Composting

Why Compost?

When combined with organic waste from the garden up to 30% of household rubbish can be composted instead of going to our landfill sites, making a nutrient-rich compost for your garden at the end of it! Whether you are doing it yourself at home, as part of a community project or through a council collection or deposit scheme, composting helps reduce rubbish and is an environmentally friendly way of re-using organic materials.

When organic matter is buried in a landfill site, the airless conditions prevent natural composting processes. The materials ferment, producing both toxic liquids, that can pollute nearby groundwater, and methane - a flammable greenhouse gas which is over 20 times stronger than Carbon Dioxide.

So by turning our own organic waste into compost we are not only dealing with our own waste and enhancing our gardens, but we are also reducing environmental problems caused by land-filling waste.

There are several options available for Suffolk residents to compost their organic material either within the home or in the wider community - and plenty of support available to help you get started and to compost your waste effectively. Follow the links above to find out how easy it is to turn your kitchen and garden waste into nutritious soil-improver - and click on the compost bin on the right to buy a reduced price compst bin, or a host of other bins and accessories to get you started at home.

Council Provided Composting Services

Composting at home is environmentally the best way to deal with your garden waste and uncooked organic waste from the kitchen. By composting at home you are processing your own waste and creating a nutritious soil-improver to put back on the garden, without the need for council collection vehicles or large-scale composting facilities. However not all gardens have the space for a compost bin and many have patios or similar and may not generate great quantities of vegetation. Similarly, elderly residents or householders with disabilities may also not be physically able to compost at their homes.

Collection bins are provided for householders garden waste at each of the 11 Household Waste Recycling Centres in the county managed by Suffolk County Council. Click here for details of site locations and what can be recycled at each.

Your district or borough council also provides a kerbside collection for garden waste and (in some areas this is combined with a food waste collection. This is currently a free service for 7 of the 5 authorities in Suffolk. Click here for more detais of what can be recycled in your kerbside collection.