Just the concept of composting sounds overwhelming so why do it? Well composting is the easiest way to reduce your household waste and do a small part for our planet.

47% of the average Aussie household bin is made up of organic waste. When organic waste breaks down in landfills it produces methane. A greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

By composting your kitchen scraps instead of sending them to the landfill you are creating a nutrient-rich fertiliser that makes soil rich and perfect for supporting plant growth. It also means you are reducing your contribution to greenhouse gases which directly affect climate change. It’s a win-win.

Even though you may have heard composting is technical and requires a lot of work there are actually some really easy options for renters that don’t require a lot of space or effort.

1. Collecting Your Organic Waste

The easiest way to reduce your household waste and do your part for the planet without requiring a lot of space or time or effort is simply collecting your kitchen scraps and donating them to a community compost bin or to a friend or neighbour. With a simple google, you can find out where your closest community garden is and what their composting system is like. There are even services like ShareWaste that can connect you to people who are looking for scrap donations for their composting system.

Some councils have even introduced food and green waste recycling bins that allow you to put food scraps into existing green waste bins which are then taken to be composted for farmers and parks. Contact your local council to see if this is available for your area.

2. Worm Bins

Worms do all the work. There are none of the things that can become overwhelming involved with worm bins. No turning needed, it doesn’t need to heat up and they fit in small spaces. You can buy pre-made worm composting systems or you could DIY a worm farm fairly easily. The only problem is the things you can throw into the bin is limited. All plant scraps can be turned into compost by worms but meats, dairy and any animal products cannot.

3. Bokashi Buckets

Bokashi buckets can sit on your bench top or under your sink and the biggest benefit of these buckets is that you can put ALL your kitchen scraps in there unlike worm farms that are vegan and other traditional composting methods. The only negative thing with the Bokashi buckets is that the waste does not break down, it ferments and in order to turn it into compost, you need to bury the bucket so if you don’t have space where you can bury a bucket this may not be the best option for you.

4. Electrical composting

If you don’t like the idea of worms crawling around in a bin and you don’t have too much to compost you could go with an electric composter. An electric composter can turn your scraps into compost in just 3 hours. They can be a little bit pricy but don’t require a lot of technical knowledge of composting.

So when you have chosen your composting system but don’t know what to do with the final product. Maybe you don’t have a garden or you only have a few pot plants and couldn't possibly use all your compost.

There will always be people willing to take your compost off your hands. You can donate it to community gardens, friends or family, schools or even local farms. You can kickstart your own herb garden or other small food plants that you can grow indoors, on a balcony or even on a window sill.