Don't have a garbage bowl, but I use empty food packaging (like the plastic box my tomatoes came in) to collect my scraps and throw it in the garbage later.

I just have a foot-operated garbage bin right by the counter. I just sweep things off.

I simply use a saved grocery store plastic bag which I hang over the faucet in the sink. Once the scraps etc are all thrown in, I tie it up and throw it in the trash. No washing of garbage bowl.

I have a compost bowl that I keep on the counter while I prep veggies. The foot-operated garbage can nearby is next to me for packaging that can't be recycled and meat scraps. I throw the recyclable items into the sink for rinsing out. I love my compost bowl. Every time it fills up, I know my compost pile is getting bigger and more beautiful.

Like J Miura Otis, I use a compost bowl often. If I don't, I use the empty food packaging like EstherH does.

I use those plastic produce bags I get from the grocery store. I put one over a large margarine tub and use that as my garbage bowl. Once it's full, I just dump the whole thing in the trash and I don't have an extra bowl to wash either.

I have a pretty bowl that lives on my counter that I use to contain the garbage as I am prepping. Works well, I had never heard of the "garbage bowl" until Rachel Ray and loved it. So easy. I even bought my mom a pretty Rachel Ray garbage bowl for Christmas one year, though she prefers to put salads in it lol

I agree and like some of the others, I usually use a grocery bag.

We use a corner sink strainer like this one: http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/store/jump/productDetail/For_The_Home/For_The_Home/Corner_Sink_Strainer/30928
It works great! It allows liquids to be rinsed down the sink, but keeps the sold food scraps in one place so they can easily be taken out to our compost bin.

In Italy we all have them, there are no garbage disposals, and food waste has to be seperated out. It's called "rifiuto umido."

A few years back, I went to a cooking school in a private home in Spain. The chef had a cut-out right in the steel counter with a bowl underneath into which we could sweep food scraps. If I could redo my kitchen, one of these would be in it!

The GB! This is the best kitchen tool ever! Rachael Ray introduced this to me - it has made my cooking and cleaning so much more efficient!

I feel silly for not thinking of this already. I'm always just letting onion and garlic skins pile up on the counter while I cook and then sweeping them off into the garbage when they annoy me too much.

I ALWAYS use a garbage bowl when I cook. It's easier than running back and forth to the garbage can, and it keeps all the scraps in one convenient place. Now if only I could convince my roommate to use one - she just throws everything in the sink and leaves it, which I end up having to clean up.

I can't believe I have never thought of this before! game changer!

I am a loyal 'garbage bowl' user. Even in my tiny kitchen, trips to the trash can just seem inefficient. Plus, I usually end up getting water or even meat juices all over the floor. So, it's one more thing to clean but it makes my cooking life so much easier.

Actually, Rachel Ray stole the idea from Sara Moulton!!!

I had to double-check and make sure I wasn't reading an article in Onion. Is this April Fool's? It's a bowl, for crissake. That you put scraps in.I hear a million grandmothers laughing at "Rachel Ray gave wide popularity" to a bowl. That you put scraps in.

My grandmother has always kept a small dishpan for scraps on the floor in her kitchen, right next to the back door. I guess it's weird that it's on the floor, but it's basically the same thing as this "garbage bowl", only it's not taking up counter space. Not a new concept at all...

You can use the biodegradable bags that people buy for cleaning up after their dogs when they take the dog for a walk. Easy, cheap, and environmentally friendly

Oh yes - this is clutch. If I'm using produce that was in a produce bag, I put the scraps in there. Otherwise I just grab a bowl from the cabinet to use. It's totally worth washing an extra bowl.

I feel guilty throwing scraps in the garbage, so even in the thick of winter with 4 feet of snow out the back door, we continue to compost. We bought some big bins with lids that sit outside the back door. Every couple days our stainless steel bucket with handle that sits on the counter gets full, dumped and washed. It's never there long enough to smell bad and in the winter there are no bugs. I suppose it would be nice to have a lid, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Our local council provides a small compost bin with biodegradable liners for the kitchen and a larger one for outside - with a (hopefully) animal proof lid. This is collected weekly. We also have to separate cans, glass and plastic and they collect that as well. This has cut landfill by over 40% - worthwhile for little effort!

i didnt realize rachel ray did this but i somehow defaulted on this too, in my small kitchen there is no convenient trash bin by where i usually prep stuff. I usually just grab any old dirty dish or some bag or container that is already destined for the trash and pile things up in there

Well, I keep a bowl on the counter while I cook for vegetable scraps that I freeze for making vegetable stock. Anything else just goes into the garbage can. I don't quite understand why people don't throw garbage away as they generate it . . . is it that far to the garbage can? Do these folks have huge kitchens?

I always use a "garbage bowl" while I'm cooking! It's usually any random bowl I have or a tupperware container, but it's definitely helpful for me.

Must be nice to have a kitchen so large that going to the garbage can actually constitutes a trip. For me, a garbage bowl would just take up much needed counter space.

Oh gosh, I'm really feeling my Bay Area Bubble here in that my 'garbage bowl' is simply called compost, which my city picks up once a week along with the recycling and trash. The garbage bins are the smallest of the three bins we put out each week. And those plastic bags are now banned, an even further incentive to compost the 'wet stuff.'

I use this guy: http://www.oxo.com/p-320-compost-bin.aspx

I have a nice cobalt blue bowl from Italy on my counter for this purpose. If I'm not cooking, it is an easy place to throw dirty towels and cloths until I take them to my basement laundry area. Other use: In the refrigerator filled with fresh raw meat that may drip. My bowl is in constant use.

Me too! Love it! Aren't we lucky :)

My trash can is right by my prep area, even so I do find it more efficient to use a "garbage bowl" as you call it. My 'garbage bowl' is usually the packaging from the meat or veggies I'm using that night.

@Dana: But "garbage bowl" doesn't necessarily mean "scraps destined for the garbage"! The point is the receptacle that collects your trimmings between the cutting board and wherever they end up, whether it is the trash can or the compost bin. (The photo above is actually of my little compost collection bucket, which gets dumped into the very large city compost bin outside.)

I keep a bag in my freezer for scraps to be turned into vegetable broth so when I'm cooking with carrots, celery, onions, etc. I pull it out to fill it up. Other scraps I put in an empty yogurt container to compost later.

I'm feeling a little jealous of those progressive city garbage pickups that include compost! When I know I'm doing a lot of cooking, I set up a garbage bowl. Otherwise, it doesn't seem worth it to me. Another trick I spied at a friend's house: spread a dishtowel under the cutting board. It really helps with the eventual clean-up. All the splatters, crumbs, garlic skins, etc land on the dish towel and then I just shake it out over the garbage bin. I also put one under the Cuisinart when I'm using it, and it sops up escaping liquid. I use a lot of dish towels, but they're easy to launder.

The grocery bag in the sink has always freaked me out a little. How do you keep your kitchen safe from cross-contamination? I'd prefer taking a couple of steps to the trash can/compost bin rather than risking a food-borne illness that could knock me out of commission for a couple of days.

Ice cream bucket on the counter for compost - it has a lid, it's washable, and when it gets too rank it gets recycled. Not too pretty but it's functional.

A "trip" to the garbage can for me is just leaning over about one foot and putting it in the garbage can. If it stinks, like shrimp tails or fish skin, I put it in an empty plastic grocery bag. Garbage bowls can take up valuable counter space in a small kitchen.

I do what sydog does, and keep onion ends and carrots and celery in the freezer for stock.

I line my garbage bowl with a bag that's meant for a countertop compost bin. Anything I'm not saving for stock goes in there, and then the bag goes out to the tumbler later.

I have a large empty coffee can that I keep on my counter for compostable scraps, which I empty into the compost bin outside each day. For other waste, I'm lucky enough to have a trash compacter in the cabinet between the sink and stove where everything else goes. My mother and grandmother always used either a bowl, bag, foam meat tray or whatever was on hand when they cooked. This isn't a new idea from Rachel Ray, just a recycled one from everyone's grandmas!

Seattle requires one compost their kitchen waste, and that means meat, poultry, and shellfish bones/shells are included, as is all animal fat now that the composting center has a more efficient way of composting, though for home compost, that is still forbidden, due to the techniques for home composters.

Anyway, I use a cheap red plastic bowl for such scraps, and I have a 3Gal pail for dumping it into so it does not stay inside for long, and that pale sits on my balcony. It has a lid, and a cornstarch based compo-stable bag liner in it, and when it's full, I take it down to the back area behind my building where the dumpsters are, and a compost bin is there for all the tenants to use, and I just toss it in there.

Prior to this, I just reached behind me, and into the trash it all went. Oh, coffee grounds and filters can be composted as well.

Works great, and if I need to move it out of the way, I'll often set it on top of the toaster when cooking since I don't use it other than for lunch or breakfast.

An actual garbage can is bad because…..? I mean, really, how big are your kitchens?

I use one of the corner sink strainers mentioned above--25 cents at the thrift store, & then walk it out to the compost in the summer. In the winter I fill up the (used) coffee filter, then put it in a lidded metal container. Minimizes the number of 15oF trips to the compost.
Madly jealous of city-wide compost pickup. In my city we no longer even have recycling pickup--the Bad Guys decided it was "too expensive".

I had no idea they actually marketed a RR GB. LOL I just use whatever is handy...plastic storage container, cereal bowl or even just an old produce or plastic shopping bag forced into a "bowl" shape.

I got this bowl for Christmas and I love it.

http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Art-18530-Scrap-Trap/dp/B001UUGWMY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1361564917&sr=8-4&keywords=garbage+bowl

My kitchen is not laid out well (which I will remedy when I save up enough to renovate) and the trash can is about 10 feet away from my prep area. It's just easier and less time wasted to have a container that I fill up and dump once rather than making trips back and forth.

I have a blue enamel pail that I got at a thrift store, that permanently lives on my counter next to my cutting board. But I don't call it the garbage bucket, its the chicken bucket, because they get all the food scraps.

Compost bowl! I have a compost under the sink, but often a meal prep is way too much for the (stupid) little thing. Having a bowl out and then just tossing it out to the compost while I clean up is sooo much easier.