Managing Food Waste at Home
Composting at Home
Composting is the natural process of decomposition that turns garden materials and plant-derived food scraps into a dark, crumbly and earthy smelling material called compost.
Compost is rich in nutrients and full of life. When used in your garden, it feeds the ecosystem of the soil and slowly releases nutrients that plants can absorb.
Why Compost at Home?
- Reduce Waste – On average, food and garden wastes make up over 33% of the contents of our rubbish bins.
- Save Money – By composting at home, you can reduce your bin charges as well as money spent at the garden centre purchasing expensive soil amendments.
- Enhance Your Garden – Compost improves soil fertility, texture and structure. Healthy soil is essential for growing vibrant and disease resistant plants. Compost is magical stuff!
- Preserve Our Environment – By composting at home, you reduce the need to collect, transport, treat and process organic food and garden waste. This is great for our environment as it will reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
For more information about composting at home, please view our video below and download a copy of dlr's new Guide to Composting at Home at the bottom of this webpage.
Food Waste Recycling Bin (Brown Wheelie Bin)
On average, every household in Ireland throws away 117kgs of food waste every year. That’s between €400 and €1,000 thrown into the bin. Food waste is not just a waste of money, it is bad for the environment. Food waste sent to landfill does not harmlessly break down but instead releases methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
We can all plan ahead to prevent food waste in the first instance. However, some food waste is unavoidable (e.g. banana skins and animal bones). Food waste doesn’t have to end up in landfill. It can be recycled by using your food waste recycling bin (normally a brown bin).
All households living in a population agglomeration of greater than 500 people are entitled to a food waste recycling service from their waste collector. Households with a kerbside collection for food waste can simply separate food and leave the bin out as part of your normal collection. The food waste will be sent to a composting site or to a sustainable anaerobic digestion plant.
To check if you live within an area entitled to have a food waste recycle bin service, please visit the WERLA website (link to map) or contact your waste collection company.