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Home Composting of Yard Trimmings & Food Scraps

Composting your food scraps at home reduces your trash and produces organic matter that returns nutrients to your soil. PLUS – it helps eliminate odors in the stored trash!

Compost bins are available at cost through the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resources Recovery Authority (SCRRRA) or by calling 860-381-5558.

What is Composting? Composting is a biological process during which naturally occurring microorganisms, bacteria and insects break down organic materials such as leaves, grass clippings and certain kitchen scraps into a soil-like product called compost. It is a form of recycling, a natural way of returning needed nutrients to the soil.

Why Compost? By composting kitchen scraps and yard trimmings at home, you can conserve valuable landfill space normally used to dispose of this material and help reduce air emissions from the incinerators that burn garbage. In fact, if you compost on a continual basis, the volume of garbage you generate can be reduced by as much as 25%! Composting is practical, convenient and can be easier and less expensive than bagging these wastes and taking them to the landfill or transfer station.

Benefits of Using Compost. By using compost you return organic matter and nutrients to the soil in a form readily useable to plants. Organic matter improves plant growth by helping to break heavy clay soils into a better texture, by adding water and nutrient-holding capacity to sandy soils, and by adding essential nutrients to any soil. Improving your soil is the first step toward improving the health of your plants. Healthy plants help clean our air and conserve our soil. If you have a garden, a lawn, shrubs, or even planter boxes, you have a use for compost.

How to Compost. Composting is easy. You can compost in your yard by saving yard trimmings (leaves, grass clippings, and garden debris) and certain kitchen and meal scraps by preparing them properly and placing them in a compost pile.

Just follow the easy, basic guidelines that the CT Department of Energy and Environment Protection (DEEP) has provided on their Home Composting Fact Sheet.

The CT Department of Energy and Environment Protection provide literature, videos, and additional resources that discuss the concepts, techniques, and benefits of Composting; refer to the links below: