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Editor’s note: Through January 31, use the code DOMINO for $75 off a Mill purchase. This cannot be combined with other offers.
The number of kitchen appliances that my husband and I leave out in our one-bedroom apartment isn’t extensive, but we make room for the essentials: A Breville espresso machine, a Japanese toaster oven, a blender, and a motion-detecting trash can. But, a year ago, we wanted to try integrating one more that we hoped would take care of a persistent problem: in such a small space, where do we store our compost?
After a few years on the market, it was clear that Mill’s Food Recycler was a promising innovation, and not only for its technology. As avid home cooks and hosts, we produce a good amount of leftovers. Onion butts, garlic skins, kale stems, apple cores—we do our best to repurpose waste, but sometimes there just isn’t a good use for the squash gunk or citrus pith. In the past, our compost solutions have varied from an outdoor tumbler to a tiny countertop container to biodegradable trash bags stashed in the freezer willy-nilly. We needed an actual fix that was neat, easy to maintain, didn’t smell, and, importantly, wasn’t an eyesore.
When I had the opportunity to bring the Mill home, I wanted to dedicate a full year to testing it—to get to know the appliance’s pros, good-to-knows, and surprises inside and out. Here’s everything I learned.
It’s Easy on the Eyes
I can’t deny that the Mill’s good looks will make it immediately appealing to a design-minded crowd, i.e. myself and Domino readers. You can see the intention behind the device’s clean lines, rounded edges, and soft gray pedal. (It’s no surprise that the engineers who came up with the idea also worked on the iPhone and Nest thermostat). While I have the matte white version, the brand also introduced two new colors, stainless steel and black, in the fall of 2025.
The LED display is simple and intuitive, using just three icons that are easy to interpret with a glance. Even the Kelly green accents on the interior metal bucket are considered—it’s the same hue of the logo. Basically, it walks and talks like a much prettier trash can.
It’s Simple to Install and Use
Setting up the Mill when it arrives is plug-and-play—literally. It’s designed to live in the kitchen like a tall trash can and is ready to go after just a few short steps. All you have to do is plug in the machine, download the app and pair it, set the scale, and pick a few settings before you start adding food scraps. Even the removable and replaceable carbon filter, which mitigates any smells, is pre-installed. (Just take it out and remove the packaging before you get going.)
It Keeps So Much Food Waste Out of Your Trash
The metal bucket holds up to 12 pounds of food. Instead of tossing your food scraps in the trash can, simply divert them into the Mill. (The action feels exactly the same: Step on the pedal, toss in an orange peel.)
One indispensable part of the device’s app is the library. It’s a little pocket guide to what can and can’t go in the bin. Surprising items that can be tossed in: baby formula, boba, pet food, cold cuts, sushi, and chicken bones. Flowers are even fine to put in the Mill if your food grounds are headed to your personal or curbside compost bin—but not if you’re feeding the grounds to chickens (they can be toxic to the animals).
On the downside, your compostable packaging and tableware can’t be added. And you’ll need to keep both items that have a lot of sugar and liquids to a minimum. The latter can lengthen the run time of a cycle (using more energy) and also gunk up the system.
It Runs Pretty Efficiently
We let our Mill run on a set schedule every night even if it’s not full; that way, it continues to break down what’s inside while we introduce more scraps. (If you are dealing with a lot of extra waste outside of the cycle, you can also tap a button on the app or bin to start an extra one.) Two solid metal augers churn and heat contents to 212 degrees Fahrenheit—this ensures germ-free, shelf-stable grounds. The brand makes an effort to remind users that its Food Recycler isn’t creating compost, per se. It turns scraps into what the brand calls food grounds, essentially dehydrated crumbs. These can be used to supercharge your garden soil; disposed of in curbside or added to backyard compost bins; fed to backyard chickens; or sent to a processing facility via free, pre-paid cardboard boxes you can request periodically.
Our grind cycle is set to start at 10 p.m. every day, and while we don’t use the lock button (sometimes I add a banana peel or two while it’s starting to run), you can if you have curious children or pets. The cycle can be long; sometimes, after a dinner party or particularly elaborate meal, it’s still rolling when we get up in the morning.
You might be wondering, doesn’t that use tons of energy, and isn’t it expensive? It’s a question I asked one of the founders, Harry Tannenbaum. He assured me it doesn’t take as much as I expect. Because a kilowatt hour (kWh) is how utility companies measure your energy output, it’s how the app measures the Mill’s energy output (approximately .7 kWh per day). Our lowest monthly usage, around 11.5 kWh, means that’s around the same as what a dishwasher uses if it has been run eight times. On the other end of the spectrum, our highest monthly usage was 32.1 kWh, or 22.5 dishwasher cycles. In New York City, for example, that translates to a range of $3 to $8 every month.
It Minimizes Smells
Now that our trash can isn’t full of rotting food scraps, it doesn’t smell. And in general, the tight-close lid and carbon filter on the Mill have managed to mask any odors emitting from our bin. Every once in a while, when there’s a hefty load processing, it can smell like brownies in the apartment (it’s heating and churning, after all). Not a terrible thing, but slightly confusing when the oven isn’t on and I’m not baking dessert.
It Rarely Needs to Be Emptied
Over the course of one year using the Mill—and cooking a lot, I might add—we’ve only needed to pack and send back five boxes full of food grounds. And yet, by our bin’s estimate, we’ve diverted more than 400 pounds of food scraps from landfills. That’s the real genius of this device—the overnight cycle turns a whole bucket’s worth of ripe food scraps into a tiny volume of dehydrated grounds. Unlike with our countertop compost bin, which needed to be emptied every few days, we only find ourselves emptying the Mill about once a month.
This is good because the bucket is not lightweight, especially when it’s full of food grounds. And the 13” x 8.25” x 7.5” cardboard boxes do take up room when assembled.
The Mill app is packed with data, logistical details (did my box make it?), and information about how to use your results. Because we send our scraps to Mill’s local farm partners that turn it into a feed product, we can see that we’ve provided a month’s food supply to more than 40 chickens. You can order extra boxes when needed at no cost, and new filters are available to purchase in-app, too.
It Does Need to Be Cleaned
Things get a little grimy over time, so it’s smart to give the interior a wipe-down here and there. While a regular all-purpose cleaner is sufficient for of-the-moment splatters on the exterior, I found that a Magic Eraser did a much better job dealing with more caked-on stains on interior surfaces. Mill recommends swapping the carbon filter annually, although I have yet to do that and haven’t been bothered by any unwelcome aromas.
It’s Expensive, But for Good Reason
I’m not going to sugar-coat this: The price of a Mill Food Recycler is $999, and there are options to rent one for $30-$35 per month. That’s far more than a countertop compost bin, but there’s a lot more going on under the lid. (And the brand hosts sales here and there, if that’s an incentive.)
So Is It Worth It?
That depends.
If you have a backyard or live in a community where composting is well-integrated into city services, and if you are the kind of person who actually enjoys the process, the Mill Food Recycler is probably not worth the splurge. Get a countertop bin and some compostable bags and take care of your food scraps the old-fashioned way.
But if you’ve tried that and are struggling to deal with the mess, smell, time, and energy it takes to compost, this might be a perfect solution. Same goes for anyone who regularly cooks, feels passionate about minimizing food waste, and doesn’t have access to a regular composting system. Then I heartily recommend it. The design-forward look, having immediate access to data about my impact, and being able to dispose of my scraps right away instead of holding onto them for a weekend drop-off are all game-changers. Making room for that in our small kitchen was a no-brainer.