City of Cape Town Offers Free Compost Bins to Homeowners

The City of Cape Town invited homeowners to apply for free compost bins in its latest move to become a zero-waste society.

They are providing free home composting containers to help city residents compost their organic household waste and create a good compost system. Healthy compost feeds nutrients back into soil, retaining moisture and can help you to grow your own food and establish a healthy garden. Much better than sending it to landfill!

For details on the City’s Composting Programme, including how to apply, and the dates and locations of distribution, click on this link.

Residents will be required to produce a copy of their ID or passport, as well as a municipal account.

To qualify for the free bins:

• You need to be a homeowner or tenant of a single residence (sectional title flats are excluded).
• Your property needs to include a secure garden or yard area.

You can also have a look at our guide to setting up a compost heap in your garden. It may give you some ideas on how to get started even without the bin.

“I strongly encourage all homeowners with a garden to apply for a home-composting unit as they will very soon reap the benefits. Not only will it mean less waste going into your bin and then to landfill sites, but gardens will benefit too. An indirect benefit is water conservation, as plants require less irrigation when there is good mulch to protect the moisture in the earth,” said Councillor Sonnenberg.

The following organic household waste can go into the home-composting container:

• fruit and vegetable waste
• eggshells
• teabags
• paper
• vacuum cleaner contents
• leaves
• grass
• sawdust
• compostable food packaging that can be home composted, like bagasse containers, brown paper bags and wooden cutlery