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Consider composting food scraps and yard waste to make your garden flourish
June 05, 2025
As part of National Garden Week, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is highlighting how composting can provide a source of rich nutrients that will help your flowers and veggies give you the bounty you want. Composting at home is easy using food scraps from your kitchen and dry leaves and woody material from your yard.
Composting has gained traction in recent years, as individuals get started with it and cities make it easier for residents to learn about the composting process. A growing number of municipalities are also serving as collection sites for food scraps and yard waste that will be turned into compost.
Pictured: Buckets and a wheelbarrow filled with compost.
Compost – called “black gold” by fans – is a process that takes grass clippings, leaves, yard and tree trimmings, and food scraps and turns it into compost, a soil amendment that can be used to build soil health and provide nutrients to plants. Microorganisms feed on the materials added to the compost pile during the composting process. They use carbon and nitrogen to grow and reproduce, water to digest materials, and oxygen to breathe.
East Lansing resident Judy Putnam has been composting for 30 years. As a devoted enthusiast of “recycling, reusing, and repurposing,” she found it easy to incorporate into her life.
At first, Putnam created a compost pile. Then, she received a large compost bin as a gift about 20 years ago. To the large bin, she added yard waste, vegetable peelings and coffee grounds, along with some dirt from old pots. The result was lots of compost.
“This year, I was amazed at the amount of compost I have,” she said. “Probably a dozen 5 gallon buckets and a wheelbarrow full. We've been using it in flower and vegetable garden planting. I feel good about this. It's a small effort to keep stuff out of the waste stream and it yields benefits. You should see my begonias!”
Pictured: Judy Putnam, of East Lansing, has been composting for 30 years.
Not ready to compost yourself? Consider dropping off compostable materials at a collection site.
Aubree Carlisle, an EGLE food waste specialist, notes that My Green Michigan, an organics collection company that provides a convenient way for residents a to divert organic waste to composting, offers drop-off sites in eight Michigan communities. Watch EGLE’s video that puts a spotlight on the composting efforts of Hammond Farms and My Green Michigan.
To learn more, visit EGLE’s Composting web page.
To find collection options for organics recycling, reach out to your county or municipality for help, search our Michigan Recycling Directory for residential services, or search our Michigan Recycling Materials Market Directory for commercial services.
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