Bokashi Bin Review Australia | Go Green in 2026!

If you have kids, you have waste! Likely, a lot of it! 

Bokashi is a great alternative to throwing food scraps in the general bin. It’s becoming increasingly popular with both apartment and house dwellers! 

But, what is the best Bokashi bin in Australia? Is it better to use Bokashi bran or spray? Below is my Bokashi bin review.

So, what is the Best Bokashi Bin in Australia?

Here is my list: 

Best Overall — Bokashi One Two Bin Set and Bokashi One Compost Kit (Single Bin)

The Bokashi One Two-Bin Set is my personal favourite as it has everything you need to be successful in your Bokashi journey. But most importantly, the lid and tap are tightly fitted – keeping bad smells and insects away from my kitchen. 

You can also buy this product as a single Bokashi bin and bran kit. 

The two-bin system will allow you to alternate them: when bucket 1 is full, instead of taking it straight to the conventional compost bin (or bury it), you start using the second bucket. When you leave the full bucket undisturbed for extra fermentation time, it allows for the bacteria to further break down your food scraps. When bucket 2 is full, you then bury the contents of bucket 1 underground or empty it into the traditional compost bin. 

This set also comes with a 2L bag of Bokashi bran. The bran is full of ‘dormant’ bacteria that gets activated when mixed with your food waste. The ‘hardworking’ bacteria is responsible for fermenting and breaking down your food scraps.

If you are new to Bokashi composting, buying a two-bin set can feel like a big commitment. In fact, when I started I only bought one Bokashi bin, as I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with it before getting a second one. It is more expensive buying the two bins separately, but it is a great option if you are still unsure. The single bin ‘kit’ comes with a 2L bag of Bokashi bran.   

The Bokashi One bin comes in tan or black colours. Personally, I prefer black as I find it easier to keep it clean – or clean-looking! 

Best Bokashi Bin for Small Families — Urban Composter 7L

Most Bokashi Bins on the market are designed for big families, but this 7L option from Urban Composter is a perfect small alternative for small – or single person – families. 

Before having kids, I had a lot less food waste, which consisted mostly of non-edible fruit and vegetable peel, so there’s no doubt a small Bokashi bucket can be a great alternative, especially if your space is limited. 

This smaller Bokashi bin size is usually much cheaper than the standard 20L bins. 

This is a Bokashi bin only product. You will need to buy the spray or the Bokashi bran separately to be able to use it. 

Best Budget Option — Maze Indoor Compost Bin

Maze Indoor Compost has been a very popular Bokashi Bin for quite some time. It is an 18L Bokashi bin which is suitable for a medium to large size family and it is often a cheaper product compared to other brands. 

When I tried this product at a physical store, I found the lid and tap not to be as secure as other brands. Nevertheless, it can be a good alternative for those on a tight budget. 

This particular set comes with a 500ml Bokashi spray bottle. The spray has the same type of microorganisms as the Bokashi bran. You can later switch to bran or stick to spray. 

DIY Bokashi Bin

One of my friends, who is a keen fisher, managed to repurpose two fishing buckets into a Bokashi system! I thought that was very clever and decided it was worth mentioning here! While I would not personally go and buy buckets to transform them into Bokashi bins, if you already have the materials, it is worth considering. 

You will need two fishing buckets piled up – one of them with a tightly fitted lid. The internal bucket is where you dispose of your food scraps and it will need holes at the bottom for the juices to drain. The outside bucket is where you catch the juice, which can be used as liquid fertilizer when diluted with water. 

Bokashi Bran vs Bokashi Spray

Best Bokashi Bin aside, with this type of composting system you will need the ‘bacteria’ that ferments and breaks the food scraps down. There are two products available on the market containing this ‘friendly’ bacteria: the Bokashi bran and the spray. 

Bokashi Bran

Personally, I had better results with the bran as I find it easier to regulate quantities to get the ‘white mould’ (a sign the system is working well) growing!

Bokashi Spray — Compost Accelerator 

The spray is also a great alternative and it works best if you have limited space for storage. The spray is also more ‘wildlife’ proof as the bran can attract moths and, worst-case scenario, rodents! 

But is it worth switching to Bokashi or doing any compost at all? In my experience, yes! 

Sadly, our family of five produces a lot of food waste! It is not something I feel proud of, but it is my reality.

If your kids are anything like mine, they come home from school with pretty much all their packed lunches mostly untouched! While the battle to find the perfect lunch – aka the one that they eat – continues, I had to do something about the ridiculous amount of food scraps getting wasted!

I have always been a ‘lazy greenie’! I am keen to live sustainably, but between three kids, a full time job and household chores, living sustainably needs to be somewhat practical and achievable! Composting seemed super hard to me and throwing food in the rubbish bin was the easy option – until it wasn’t.

My rubbish bin was constantly full, smelly and natural habitat for insects and baby larvae to live in. It required constant emptying into my downstairs bin and regular hosing! Enough was enough!

After reading all about composting and different systems I decided it was time to get a Bokashi bin! 

What is Bokashi?

Technically, Bokashi is not ‘composting’ but rather a ‘fermentation’ process, where microorganisms are added to your food waste inside an airtight container. The bacteria present in a special Bokashi bran (or spray) that needs to be added to the waste will thrive in the absence of oxygen and will ferment and break down your food scraps. Nevertheless, this is not the end of it as the fermented food needs to either be buried or added to a traditional compost bin. 

But, what’s the point of Bokashi when it needs further composting? Why did I choose Bokashi vs traditional composting or a worm farm? 

These are very valid questions and yes, there are benefits of going through the two-step process: 

With a Bokashi, you can leave your bin on the kitchen bench (or cupboard, or floor) and dispose of your food scraps directly there. It can stay there until it is full – for our family that takes about three weeks. That means no daily trips to feed the worms or to take food scraps to the compost bin downstairs! 

Fermented food scraps will turn into nutrient-rich soil much faster than non-fermented food waste.

With Bokashi, I get to dispose of pretty much any food waste including bread, citrus, meat, dairy, etc – all items not usually advised for conventional composting. The difference is the fermentation process which breaks these items down making them safe to be added to your bin.

That is not my case, but a Bokashi bucket allows people, who don’t have the space for a compost bin, to collect their food waste and take it to a community garden or to someone else’s compost. Apps such as ShareWaste have made it possible to locate people who live nearby and are happy for others to use their compost bin. 

What to consider when buying a Bokashi bucket?

Does Bokashi smell bad?

I was really scared of getting my first Bokashi as I read many reviewers complaining about bad smells and insects! But hey, it could not be worse than throwing food in the general rubbish bin! My experience is that a tightly sealed Bokashi bin does not smell unless you have opened it – which only happens when I add scraps to it. 

Well, the acidic smell that comes out of it when open is very strong and unpleasant, but it is only there for a very brief period of time. Compared to having food in the general rubbish bin, it has been a massive improvement!

If the smell persists when the lid is on, you can assume air is going in/out – meaning your Bokashi bin is not tightly sealed or the quality of the bucket is poor, which takes me to my next point! 

Tight Lids and Taps! 

Not all Bokashi bins are equal! Look for a lid and tap that closes properly and tightly! It will save you from bad smells, insects and will guarantee that the anaerobic process can take place! 

Replacement Parts for Bokashi

Even the top-quality lids and taps can break after extended and frequent use. To be able to buy spare parts if/when that happens is definitely a selling point!  

Size

The size of your family and the space you have available will dictate the size of the bin! For our family of five, I went with the biggest size I could find – the 20 litre bin! For a single-person household, a smaller bin could work well! 

Is Bokashi suitable for dog poo compost?

For pets and dog poop, I strongly recommend EnsoPet Bokashi pet waste system.

Animal waste can be composted, but you need to be careful as there could be harmful bacteria in there.

My recommendation is to use a separate system, such as EnsoPet, for pet waste. That is even more important if your Bokashi scraps will end up going into soil that is dedicated to growing produce.

Final Thoughts

After about two years, I now can say that I love my Bokashi Bins! Diverting food scraps into Bokashi composting has allowed us to significantly reduce our general waste. While my main motivation was not necessarily climate-action related, the advantages of reducing the amount of food waste in landfills are well documented. Win-Win: good for our household, good for the environment.