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                    Home composting

                    Close-up of garden beds of lettuce, orange flowers and herbs.
                    You can reduce and reuse your kitchen and garden waste at home, whether you live in a large house or small city apartment. Options include composting, worm farms, bokashi bins and collection of your green waste.

                    ​You can significantly reduce your overall impact on the environment by composting food scraps instead of sending them to landfill. 

                    Free worm farms, bokashi buckets and compost bins

                    We’re partnering with Compost Revolution to give away free worm farms, bokashi buckets and compost bins to the first 300 residents who apply. Enter the coupon code FREEORGANICS at checkout.

                    A limit of one product per residential household applies. You must live in City of Melbourne to be eligible.

                    The compost bins are normally $99.95; the worm farms including worms are normally $158 and the bokashi buckets are normally $75.

                    ​Check out your local sustainability or composting group for tips on what to do with compost or fertiliser, or visit Streetbank to see how you can connect with your neighbourhood and share resources.

                    Composting

                    Discounted compost bins are available from the Compost Revolution website. Visit Compost Revolution to find out more and to purchase your discounted compost bins. 

                    What can be composted?

                    As a general rule, anything that was once part of a living thing can be composted. The ideal compost mixture is 20 parts of carbon to one part of nitrogen (by volume).

                    Material high in carbon includes:

                    • dry leaves and bark
                    • pruning
                    • sawdust
                    • shredded paper
                    • wood ash
                    • egg cartons
                    • straw
                    • dry grass.

                    Material high in nitrogen includes:

                    • vegetable scraps
                    • fruit peelings
                    • farm manure
                    • fresh lawn clippings
                    • tea leaves
                    • coffee grounds
                    • garden weeds
                    • cut flowers.

                    For best results, chop and grind coarse material into smaller pieces to speed breakdown.

                    What can't be composted?

                    The following items can't be composted:

                    • large woody branches
                    • bones, fats and oils 
                    • meat, fish or dairy products 
                    • weeds with bulbs
                    • plastic, metals or glass 
                    • pet droppings (note that separate, specialised pet waste composters are available).

                    Worm farms

                    If you have very little garden space you can still compost some of your kitchen waste by using a worm farm. Worm farms are odourless, require very little maintenance and produce rich fertiliser for your garden and pot plants.

                    A worm farm is simple to operate. Worms used in worm farms are special species that thrive in compost. They love rich, moist, rotting materials.

                    What will worms eat?

                    Worms eat anything that has once been living:

                    • fruit and vegetable scraps and pulp
                    • crushed egg shells
                    • tea leaves, tea bags and coffee grounds
                    • small amounts of moist paper.

                    Avoid putting these in your worm farm:

                    • citrus and acidic foods such as lemons, oranges
                    • onions and garlic
                    • meat and dairy products.

                    Fermenting organic kitchen waste

                    Residents with very limited space may also like to try a bokashi bucket. Bokashi is Japanese for ‘fermented organic matter’ and uses microbes to ferment organic waste, rather than composting it.

                    The end result is a fermented (or pickled) mass of waste that can go straight into the soil. There’s no need to compost the material, and it doesn’t smell. The bucket is small enough to be placed on a kitchen bench or under the sink.

                    Before purchasing a bokashi bucket, it is important that you have access to a garden to return the fermented mass to the soil. If you don’t have a garden, then you can contact your local community garden group (see the Community Food Guide). More instructions on disposing of the mass can be found on this tutorial.

                    Discounted bokashi bins are available on the Compost Revolution website. Visit Compost Revolution to find out more and to make a purchase.

                    Green waste collection

                    Contact us to book a free green waste collection. 

                    You can also drop off your garden waste for free at the Waste and Recycling Centre.

                    Please note: Both of these services are for garden waste only. They do not include food or kitchen scraps.

                    See Green waste for more information.

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