Home 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 the City Council
cut 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 | Cooked Vegetables / Bread / Meat Scraps / Bones / Egg Shells |
| Fruit Scraps | Materials Infected with Persistant Diseases e.g. Club Root |
| Tea Bags/leaves and Coffee Crounds | 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 | |
| Stray and Hay | |
Trouble Shooting Tips!
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
| Nasty Smells! | Compost too wet Too many grass cuttings |
Leave lid off in dry weather Remove some grass cuttings |
| Slow Decay | Not enough heat Too dry - needs activator Lack of air |
Position in sunlight keep lid on Moisten and mix in soft material Poor mix so fork through / add new material into the loose layers |
| Vermin | Meat and fats have been added | Remove any unsuitable material |
If you have any queries about composting contact the Waste Management Section
of Derry City Council at the following address:
Derry City Council
City Engineer's Department
98 Strand Road
Derry BT48 7NN
Tel: 028 7136 8550
Email: recycle@derrycity.gov.uk
 |
Tel : 028 7136 5151 Fax : 028 71 4858 web: www.derrycity.gov.uk