Approximately 32% of the waste that Nashville residents create each year is food and yard waste that could be composted. Composting is nature's way of recycling food and yard waste. It is a process that naturally occurs when anything that was once alive is returned to the soil through decomposition. This process returns valuable nutrients back to the soil to help new plants grow. When food and yard waste is sent to landfill, it not only takes up space, but also creates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. By composting at home, you can feed your garden with nutrients while reducing waste and methane in the landfill.
Backyard Composting
Brush, leaves, grass clippings, and a lot of your food scraps at home can be composted in your backyard. All you need is a bin or a place for a compost pile, something to mix your compost like a shovel or rake, and a small bin to collect your kitchen food scraps.
Learn how to start composting in your backyard:
- Sign up for a Dirt on Composting Workshop including a chance to win a free Earth Machine compost bin.
- Read our Dirt on Composting booklet.
- Check out the EPA’s guide to Composting at Home.
- Buy an Earth Machine compost bin from Metro Waste Services.
Drop Off Composting
Metro Waste Services offers free drop off composting of food scraps, soiled paper products, and BPI labeled compostable products at each of our Convenience Centers for Metro Nashville and Davidson County residents. Look up our full list of accepted materials for drop off composting.
Indoor Composting
If you live in an apartment or other small space, have very limited outdoor space, or want to compost at work, worm composting is a great option. Composting with worms is a simple natural way to create your own fertilizer using food waste and it can be done indoors.
Learn how to start composting with worms:
Step by Step Guide to Composting with Worms
Community Composting
Community composting is a composting project that is larger than backyard composting but smaller than centralized, large-scale composting. A community composting site, for example, might receive and compost food scraps in a community or neighborhood. It is cheaper and quicker to design and launch than large-scale composting facilities, empowers and strengthens communities, enhances local soils and local food production, and provides useful skills and job training.
Learn more about community composting at the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s community composting page.
Other Ways to Compost
Residents can also pay for curbside pickup through Compost Nashville, REGENR8, or the Compost Company.
Tennessee Smart Yards
Tennessee Smart Yards is a UT Extension-led program that guides Tennesseans on practices they can apply to their outdoor spaces (including backyard composting) to create healthier, more ecologically-sounds landscapes and communities.