Composting

Composting your kitchen and garden waste is easy! All you need is the right composting bin and a little know how – and you can significantly reduce your household waste and create an excellent soil conditioner for your garden or house plants.

No garden or small garden? There are indoor composting systems that take all your kitchen waste including meat, and cooked food. Whether you’re interested in indoor or outdoor composting, for more information about the variety of composting bins available, visit Leeds Get Composting.

What is compost?

Compost is a dark brown earthy material used in gardens to improve soil, add nutrients and help plants and flowers grow.

Transform your kitchen and garden waste into a useful compost for your garden. The natural composting process rots down kitchen and garden waste to produce compost.

Compost is easy to make and use. Put your compost bin in a reasonably sunny site on bare soil. Put the following in your bin:

Yes please

• Vegetable and fruit peelings
• teabags
• eggshells
• torn up toilet roll tubes
• egg boxes
• cereal boxes
• paper - especially shredded paper
• grass cuttings
• fallen leaves
• soft prunings
• old flowers

No thanks

• Cooked food
• meat or fish
• dog waste
• cat litter
• nappies
• no perennial weeds or weeds with seed heads. See GOV.UK guidance on noxious plants and weeds that shouldn't go into your bin

A mix of kitchen waste, garden waste and paper or cardboard is a good recipe. If your compost is too dry, add a little water. If it is too wet, add some shredded paper, crumpled paper or cardboard. For more information see our Guide on how to compost (PDF 2MB).

Within 12 months, your compost should become earthy, crumbly and moist with plenty of worms in it. Use it to mulch trees, enrich your borders and vegetable patch, and to add to planters and pots for your flowers and indoor plants.

Further information

For more information about composting see Leeds Get Composting, Recycle Now and Garden Organic websites, or see the How to compost video.