Pinzon 1-Gallon Ceramic Compost Pail [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Comment: This compost pail is made of heavy ceramic and is quite small. It can hold the vegetable trimmings from 1 meal when I cook for 2. It's an attractive way to hold compost until you can take it outside. The handle is very basic wire - I would prefer if it was a little better made and had more of a handle so the wire doesn't dig into your hand when carrying the heavy pail outside. The wire is just wrapped around the two ends, so it can pop off. Since it's not very secure, I don't trust it and just hold the whole thing in my hand when taking it outside. I like that it comes with the charcoal filter to help with odors. Since it doesn't hold very much, you do have to take it outside quite often and because of this, it hasn't been inside the house long enough for any odors to accumulate. If you're looking for a very basic little ceramic pail to hold your composting items - this is a good choice but it's nothing to write home about.

Comment: I had been using a malamine bowl to throw scraps into before taking to the composter. The trouble with the bowl was the odors if I forgot to take it outside. I wanted something that wouldn't emit odors if left for more than 1 day. The Pinzon 1-Gallon Compost Pail is perfect. I placed potato peels and several egg shells into the composter and left for 3 days. After three days there were no noticible odors in my kitchen.

It's attractive enough to leave on a counter and small enough to place under the kitchen sink. The carbon filters are easy to rinse clean and I place the pail in the dishwasher to sanitize as well as clean. Overall I'm very pleased with this compost pail.

Comment: It's a very small compost pail. I use it just for myself and my husband, and we filled the jar quite quickly. I would imagine a family of four would fill this pail once a day or at least every other day. The filter definitely keeps the odors at bay, as we haven't noticed any "garbage" smell coming from the pail at all.

If you are looking for a great looking compost pail, this one will fit the bill if you don't expect something too big. On the plus side, the size of this pail is small enough and will not take up too much space, which is a positive to many of us.

Comment: I have this and a Norpro 88 Bamboo Compost Keeper. I also purchased for my mother an RSVP Bamboo Compost Pail . I recommend either bamboo model (they're basically identical except for the inner pail, and right now the RSVP is cheaper) over this one.

I've found the bamboo to be very durable, and my only real complaint about it is that the handle on the plastic inner pail is totally inadequate to the task. It's useful for lifting the pail out a few inches, but it MUST be carried from the bottom if you don't want food scraps all over the floor!

This ceramic model, though, doesn't come with an inner pail, which means that it takes up slightly less space but holds pretty much the same amount of waste. The drawback here is that when it's full, it's pretty heavy, and I'm not sure I fully trust the handle on it not to slide off. I also worry about its durability -- I haven't chipped the lid yet, but I think it's only a matter of time. On the other hand, I haven't experienced any bamboo splitting as others have described even after 8 months of use.

All that said, I think my biggest complaint with the ceramic model is that it looks almost exactly like a fire hydrant. It wouldn't be ugly if not for that association, but unless your decor depends on very bright white ceramics, I'd go with the bamboo model for aesthetic reasons alone.

This pail does get three stars because it does its intended job perfectly adequately. It's just that there's a much better option out there.

Comment: What a nice surprise. It looks attractive in white porcelain and takes up little space. We use this for cooking scraps as we recycle.

The odor filter seems to work well so long as you clean it out every few days.

It also doubles as a nice wine cooler! Put some ice in there and slide the bottle down and voila...nice cool wine.

More uses than you think.