Composting at home

NSDC
Waste and recycling
Composting at home

If we all compost at home it means that thousands of extra tonnes of kitchen and garden waste can be turned into useful soil conditioner for our gardens, instead of going to landfill.

Don't waste that compost

Composting your kitchen and garden waste is a great way to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill along with providing nutrient rich compost that you can use on your garden.

‌We have teamed up with Get Composting to offer compost bins at subsidised prices, helping local gardeners to adopt an eco-friendly method of disposing of waste while benefitting their own gardens.

To order visit the Get Composting website

Compost at home message Putting kitchen waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells and tea bags in your composter as well as grass cuttings and leaves from your garden is as easy as putting something in your normal bin. It's also environmentally friendly and best of all, once you have paid for the composter, it's completely free.

Once the food is broken down to compost, dig the nutrient rich material into your soil. The breaking down usually takes a year but can be speeded up if you do things like making sure you have the right balance between green and brown matter in the bin, by making sure the contents of the bins are not too wet or too dry and by stirring contents of the composter to keep it aerated. Locating your home composter in a sunny position also speeds up the process.

Recycle Now

Composting for wildlife

The UK’s Wildlife Trust is encouraging all of us to get composting. A compost heap is a win - win. They turn unwanted green waste from your garden and kitchen into something useful and they help raise the number of worms in your garden.

Worms are essential for good soil health and they are also a vital food source for toads, birds, beetles and badgers. If you build a compost heap then worms will quickly find it.

Autumn is the perfect time of year to start a compost heap using fallen leaves. Just layer with grass cuttings, small twigs, garden clippings and kitchen waste for a healthy compost mix. You can even throw in the inside of a loo roll or broken up card egg box to help aerate the heap.

Fact – the UK has 29 species of worms!

Recycling centres

If you do not have a garden waste collection service or a composter you can take your garden waste to your nearest recycling centre.

Recycling centres

Bonfires

Only burn dry garden waste like untreated wood and branches. Small amounts of leaves, card and paper can be used as kindling. Remaining card and paper can be recycled in your silver recycling bin or at any recycling centre
Do not burn plastics, oils, household rubbish, aerosols, rubber tyres or canisters
Do not burn paint, it can produce toxic smoke that pollutes the environment and could choke people nearby. Donate it to your local Community Repaint scheme
Do not burn furniture. Donate it to charity

Water butts

Why not complement your compost bin with a water butt? Fitting a water butt to your roof drainage is a good way of collecting water for use in your garden, or even to top up the fish pond, saving you money, especially if you are on a water meter.

The National Home Composting Framework also has water butts available at a reduced price.

They can be ordered online at Get Composting or by calling the order line on 0844 571 4444.