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Home composting

Step by Step guide to how to home compost using food waste.

Father and son putting scraps in the compost bin.
 

Using the FOGO collection service to divert food waste from landfill is a good outcome – but have you thought about extending the benefits of composting by making your own productive soil at home?

Home composting is a year-round activity that is easy, fast and convenient and allows you to turn food scraps into valuable nutrient-rich compost. Pretty impressive when you realise you have the power within your home to turn what is essentially ‘dead’ matter into something that will give further life to your garden.

The beauty with home composting is that your food scraps travel only a few metres from the kitchen to your backyard.

You can also save money by turning your food scraps into compost within your home, as you have the means to:

  • improve the soil quality in your garden (and reduce the need to buy fertilisers)
  • suppress plant diseases and pests (eliminating the need to buy chemical pesticides and manures)
  • helping your soil to retain moisture (reducing the need for watering)

Food scraps

Organic matter will eventually break down anywhere, but a well-considered composting system can achieve good results quickly. Here are the key steps to get started:

[FAQ]

Alternatives to Composting

If space in your garden is limited, an alternative to bin composting is to feed your food scraps to a worm farm.

There are plenty of online resources to help you set up your first farm - including the type of worms to buy, how to construct a bin (if you decide not to buy a pre-fab setup) and how to maintain the right environment.  

The key here is to avoid citrus, spicy food, garlic, onions, meat, dairy and processed foods such as bread and pasta.

Here are a couple of suggested resources to get you started - Sustainable Gardening Australia or Worm Farm Guru

If you live in an apartment the Bokashi Bin Bucket for your counter top might be more suitable, or you may find a community garden near you that will gladly accept your organic waste.

Apps such as ShareWaste help you to find someone in your neighbourhood who is willing to accept extra scraps for their worms or animals.

Worm farm.
[Picture of worm farm receptacle]

To learn more:

Keep an eye out for workshops run by:

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