Once spring has sprung, homeowners get back into their gardens to tidy things up. A lot of work goes into even the most basic garden, you want it to look great for hosting barbecues, sunbathing, and just chilling out. And keeping your garden tidy means mowing, and trimming, and that creates plenty of garden waste. The majority of it you will be able to compost at home. But not all garden waste can be composted.
What Is Garden Waste?
Garden waste is classed as any gardening by-product, which typically means any naturally present items. This includes weeds, grass cuttings, leaves, bark, flowers, twigs, branches, and the like. Many homeowners opt to toss these in their council-delivered green bin. However, you may want to compost these items in your own composting heap to enrich your soil to benefit your plants.
What You Can & Can’t Compost
Even though those plastic bottles are biodegradable, they aren’t suitable for use in your compost bin. They don’t break down quickly enough, so pop them in with the rest of your plastics. The same goes for clay – it is recyclable, but it won’t break down sufficiently for your compost heap.
If you use herbicides in your garden, then you shouldn’t put grass cuttings or other green items in your compost heap. Herbicides will render your entire compost heap useless, and if it’s present even in a few clippings it will leach into the rest of the pile. A bit like one rotten apple will spoil the entire bunch. So, if you do want to compost, you should be mindful of what products you use in your garden.
Food isn’t something you should compost, even if it once lived. Many people believe that old fruit, skins, and peels are ideal for composting. The reality is the odd one or two won’t hurt, but it’s best to let it go with the rest of your green waste. And other foods are not suitable for composting.
Likewise, animal waste is not suitable for composting – dog and cat faeces are harmful to the environment and human health. It’s important that you collect and bin animal faeces at the earliest possible opportunity. But not in your compost heap.
Stones and branches are also not suitable for composting. Small sticks and twigs will eventually break down, but larger items will take a long time, which will make it challenging to turn it in the meantime.
So, if you can’t compost any of those things, what can you compost? You can compost the pruning and grass cuttings, bark, twigs, and flowers, as well as teabags, fallen leaves, and the occasional crushed eggshell. It’s important to provide your compost heap with enough moisture and nitrogen so the worms can do the hard work for you.
What To Do With Non-Compostable Items
If you have garden waste that isn’t compostable, then you can either put it in your garden waste bin if appropriate, dump it in the general waste, or you can call a rubbish removal service to remove all of it for you. Of course, you can load it up in your car and make a run to the dump or recycling centre yourself, but if you let the experts do it they’ll do the heavy lifting and they know exactly where to take every item you’re disposing of.
This is a particularly useful option if you are having a major garden clearance or you happen to have a particularly large garden. This includes residential homeowners, as well as business owners, or strata managers as well. If you operate a portfolio of properties, then we can help you do so efficiently.
What Belongs in Your Green Bin
If you use your green bin, then you can dump grass clippings, leaves, small twigs, small branches, plants, flowers, and weeds in it.
You cannot, however, dump food scraps or wood chips in it, nor can you put biodegradable or compostable packaging or containers in there. Manufactured wood, tree stumps, potting mix, soil mix, compostable nappies, and branches greater than 10cm thick do not belong in your green bin. Rocks, building materials, plant pots, and garden equipment are also unsuitable for the green bin.
How Cheapest Load of Rubbish Can Help
As a long-standing, local Sydney rubbish removal company, we are proud to offer a wide range of services. We offer garden waste rubbish clearance and removal, but we also uplift hard waste, old appliances, white goods, furniture, and so much more.
Whether you’re preparing for a move, spring cleaning, planning to renovate or need help with a deceased estate clearance, Cheapest Load of Rubbish is standing by. We also work to uplift residential, industrial, commercial, and construction waste. If you’re looking for rubbish removal in Sydney reach out to us today to schedule your free, no-obligation quote. We’ll send a team to your door to provide you with an on-the-spot quote.
