Compost your peelings and cores

Hopefully you won't have much left-over fruit and veg if you're striving to reduce wastage, but there will still be the inedible parts to dispose of. As you can start composting at any time of year, why not start now?

It's estimated that 30% of household waste can be composted. By composting at home rather than sending this waste to landfill, you'll be helping reduce methane production.  A greenhouse gas, methane is linked to global warming and is generated during decomposition when there is little oxygen present - as in landfill - but thankfully your household composting has sufficient oxygen so production of methane is very limited. Not only are you doing your bit for the environment, but you'll get a lovely nutritious compost to add to your soil, which the plants in your garden will thank you for.

It's not just fruit, veg and salad waste that goes into a composter, indeed you do better with a good mix. There are essentially two groups of compostable material:

• Greens - fruit, veg, salad (though all of these must be uncooked), eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds, grass cutting, old flowers and plants and weeds (as long as they don't have seeds). These add nitrogen, moisture and bacteria.
• Browns - cardboard (think toilet rolls, cereal packets and egg boxes), screwed up paper, twigs and bark, sawdust and bedding from vegetarian pets, even the fluff from your vacuum cleaner. These add carbon and fibre.

Ideally you want to add equal amounts of green and brown compostables - too much green and you'll have a sludgy mess, too much brown and it will be too dry and have limited bacteria, so composting will be very slow.

Although composters are readily available to buy, if you want to continue the green theme and have a DIY composter, what about using an old dustbin? Turned upside down with a hole in the bottom for the addition of the materials and placing the lid over the hole to control the temperature and moisture, you've got the perfect composter. Take a further step back and there's nothing wrong with a more traditional compost heap perhaps within a wooden frame on three sides and covered with a piece of old carpet (weighted down so it doesn't blow off!), though a lid isn't essential.

If you're wondering where to place your composter, it's best off in a sunnier spot (to speed up composting) and directly over soil for easier transference of microbes and insects to the compost. If the latter is a problem, a composter can be placed on a hard surface such as a patio with a layer of soil at the base, but be warned, any liquid that seeps out the bottom is likely to stain the surface. Removing some paving stones might be a better option.

Now that your composter is in place, you're good to go. Keep a lidded container in your kitchen - an old ice cream carton is ideal - to collect your kitchen waste. Add your green and brown compostables in a 50:50 ratio continually and within 9 to 12 months you will have your first compost. When ready it will be thick, dark and crumbly. All that's left to do is remove your compost by either opening the hatch or lifting the composter slightly off the ground and using a spade or fork work it into your soil. You can then enjoy the flowers, fruits and veggies that grow.