Did you know that around 20% of the contents of an average household wheelie bin is comprised of food waste that could be composted?
Home composting is one of the easiest options for reducing the amount of waste you send to landfill. It is also more environmentally friendly than recycling as very little external energy is required to collect, transport or carry out the recycling process.
Also, the food waste placed in your wheeled bin could end up decomposing in an airtight environment such as a landfill-site. This produces Methane. Methane is a very efficient green house gas (around 28 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide). Home composting greatly reduces the amount of Methane otherwise released into the atmosphere.
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Compost is a dark, crumbly earthy smelling form of decomposing organic matter. Decomposition and re-cycling of organic waste is an essential part of soil building and healthy plant growth in forests, meadows and your home garden.
By making and using compost you return organic matter to the soil in a usable form. This organic matter improves plant growth by helping to break down heavy clay soils, by adding water and nutrient holding capacity to sandy soils and by adding essential nutrients to any soil.
For further information on where to place your compost bin, what waste materials you can compost and guidance to help produce good compost, please visit our Getting the most from your compost bin page.
Please visit our How to use your compost page for information on how to use your compost in the garden, such as a mulch or use in potting mixes.
We have teamed up Straight plc to provide Newcastle residents with the opportunity to buy specially reduced price compost bins. For more information go to our Compost Bin page
We have produced a special web page of information for those who intend to compost on a large scale, use multiple compost bins or 'hot' compost. Please visit our Composting on a large scale for more information.
The Can-O-Worms is designed to recycle a households organic kitchen waste into compost, easily, without smell or mess. For more information go to our Wormeries page.
Home Composting bins are not always suitable for grass clippings (unless care is taken grass clippings can turn wet and smelly) or very woody materials such as twigs and branches (as they take a long time to rot down).
However, around 47% of Newcastle residents have a brown garden bin for their organic garden waste (grass clippings, prunings etc). Also, the council provides garden waste skips at our Brunswick, Walbottle and Byker Household Waste Recycling Centres for all householders to use.
The council shreds this collected garden waste and composts it at the Sandhills Composting Centre. The resulting 'soil-conditioner' is great for improving the condition of soils. For more information visit our Sandhills Composting Centre page
Page last updated: 16 August, 2011
