Composting

Why Compost?

Over 40% of the waste that is sent to Brockton landfill sites is organic matter - fruit and veggie scraps from your kitchen, grass clippings, leaves, garden waste, even meat and bones. Sending this waste to the landfill is expensive and there are significant environmental impacts too.

Modern landfills are enclosed environments and little oxygen reaches the organic matter from our household garbage, which produces landfill gas. Landfill gas is about equal parts carbon dioxide and methane (a greenhouse gas that traps up to 100 times more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide).

On top of the gases that are released into the atmosphere, organic matter increases the amount of leachate a landfill produces. Bacteria breaks down the organic matter and turns it into liquid. As this liquid mixes with rainwater it seeps through the waste in the landfill and becomes leachate which can be contaminated with any number of toxic materials from other landfill waste like pesticides, cleaning products, oils, batteries, etc. It is expensive to collect, test, and treat leachate and leachate is a concern when it comes to protecting our water quality.

Composting organic matter helps to reduce the amount of organic matter you send to our landfills. This helps us save money (running landfills is expensive!) and protect our beautiful Brockton environment.

Composting that Works for You!

We encourage all Brockton households to find a compost method that works for them - visit our Types of Composting page to learn about how to get started!