Composting Household Waste: A Sustainable Guide for 2025

Every household using agricultural produce disposes volumes of wastes either in cooked or raw form (food scraps or peels, withered/dry vegetable leaves). This has become a challenge by filling up open spaces and polluting the environment.

These waste materials could be turned into useful products through composting for use in home gardens, flower beds or pots. Composting is a natural process (bio-degradation) of turning organic matter into valuable soil food called humus. Composting food waste and peels at home is one of the most important aspects of reducing garbage from homesteads. This is because food wastes are an everyday occurrence in most households.

Advantages of house hold composting

1. Compost is one of nature’s best soil amendments, and can be used instead of commercial fertilizers in small gardens.
2. Compost improves soil structure, texture, aeration and increases the soil’s water-holding capacity.
3. The organic matter contained in compost provides food for microorganisms, which keep the soil in a healthy, balanced condition.
4. Provides nutrients such as Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus essential for plant growth.
5. Cost saving (Compost is cheap).
6. Reduces the volume of waste going to municipal garbage dump site.
7. It is environmentally friendly.

Disadvantages of house hold composting

1. It is labour intensive and time consuming.
2. Nutrient composition of the compost is not known.
3. It is difficult to control the quality of compost.
4. If the compost is stored for too long before use, it will lose some nutrients and may also become a breeding place for unwanted insects.
5. What to Compost
6. All vegetable, fruit and spices wastes including rinds and cores. 2. Uncooked waste grains.
7. Coffee grounds, tea bags and filters.
8. Fruit or vegetable pulp from juicing.
9. Egg shells (crush well).
10. Corn cobs and husks (cobs breakdown very slowly).

What not to compost

1. Meat or meat waste, such as bones, fat, skin, etc.
2. Fish or fish waste.
3. Dairy products, such as cheese, butter, cottage cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, etc.
4. Grease and oils of any kind.

Why you should not compost the above food wastes

1. They attract rodents and other scavenging animals.
2. Meat attracts maggots.
3. The compost bin will smell.

Types of composting structures

1. Composting heap.
2. Composting pit.
3. Composting bin.
4. Composting poly-tube.

How to store compostable household food wastes

1. Chop or shred waste during meal preparation to reduce volume.
2. Store in a securely covered and washable Kitchen waste bucket with a handle.
3. Sort and separate the materials into biodegradables such as fruit and vegetable waste and non-biodegradables including glass, plastic, metal, foreign objects and batteries and put them into different kitchen waste buckets.
4. Empty your containers daily or every few days depending on how much waste you generate or to ensure that no smell starts permeating the kitchen
5. Always cover the food waste inside the container with a newspaper to reduce on bad smell or maggots.
6. Every time you empty your kitchen waste bucket wash it clean with soap or detergent to get rid of bad smell.

Tools and equipment for house hold waste composting

1. Compost bin with a lid – Drill 2-3 inch holes 6-12 inches apart all round the bin (lid, bottom and sides). The compost bin can be improvised with water containers.
2. Shovel.
3. Industrial gloves.
4. Thermometer.

Compost bin

On to your compost bin sprinkle a handful of top soil every time new food wase materials are added. In addition to containing the bad smell the soil also hastens decomposition by adding micro-organisms.

Composting Method

1. Identify location for the out door bin, preferably on raised position.
2. Empty the biodegradable kitchen waste bucket into the compost bin.
3. Add dry materials (small twigs, tree leaves, and shredded biodegradable paper) to the green materials at a ratio of 4:1 to prevent bad smell and sogginess.
4. Sprinkle with wood ash to incorporate potash.
5. Ensure the compost is moist but not wet by sprinkling a little water.
6. Keep the temperature range between 40-50°C by turning and sprinkling water. The temperature of your compost is important because it kills the microorganisms if too high and decomposition is hampered if it is too low.
7. In the absence of a thermometer the temperature can be monitored by feeling with the hand.
8. Keep the compost aerobically active by turning it using a shovel or by rolling the bin 1-2 times a week.
9. The compost should be ready for use in 6-8 weeks.
10. Add Effective Microorganism (EM) to hasten the decomposition

How to identify compost ready for use

1. Compost is ready for use when it’s dark and crumbly and mostly broken down with a pleasant, earthy, soil-like smell.
2. The original materials that were put into the compost bin should not be recognizable.

Use and Application rates

Compost can be used in home gardens at a rate of one debe/M2.