Home Composting

Now you can learn how to go one step beyond recycling to reduce your garbage significantly, and spend less than 10 minutes per week doing it. It's quick, it's easy, it's home composting! Home composting takes little time, space, and effort; yet, it is so rewarding. Reduce your garbage, save valuable landfill space, create healthy soil, and maybe save money on your garbage bill - all through home composting.

Why Composting is Important

Home composting is an effective way to reduce waste. Organic waste material, like yard waste and kitchen waste, can be "recycled" through composting. Finished compost is a wonderful soil amendment that can be applied to soil around the home or garden to improve the texture of the soil and add important micro-nutrients.

There is another important benefit of composting - for our cities, towns, and county. Over one-third of the waste generated by central Contra Costa County communities consists of yard and food waste. In order to satisfy California's challenging goal of 50 percent waste reduction by the year 2000, every effort to reduce waste must be made. This is where home composting can play an important role. Residents can effectively reduce one-quarter or more of their waste by composting yard and kitchen waste materials.

Home Composting for Busy People! Program Services

Our program's goal is simple - to provide convenient instruction that promotes simple composting techniques that are easy to perform and effective when used. We understand that the "busy" resident prefers easier and less complicated forms of composting that will not require significant amounts of time and effort. Recognizing this, the Home Composting for Busy People! Program offers a variety of services to residents in our service area including:

FREE Local Home Composting Workshops (Schedule)- provides instruction on simplified techniques of composting including:

• Grasscycling
• Mulching
• Worm Box Composting (Vermicompost)
• Bin Composting

Advanced Composter Training

Training will include the biology of composting, review of techniques and systems, compost feedstocks, recipes, and finished compost applications. Training will also include guest presentations from local experts and a field trip to a large scale compost facility.

Upon completion, participants will receive Advanced Composter Certification.  Training will take place over a five week period with evening classes beginning on Wednesday, May 9th .  This training is appropriate for any established composter who wants to improve their practice. It is also a great opportunity for landscape contractors and owners or managers of large landscaped areas to learn about composting as a way to recycle green waste.

The training is FREE. Participants will be asked to contribute 6 hours of volunteer time to assist the CCCSWA in promoting or instructing composting.

Please call (925) 906-1801 ext. 306

for additional information