Published on 06 May 2022

Give composting a go!

There has never been a better time to start composting, with City of Onkaparinga launching a series of new DIY videos and a booklet guide to coincide with International Composting Awareness Week (ICAW).

ICAW (1-7 May) is an annual national week of activities, events and publicity to improve awareness of the importance of compost.

In a nutshell, composting is the breaking down of organic matter (things that were once living), and you can make compost at home by recycling your food and garden waste.

There are a range of benefits to composting, not just in diverting waste from landfill (reducing greenhouse gas emissions), but in saving you money on expensive fertilisers, and greatly improving the soil and plants in your garden.

If you’ve ever thought of composting, but have never gotten around to it, the new videos and guide—available now on council’s website—will have you using a traditional compost bin, Bokashi or worm farm like a pro in no time. The guides include:

• an overview on types of systems and bins
• tricks and tips on getting started
• what materials to add to use and what not to use when composting
• troubleshooting
• where to use your compost
• how to make compost tea.

Why compost?

The most recent audit of council’s kerbside bins showed that an average of 31 per cent of our household waste (red) bin content is food waste that could’ve instead been composted. That’s around 3.5kg per household per week.

With about 74,000 households in the City of Onkaparinga, that’s a lot of food waste sent to a big hole in the ground where it just rots away!

When huge amounts of organically active material are buried anaerobically (without air) in landfill, this is a big driver of greenhouse gas emissions through the production of methane gas. By instead recycling this organic material, carbon is greatly increased in the soil, reducing the effects of climate change.

Get started today

It’s easy to start capturing food scraps at home, using anything from an ice cream container to buying a ‘kitchen caddy’, and you can even get swanky ones with a charcoal filter to reduce odours.

Council subsidises 50 per cent off the purchase of a selection of composting systems including compost bins, worm farms and bokashi buckets. Head to council’s website for more information.