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Composting

What Is Composting?

Grey compost bucket with white text that says "COMPOST" laying sideways on a wooden table with lots of food scraps spilling out, such as fruit and vegetable peels.

Composting is turning organic waste into nutrient-rich compost through decomposition, essentially nature’s way of recycling. In the U.S., food is the single most common material sent to landfills, and wasted food is responsible for over half of landfill methane emissions. By composting, you are not only diverting waste from the landfill, but also returning nutrients and carbon to the soil.

When composting, there are your “browns” which are carbon and “greens” which are nitrogen. “Brown” or carbon include dry organic waste such as leaves, wood chips, sawdust, shredded paper and cardboard, etc. “Green” or nitrogen include more moist organic waste such as grass and plant clippings, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and paper filters, crushed eggshells, paper tea bags, etc. There is no need to measure exactly, but a general tip is adding at least two to three times the volume of browns to the volume of greens. For backyard composting, here are some steps to getting started and maintaining your pile.

Leaf Collection Program

a long pile of yellow and orange leaves raked on the grass on the curb, in between the sidewalk and the road without overflowing onto the street curb.

Each fall and spring, we pick-up the leaves residents rake to their curbside. The collected leaves are taken to our “leaf farm” where the material is processed and made into leaf compost. In the spring, when the leaves have formed a rich compost, it is made available to the residents of Kettering for free! By collecting the surplus of leaves, the city is not just diverting waste from landfills but also repurposing them into nutrient-rich compost for residents. Check out the Residential Leaf Collection Program page for more program information.

Free Mulch & Compost

Group of six volunteers raking a pile of mulch outside, surrounded by trees and forest.

Using the leaves that residents rake to their curbside for the Leaf Collection Program, our “leaf farm” processes and decomposes these leaves into leaf compost. This reduces waste by reusing organic materials, improves soil health by adding nutrient-rich compost to it, and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Mulch and leaf compost is usually available starting the second week of April depending on availability and concludes for the season when we run out of material. It is free for Kettering residents! Pick up at 2801 E. Stroop Road at Indian Riffle Park (located behind Tannenberg Kennels). Check out the Resident Mulch & Compost Program page for more information.

Yard Debris Center

Teenage girls cleaning up yard debris, such as tree branches, in a fenced-in yard.

Instead of throwing away your yard debris, drop it off at our Yard Debris Center to reduce waste and promote reuse. This yard debris is used as part of our free mulch and compost program to create nutrient-rich, organic soil and mulch. The Yard Debris Center is located at 1840 Woodman Center Dr., Kettering, Ohio 45420. Check out the Yard Debris Center page for hours, accepted yard debris, and more information.

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