Compost bins and worm farms

Composting is a great source of free fertiliser. You can use this to keep your garden and pot plants healthy and strong. All you need are food and garden scraps that many of us throw away. These include vegetable scraps, leaves, and garden prunings.

Putting your food and garden waste into a compost bin helps the environment by reducing greenhouse gases while also creating a valuable resource to help grow food.

Discounted compost bins from Compost Community

We are a member council with Compost Community. This means that if you live in Merri-bek, you can get a discount on the composting systems on the Compost Community website.

To get this discount you just need to:

  • Complete the welcome survey
  • Commit to completing the follow-up survey 6 months after your purchase

Compost Community offers a wide range of compost bins and worm farms at wholesale prices with free delivery to your door.

Compost Community can provide you with advice on which product would best suit your needs. They can also give you ongoing support to get the best results from your compost bin or worm farm.

If you would like to buy a compost bin from Compost Community but do not have internet access, call us on 9240 1111.

  • If you live in a multi-unit development or apartment, you may not have space for a compost bin. If this is the case:

    • Consider speaking to your neighbours, landlord, or body corporate about the possibility of getting a shared compost bin.
    • If your site has a food and garden organics (FOGO) bin, you can use this to dispose of food scraps and garden waste.
    • Consider joining a community composting hub or shared compost bin program. You can find out more about these below.
    • There are different composting options available that take up less space, including worm farms or Bokashi buckets. You can find out more about these below.

Different ways of composting

There are more ways to compost than a simple compost bin.

A worm farm is a composting option for people with less space or no garden. You can keep a worm farm in a small undercover outside area. This includes car parks, garages, or verandahs.

A Bokashi bucket is another composting option. This is a system that uses an inoculated grain product to ferment food waste. Bokashi is made from sawdust, bran, and micro-organisms. It normally takes 1 to 2 months to fill the bucket with food waste, depending on how many vegetables you eat. When the bucket is full, you can bury the food waste in the soil or add it to a compost heap so that it can continue to break down.

Both of these products are available on the Compost Community website. The Compost Community also has a range of resources to help you get started on the Learn page on the Compost Community website.

How to compost

If you are looking for instructions or tips on how to set up a composting system, there is helpful information on the Compost Community website. They provide detailed information on worm farms, compost bins, and Bokashi buckets. They also provide a chat platform where you can discuss composting with your neighbours.

Community composting hubs

Community composting hubs are places where people can use a community compost bin.

These hubs are made up of either worm farms or compost bins. These composting systems use worms and other micro-organisms to break down food waste and make compost, castings, and worm juice.

Pentridge Community Garden

Pentridge Community Garden has a community composting hub which can be accessed during opening hours (usually Sunday mornings and whenever the gate is open) or any time if you are a Friend of the Garden member. 

Find out more on the Pentridge Community Garden page on the Moreland Community Gardening website or  on the Pentridge Community Garden Facebook page.

Shared composting

If you cannot compost at home you could consider joining a shared composting program like Sharewaste. This is a great option if you are not near a community composting hub or your local community composting hub is not open for registrations.

Sharewaste is a shared food-waste disposal program. It allows people to share a compost bin or worm farm with their neighbours. You can even share food waste with neighbours who have chickens to feed. The Sharewaste program brings together hosts and donors. The hosts store the compost bin and donors donate their kitchen scraps. You can learn more about this program on the Sharewaste website.

If you want to register as a host or a donor, you can do so on the Sharewaste website.