It Is Cool to Compost

Hi I’m Sammy,

Your Good Farm in-house nutritionist. Here to bring you essential information on nutrition, diet and permaculture gardening - in a bite size, easy to understand, science-backed way.

Almost half of what goes into the average red household bin on the Northern Beaches is food waste. Onion skins, coffee grounds, carrot tops, wilted lettuce, forgotten leftovers and vegetable peelings. The list goes on.

Scale that out and the numbers are enormous. Australian households throw away around 2.5 million tonnes of food each year, the equivalent of 7.7 million meals every day. Globally, more than one billion tonnes of food was wasted in 2022, roughly one-fifth of all food available to households, retailers and food businesses.

Some of this is unavoidable, such as peelings, stalks and eggshells, but much of it is food that could have been eaten. The first step is always to buy what we need, use our leftovers, freeze food before it spoils and share any excess. Composting comes next, giving whatever cannot be eaten another life.

Buried deep in landfill with very little oxygen, organic matter breaks down differently than it would in nature or a compost bin. Instead of returning nutrients to the soil, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide over the short term.

This may sound like an environmental issue, but it is very much a health issue. Climate change affects the air we breathe, the resilience of our food systems and the natural world upon which we depend, not only for survival, but for joy, beauty and so much of what makes life worth living.

Compost for the garden

If you have a garden, I think composting is non-negotiable. It is free, made from materials you already have and reduces your reliance on bagged compost, soil conditioners and fertilisers.

It also gives you greater control over what goes into your soil. Commercial products can be made from green waste, manures, food waste and other processed organic materials, and their contents are not always obvious from the bag. Australian research has also detected microplastics in commercial composts and bagged growing media, although levels vary considerably. Not all premixed composts are equal, so read the label and choose a reputable supplier where possible.

Compost for the planet

One of the biggest misconceptions is that composting is only worthwhile if you have a garden. But composting is beneficial wherever the finished product ends up, provided those food scraps are kept out of landfill.

If you have access to a council Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection service, your scraps can be transformed into compost for farms, community gardens, parks, sporting fields and public spaces.

And if you compost at home but have only a small garden, do not be put off. Organic matter reduces considerably in volume as it decomposes, particularly when using the two-bin system explained below. You will not need to empty or use the finished compost nearly as often as you might imagine.

Any surplus compost can be shared with a neighbour, local gardener or community garden. Or get your kids to sell bags of it at a street stall: cold lemonade and a bucket of compost. What more could you want?

Rodent-proof your compost

One of the biggest reasons people avoid composting is the fear of attracting rats. Fortunately, this is usually easy to prevent.

If your compost bin has an open bottom, place galvanised vermin mesh underneath it before setting it up, curling the mesh around its lower edge. This prevents rodents from tunnelling underneath while still allowing worms and other beneficial organisms to move freely between the compost and soil.

When I completed several courses at Kimbriki, one of the ecologists also emphasised the importance of location. Keep your compost bin reasonably close to the kitchen rather than hiding it in a secluded corner surrounded by trees and shrubs. A more open and frequently visited position makes rodents less comfortable approaching it and allows you to keep a closer eye on the bin.

Healthy compost is all about balance

Good compost is simple. It needs a balance of nitrogen-rich materials, known as greens, and carbon-rich materials, known as browns.

Greens include fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, loose tea leaves, fresh grass clippings and spent flowers.

Browns include dry leaves, straw, shredded cardboard, newspaper, untreated paper and small twigs.

Half greens and half browns is an easy place to start, although a little more brown is generally better. Your compost should feel about as damp as a wrung-out sponge. If it begins to smell or looks too wet, add more brown material, such as torn-up cardboard or dry leaves, and give it a turn to introduce oxygen.

Compost bins and methods

When I was growing up, our compost bins were tucked down the side of the house in a neglected corner where you would often emerge covered in cobwebs. Beside them sat Mum’s gigantic tubs of fermenting seaweed, which she would haul home from the beach in buckets and turn into her own fertiliser. It made the whole process seem far gnarlier than it actually was, and I remember loathing the job as a kid.

At our home now, the bins sit beside the chicken coop and beneath a tree the kids climb, making the space useful, visible and fun. At community gardens, composting areas are often made a feature rather than something to hide away.

I prefer open-bottomed bins that sit directly on the ground and can be rodent-proofed using the method mentioned above.

A two-bin system works well. Add food scraps and garden waste to one active bin until it is full, then leave it to rest, turning it occasionally, while you begin filling the second. By the time the second bin is full, the first is often ready to use again.

There is no right or wrong set-up. Tumblers can suit paved courtyards, worm farms work well in smaller spaces and Bokashi systems allow food scraps to ferment indoors before being added to soil or compost. The best system is the one that suits your home and that you will actually use.

Compostable packaging

It is great to see more compostable packaging around, but it is only compostable if it ends up in the right place.

A compostable food carton or wrapper thrown into general rubbish will usually end up buried in landfill, where it cannot break down as intended. For something designed to return to the earth, that feels like a rather wasted opportunity.

It is one of the reasons The Good Farm Shop uses commercially compostable meal cartons. Once you have enjoyed the food inside, the carton can have another life too, but only if it makes it to the right place.

Composting beyond the backyard

Many councils in Sydney and across Australia have offered kerbside food and garden-organics collections for years.

Northern Beaches Council recently completed a two-phase food-waste collection pilot involving around 3,000 households. During the first phase, scraps were collected through existing green-waste bins, while the second trialled separate burgundy food-waste bins. Rather than being buried in landfill, the food was transformed into compost and other products for agricultural use.

The pilot will help shape the broader service that must be introduced across the area by July 2030. It is encouraging to see the Northern Beaches moving in the same direction as many other Australian councils.

Some countries have taken this further. South Korea banned food waste from landfill in 2005 and now recycles almost 97 per cent of it into compost, animal feed and biogas. Many apartment buildings have shared electronic bins that weigh each household’s scraps and charge accordingly. The less food you waste, the less you pay.

Since 2024, France has required households and businesses to separate organic waste. Depending on the area, scraps may be collected from the kerb, placed in communal food-waste bins or carried to shared neighbourhood composting sites.

Milan shows that this can work in a large, densely populated city too. Kitchen scraps are collected twice a week from its 1.4 million residents, with around 87 per cent of the city’s food waste now captured separately.

Closer to home, the Australian-founded ShareWaste platform connects people with food scraps to nearby composters, chicken keepers and community gardens willing to receive them.

These systems may work differently, but the thinking is the same: keep food out of landfill and turn household scraps into a valuable resource.

Cook creatively

My mum was brilliant at opening the fridge or pantry and creating a meal from whatever was in front of her. She and my dad lived on boats and spent long periods sailing, where you were forced to cook with what you had.

Using what you already have, rather than deciding on a meal and buying every ingredient for it, is an effective way to reduce food waste. I sometimes wonder whether this is becoming a lost art. We think of what we want to eat, find a recipe and head to the shops, rather than beginning with what we have on hand in the kitchen or garden.

Good produce makes this easier because it often speaks for itself and needs very little. Finely shave cabbage and eat it raw with olive oil and vinegar, or cut it into thicker strips and sauté it, then add two poached eggs, grated parmesan and lemon. One vegetable, used in different ways, can stretch across different meals.

Growing up, Mum served something she called “Pig Out”, which was literally whatever needed using in the fridge. Stale bread was fried into croutons, while boiled eggs, a small amount of pasta, vegetable sticks, olives and wedges of whatever cheese we had left were arranged on a platter. She would fry vegetables nearing the end of their life, fold them into an omelette and add that too. It honestly felt like a feast. We loved it as kids, and it used up all the bits and pieces. Now, as a mum, I realise what an easy dinner it is to throw together when you do not feel like cooking, the fridge is full of random odds and ends, and there is no Good Farm Shop meals in the freezer.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat is a great resource for learning how to balance flavours without relying on a recipe. Sydney-based Cornersmith is another favourite, particularly The Food Saver’s A–Z, which is full of practical ideas for storing, preserving and using what you already have.

Further exploring

There are many epic people and organisations sharing their knowledge of gardening, composting and permaculture. These are just a handful I have followed and learned from over the years.

For Australian readers

Kimbriki Eco House and Garden

Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre on Sydney’s Northern Beaches has a wonderful demonstration garden and runs practical workshops on composting, worm farming, organic gardening and sustainable living. I have completed several courses there and always come away with something useful.

Milkwood

Milkwood offers practical articles, books and courses on composting, permaculture and organic gardening. I have completed a course through Milkwood, which I highly recommend.

Good Life Permaculture

Founded by permaculture educator and Gardening Australia presenter Hannah Moloney, Good Life Permaculture shares workshops, videos and articles on composting, growing food and resilient living. Hannah’s book The Good Life is also worth reading.

Cornersmith

Gardening Australia

The Gardening Australia website and television program provide an enormous collection of free and practical advice on composting, worm farms, soil health and growing food across Australian climates.

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren developed permaculture here in Australia. Mollison’s Introduction to Permaculture and Holmgren’s RetroSuburbia are both excellent places to begin.

Morag Gamble

Morag Gamble is an Australian permaculture educator whose Our Permaculture Life videos, articles and podcast explore edible gardens, composting and practical permaculture.

CERES

CERES Community Environment Park in Melbourne offers urban gardens, environmental education and practical workshops on soil, composting and sustainable living.

For UK readers

Charles Dowding

Charles Dowding is one of the best-known voices in no-dig gardening. His book Compost, online courses and extensive collection of free videos make composting feel simple and achievable.

Monty Don

Gardener and writer Monty Don has inspired generations of home gardeners through his books and many years on Gardeners’ World. His approach is practical, seasonal and deeply connected to wildlife and the restorative nature of gardening.

Tom Stuart-Smith

Landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith creates gardens that combine naturalism with thoughtful design. His work encourages us to understand our soil, work with the character of a place and create landscapes that support both people and nature.

For readers in the United States

Edwina von Gal and the Perfect Earth Project

Landscape designer Edwina von Gal founded the Perfect Earth Project to promote toxin-free, nature-based gardening. Its free resources offer practical guidance on caring for gardens without synthetic pesticides and fertilisers.