Start Composting in your
Apartment or Multifamily Home
How Austin’s New Multifamily Composting Ordinance Makes Waste Reduction Easy for Apartment Dwellers
Composting Made Simple
In 2015, during a Community Diversion Study, Austin Resource Recovery found that a whopping 80% of materials sent to local landfills could have been composted or recycled.
To combat this waste, the City of Austin introduced a Universal Recycling Ordinance, aiming to divert 90% of trash away from landfills by 2040. Effective October 2024, under the ordinance, all multifamily properties with five or more units, including apartments, condominiums, assisted living communities, and dormitories, must provide compost-hauling services to their residents.
Composting is a natural process where organic matter decomposes into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. We like to think of it as nature’s recycling. With the introduction of compost services to multifamily property residents, you no longer require access to a backyard to compost your food scraps and not send them to the landfill.
Once properties establish a commercial composting service, apartment renters can easily participate by using a small countertop container to collect food scraps during meal prep or when cleaning out the fridge. Since Break it Down is an industrial composting facility, we accept a wide variety of food waste, including fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, bones, and dairy.
You can also compost greasy pizza boxes, which aren’t suitable for recycling with clean paper, as well as any food-soiled paper products like paper towels or napkins.
Additionally, BPI-certified compostable items, such as to-go containers, can be composted. To manage odors, we recommend storing your compost bin in the freezer until pickup day. Once you start composting, you’ll notice how much less trash you’re taking to your dumpster each week, and your trash bag might even smell better without decomposing food waste!
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You don’t need to buy anything to start your waste diversion journey. Composting can be as simple as reusing a yogurt container to collect food waste. It’s also the perfect size to store in your freezer between pick-ups!
For those outside of Austin city limits or without easy access to compost services, we recommend reaching out to local community gardens or farmers’ markets, as many are happy to accept your fruit and vegetable waste.
Where does it all come from?
Right here in Austin & surrounding areas! We’ve fostered long standing relationships with many of Austin’s local favorites, from the juiciest Juiceland juicery to the mouthwatering kingdom of Ramen Tatsu-Ya, as well as local mushroom, worm, and cattle farms – we’re in cahoots with your business neighbors big and small to create something truly special (and more importantly, truly useful!) from your leftover spaghetti, bones, human hair, and even the mulch from fallen branches in your neighborhood!
We’re super proud of our team, our vision & accomplishments, and the truth is, we’re just getting warmed up.
