Composting

What is home composting?

Home composting is simple, cheap and can be undertaken in a compost container or heap in your own garden. Home composting is natures' way of recycling organic material such as kitchen scraps and garden waste into a dark, crumbly soil conditioner. Approximately 25% of our household waste can be composted.

Why make a compost heap?

To improve your garden

• By digging into the soil to improve soil texture and nutritional quality
• Using as mulch around plants to help retain moisture and discourage weeds

To save money

• By buying less peat and fertilisers
• By helping reduce disposal costs for waste

To help the environment and biodiversity

• By cutting global pollution through reducing the amount of methane gas produced from landfill sites
• By protecting peat bogs which are destroyed to make potting compost
• By encouraging worms and keeping the birds happy
   

What can you put in a compost bin?

Yes		No
Vegetable Peelings / Egg Shells		Cooked Vegetables / Bread / Meat Scraps / Bones
Fruit Scraps		Materials Infected with Persistant Diseases e.g. Potato Blight
Tea Bags/leaves and Coffee Grounds		Pernicious Weeds e.g.Bind Weed / Weeds with Seed heads
Grass Cuttings		Large Unchopped Woody Branches
Finely Chopped or Shredded Shrub Prunnings		Cat or Dog Litter
Most Garden Weeds
Straw and Hay