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Composting

Composting your food and garden waste is one of the best contributions you can make as a Wellington resident to help preserve and protect Wellington's natural environment.

Composting helps to reduce the:

amount of rubbish you throw away
amount of waste going to landfills
production of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) in landfills
production of hazardous substances from landfills.

What to Compost

Putting food scraps into a compost bin

A range of organic materials including vegetable and fruit scraps, lawn and tree clippings can be composted.

The Council estimates that if 50,000 of Wellington’s 68,000 dwellings composted two kilograms of food and/or garden waste per week, up to 5200 tonnes of waste would be diverted from landfills annually.

Home Compost Guide (47Kb PDF)

Compost Bins

If you want to start composting, you can purchase compost bins from the Berhampore Nursery and the Council's Second Treasure Shop. 240 litre bins cost $42.50 and 400 litre bins cost $81.

You can also contact your local home and garden supply store to check if they sell compost bins.

Berhampore Nursery staff can be contacted to arrange a compost bin pickup time:

Berhampore Nursery
Phone: (04) 389 9729

Second Treasure Shop
Phone: (04) 383 8824

Compost Bin Alternatives

Alternatives to using a compost bin include compost heaps, worm farms and micro organism (EM) composting.

Compost Heaps - Compost heaps are ideal if you produce a lot garden waste and compost bins are not a practical option. You can build your own compost setup out of untreated timber or bricks.
Worm Farm - Adding worm casts or worm tea to the soil promotes soil fertility, moisture retention, and encourages plant growth.
EM Composting - EM is a bran-based material that has been seeded with "Effective Micro-organisms" and dried to make storage easy. The composting process is completed by burying your fermented food scraps in the garden.

The Wellington Botanic Garden Shop, located off Tinakori Road, sells EM Bokashi composting systems for $41. The systems include the bin, a bag of EM material and instructions. The Botanic Garden Shop also sells refill bags of EM for $10.90.

Composting

What to Compost

Compost Bins

Compost Bin Alternatives

Related Links