Backyard Composting

How to Compost in Your Backyard

Learn how to compost at home with Master Gardener Bill Maynard.

Please contact us at sacrecycle@cityofsacramento.org if you are interested in attending a composting seminar or would like to request a free Geobin composter. City residents only, while supplies last.

Backyard composting organics

Backyard composting allows you to recycle your yard clippings and fruit and vegetable scraps into a valuable soil amendment right in your own yard. It is a great way to save money, reduce the amount of waste that is disposed, and improve the quality of your soil.

Download our Backyard Composting Guide for more information on proper backyard composting techniques.

Hands holding finished compost open_in_full

Hands holding finished compost

SB 1383 and backyard composting

Since July 1, 2022, in compliance with the statewide mandate, Senate Bill 1383, the City of Sacramento has been collecting food waste and food-soiled paper from our residential customers, mixed along with their yard waste. The organic waste the City collects is recycled into a nutrient dense compost and provided to local agricultural users. 

Customers who compost in their backyard can continue to compost food waste at home. The City’s program accepts other organics that are not ideal for backyard composting, including clean wood waste, food-soiled paper, eggshells and bones, spoiled food, citrus, and certain food wastes that can attract vermin in a backyard composter. 

SB 1383 requires the City to collect all organics, not just those that can be recycled in backyard composting. As such, these residents will also require organic waste collection services from the City. 

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