Home composting
It’s easy to recycle your garden waste and some food waste - such as tea bags, fruit and vegetable peelings - using a compost bin. Over time, your waste will break down and become a rich soil improver for your garden - perfect for pot plants, flower beds, vegetable patches and even lawns.
Find out more and buy compost bins at a discounted rate on the Hertfordshire WasteAware website.
Benefits of composting
- Saves money - no need to buy compost again
- Reduces landfill waste - resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less dependency on peat products, which are dug from important ecological sites
- Improves soil - compost is an excellent soil conditioner, adding organic matter and nutrients to improve poor soils
- Helps maintain healthy plant growth - compost suppresses plant diseases and pests while improving the microbial and worm population of the soil.
What you can compost
For the best results, use a mix of "greens" and "browns".
- Greens: wet items such as tea bags, vegetable peelings, grass and fruit.
- Browns: dry items such as leaves, dead plants, cardboard and paper.
More information on composting can be found on the Recycle Now and Hertfordshire WasteAware Partnership websites.
Alternatives
If you don't want to compost at home, you can:
- Use your food waste caddy for all food waste (including meat, cooked vegetables and plate scraps)
- Sign up to our Garden Waste Subscription Service to recycle your garden waste in your green-lidded bin.
Biodegradable plastics
Only add biodegradable plastics to your home compost bin if they have the following symbols:
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If they do not have these symbols, please dispose of them in your grey bin.
Please note: compostable plastics are not accepted in green-lidded bins. For more information, please visit the Hertfordshire WasteAware biodegradable plastics page.
Free compost bin for schools
Every school in Hertfordshire can get two free compost bins. Email wasteaware@hertfordshire.gov.uk to order.
Compost giveaways
We host annual compost giveaway events for Dacorum residents at Cupid Green Depot. These are usually held in May. At our latest event in May 2024, we gave away 500 bags of compost and 300 packets of wildflower seeds.
If you received some compost and seeds, we'd love to see what you've grown. Send your photos to climate.action@dacorum.gov.uk.
Page Last Updated: Monday, 07 October 2024 at 11:57 AM