From Aerospace to Kitchen Innovation

Composer was founded by us, Tim and Kevin, two former aerospace engineers with a love of cooking. There was only one part of the kitchen we didn’t love: the smelly, fly-infested compost bin on our counters. When we found ourselves searching for a more convenient method for disposing of food waste that was still gentle on the environment, the garbage disposal was the obvious answer. It seemed too good to be true: here’s a magical device that turns your pipes into portals that spirit your food scraps away. But the existing garbage disposal would turn out to have its own problems.

Sixty percent of US homes already have a garbage disposal, and they can be just as sustainable as using a compost bin, but with much less fuss. People agree: The blessing of indoor plumbing already provides a convenient method for flushing organic waste away from homes, so why not put food waste down the drain, too? Unfortunately, currently available garbage disposals leave a lot to be desired: they’re loud, unintuitive, dangerous, and prone to clogging—so, in the end, most people barely use them at all. 

Drawing from our shared background in engineering, and our refusal to let fixable problems go unfixed, we rolled up our sleeves and started designing what we determined would be the first good garbage disposal. Quiet, safe, uncloggable, and pleasant to use. Practically, well, magic.