to have to get creative here.

How about a long-distance interview for a temporarily long-distance relationship?

Here we go. G, can you tell us where you are right now?

I’m right in downtown Nantucket.

How many beautiful shingle buildings can you see?

Oh, so many. I’ll take a picture of one for you in a moment.

Perfect. Switching gears entirely: You run Lomi operations.

I do at our home, yeah.

Can you tell us why you wanted to get a food recycler?

I wanted to get a food recycler because it seems that in our household, we generate quite a bit of food waste. We have some really ambitious grocery lists that never seem to work out, and I’ve never felt good about the volume of waste that we were generating, especially knowing that we could avoid it by composting. And by knowing that my wife would never go for a low-fi composter …

Why?

Because I knew you’d think it’s gross. Even though it’s totally normal and natural and lots of people do it.

Wait, what exactly do you mean by a low-fi composter?

Like one of those little silver R2-D2-size containers that lives on your counter, and you have a compostable liner in it, and you can put your food scraps in there, and it just lives in your home.

Oh dear god.

And when it gets full, you pull the liner out. What? Why are you laughing?

You’re describing a trash can but on your counter, where we prepare food.

No, it’s food waste! It’s natural, it’s not trash. It’s just all the food we didn’t eat, ok?

And then it incentivizes you to minimize your waste. Because you’re like, “Wow, I’d really prefer not to be smelling these green beans in three days. So let’s cook and eat them.”

[Hmmm. If you are interested in a low-fi device like this, the Times has a good review section here. Best of luck to you.]

But we didn’t get that. What did we get instead?

We got a Lomi.

And what’s a Lomi?

A Lomi is also a tiny R2D2-size container, except it’s very heavy, and you plug it in, and you open the top, and you put all your food scraps in it, and it sort of super heats and grinds your food waste into a dirt-like substance.

Backtracking for a second. What’s the worst thing you've had to throw away?

Every time you ask me to throw away an entire loaf of bread, that makes me really sad.

They were moldy! But I guess I’m the villain of the story.

You are, you are, and it’s actually refreshing to hear you acknowledge that, you know.

I think you’re going through a tunnel because this part of the recording seems to be all garbled.

What’s your next question?

Okay, this is my last question for part 1: What’s the best thing about the Lomi so far?

I like that it sits out of the way. It’s not intrusive in our day-to-day, and I have found it to be pretty odorless, which is great. The charcoal filters have worked really well.

So your favorite things about the Lomi are that it can be tucked away and that you don’t smell any food waste? May I point out those are the two main attributes you were not looking for in your original low-fi composter statement.

Ok, I walked right into that.

Perfect, I’m going to end there while I haven’t said anything too incriminating yet. I’m stopping the recording, and I'm letting you go back to your beach vacation.

It’s not a beach vacation. I’m so tired.

Hello. I’m whispering because it’s late and I don’t want to wake up the dog and have to take her out again.

Ok I’ll whisper too then. This will be our ASMR episode.

Question 1: Can you walk us through the Lomi food recycling process?

Yes, so as you cook and collect food scraps, you put them into a ceramic inner basin within the Lomi. Typically, it can take us one to two days before we’re ready to run a cycle, but if we’re cooking a big meal we could fill the Lomi basin in one evening.

We typically run a cycle at night while we’re all asleep. I feel like we wait to turn it on at night when other appliances aren’t running because it takes so much energy.

It actually doesn’t take that much energy, but it feels like it does.

Ok well you can explain to your readers all about how you fact checked me.

[FACT CHECK: The Lomi uses between 0.6 to 1 kWh per cycle, whereas running your dishwasher uses roughly 1-2 kWh per load 🫡]

After a cycle runs, I open the lid and it’s amazing: The Lomi’s created this almost soil-like substance. It’s not wet at all. It’s perfectly dry. I can pick up the inner basin and I can shake it around and the “pre-dirt” moves around. It’s not sticky.

[Quick note: The Lomi doesn’t technically compost food. It dehydrates it and starts the composting process. So you don’t end up with dirt, you end up with “pre-dirt.” This is helpful for kickstarting your own backyard composting, amending your soil, or just avoiding rotting food in your fridge.]

What I really like is that when we put our coffee filters and coffee grounds in the Lomi the “dirt” kind of smells like chocolate.

And then with the Lomi dirt in there, I can take that and put it straight into our big compost bin outside. It works for us because we’re not at the stage yet where we can put the Lomi stuff directly in our garden, so this is the next best thing.

Why can’t we put it directly in our garden?

Because in order to create Lomi dirt that goes directly in the garden, you have to run what’s called the Grow cycle, which is the cycle that takes the longest. Typically I like to run a short cycle because it’s running for less time.

Have we ever put it on our lawn?

We haven’t, but I would love to. Our lawn is a bit of a work in progress as you know.

Yeah, it can only improve. We’re at the bottom.

We’re not at the bottom. I’ve bought some very lovely plants.

Where?

From Ivy nursery.

No, like where are they in the yard?

Those hydrangeas that are dying because of the heat waves!

Yikessss. Ok next question: Tell me about the noise level of the Lomi.

The noise level is pretty unobtrusive. It’s just a low and gentle hum, even better than a dishwasher noise. I have a theory that the dog is comforted by it at night.

That must be why our dog is perfect.

And what about the Lomi app?

The app is amazing. The best part is that there’s a search bar where I put in sweet potato or lemon rind or coffee filters and it will tell you 1) if it can go in the Lomi at all and 2) if so, how much and even how much by cycle type.

And could you glue me in on how much food we fart? ← I’m dying. This is what the transcript came up with. In reality: Could you clue me in on how much food waste we’ve diverted?

Standby … We have diverted 37 pounds of waste from landfills.

That’s amazing. 37 pounds, that’s like multiple bowling balls.

And we’ve completed 17 cycles in just a couple months.

Good morning. Where are you on the island today?

I’m sitting on the patio outside my in-law suite, with coffee.

Very important.

Last set of questions: Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot is that using a countertop food recycler feels slightly silly given that we have an actual composting service that picks up our green bin every other week. And a lot of cities now have their own free composting services, like NYC and DC. Why should we have both?

I totally agree with you that it feels redundant and that when given the opportunity we should take advantage of the local resources and services offered to us.

However, one thing that I really like about the Lomi is that built-in digital database that we get access to, so I can search specific foods and they tell me what’s good to go and what’s not.

Yeah, and I do think another element is just our laziness. Like, we could take our food scraps all the way out to the trash bin every night, but realistically that’s never going to happen.

Totally. It’s way easier to put them in the trashcan, but if we put the Lomi next to the trashcan, it’s equally as easy.

To that end, do you think there’s an ideal user for a Lomi?

I think the urban use case is a great example. If you’re in a 200-unit apartment and are really committed to sustainability, you can bring your Lomi dirt down to the basement composter bin in the morning — or to a nearby community garden — without all the smells or sogginess.

I also think it would be amazing for offices because it’s easy to use and you just have to hit a button and go.

Yeah, and not to plug Lomi’s competitor but the Mill, which is trashcan-size and $1k a pop, just released a workplace service.

Alright, this is a woo-woo question: How do you feel after you've used the Lomi? Give me some adjectives.

I feel responsible, I feel content, I feel at peace, I feel proud that we have it and that it’s reducing our food waste even a little bit because we do seem to have a lot of it.

It sounds like the Lomi is actually a four-star resort.

Basically, yes.

I feel at peace. I feel like I’m at an infinity pool. There is a margarita in my hand.

Last question: What else should Hot Bones readers know about food recyclers and home composting?

The price tag might feel steep [$449 for the Lomi 3 version], but it’s worth the investment for how seamlessly it blends into your routine and into your life. It’s been fun to test that and realize that we actually use it fairly consistently. At least every other day.

Great, thanks. I’m going to turn this recording off and let you get back to your beach vacation.

It’s not a vacation. Please stop saying that.

If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to G directly — she’ll have the best answers, and she’s just lounging in the Nantucket sand for at least a few more days. I may die for that sentence.

I’ll share the best responses/worst offenders next week!

🍅 Meal of the week: Two-way tie between classic gazpacho or a chilled bowl of cucumber avocado salad for dinner this weekend. 

🥚 BYO egg salad: And whatever else you like to eat in the fresh summer air, because the second Picnic with the Perennial Collection is going on at the Quarry Gardens at Schuyler on Saturday, July 12 from 6-8pm.

🚣 Wow so many picnics: There’s also the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Picnic & Paddle from 12-5pm that same Saturday, so if you timed it right you could picnic-hop for 8 hours straight.

🐶 Pet of the week: Duke! Calm, loving demeanor. Impossible words for a 5-month-old puppy? (male, 32 pounds, hound dog)

🏡 House of the week: If enough Hot Bones readers chip in, this feels doable? Highlights include a private trail system down to the Rivanna, a pool, and yeah sure the whole National Historic Landmark thing.

💼 Job of the week: Full-time position just opened up at local biz Refill Renew in Cville (starting at $15/hour).