Celebrate Earth Month by starting a compost bin

Home composting can reduce a household's waste by more than 30%.

Keeping food scraps and other organic materials out of the municipal landfill also helps reduce methane emissions. Finished compost can be used as a valuable soil amendment in gardens and landscaping.

Many residents report that the practice significantly decreases the amount of trash they set out for collection. As one workshop participant shared, "Along with reusing and recycling, this has reduced our trash output so that we only put trash on the curb every other week."

These workshops, led by trained volunteer instructors, have been part of the City's waste reduction efforts for more than a decade. In three- and five-year follow-up surveys, more than 75 percent of participants report that they are still going strong.

One community partner shared, "The compost workshops are a valuable resource for our community. They demonstrate that composting is straightforward and accessible, with multiple approaches that can work for different households."

The City of Columbia's Office of Volunteer Programs offers approximately a dozen Composting 101 workshops each year. These workshops teach residents how to compost at home. Workshop schedules and additional volunteer opportunities related to waste reduction are available at the Volunteer Opportunities page.