Composting

Business Assistance Guide for Mandatory Organics Recycling 
San Diego County offers free assistance to businesses that want to develop programs to cut food waste, manage compostable materials and save money. Please contact April Andrews at (858) 694-2463 for more information on how the County can assist your business in organics recycling. 

GUIDES: Composting and Vermicomposting (composting with worms) 

• Compost it Yourself Guide: Guide to Backyard Composting  the full guide
• What is Composting and Why Do it?
• Choose a Compost Style that Works for You
• Composting Basics
• The Compost Continuum
• Vermicomposting Basics (composting with worms)
• Harvesting and Using your Compost
• Compost Troubleshooting & Additional Resources

• Schools 

• Farms & Ranches

• Businesses

• Community Gardens

How to Permit a Green Materials Compost/Mulch Operation – A two page summary with recommendations to streamline permit requests

Organic Materials Processing Permit Guide – A visual summary of State and local regulations that may apply to facilities in unincorporated San Diego County

Regulatory Summary – Excerpts from regulations that may apply to facilities in unincorporated San Diego County

Erosion Control

Compost modifies the physical soil properties, improving water-holding ability and resistance to compaction. For this reason, compost is more commonly being used as an erosion control material that enhances soil. Compost is made from readily available, inexpensive materials and is gaining ground as an accepted material for erosion control measures in construction projects and roadside landscaping in California whereby road and construction projects degrade and compact soil, causing breakdown of aggregates and loss of structure.

Learn more

• Compost and Mulch Market Study
• CalRecycle Erosion Control Resources
• Caltrans Compost Specifications
• Filtrexx Compost Socks and Other Erosion Control Materials

Supplies, Workshops and Composting Assistance

• Solana Center for Environmental Innovation  For more information on workshop dates and compost how-to's.  (760) 436-7986 ext. 700
• Home Composting Resource Guide where to buy worms and related composting items.

School Composting Programs

The County offers free composting education and assistance with compost and worm bin set up and in some cases donation of bins. Assistance with composting is available on a first come first serve basis and for schools located in the unincorporated county.

• Solana Center for Environmental Innovation can help you set up a composting program in your school. (760) 436-7986 ext. 700
• Composting Tips for School and Community Gardens
• Composting in Schools - Options and Regulations 

Compost Demonstration Sites

Learn how to produce a valuable soil amendment from your food scraps and yard waste. Composting workshops are offered in many unincorporated communities and compost demonstration sites

• Cuyamaca Water Conservation Garden  Rancho San Diego
• Deer Park Monastery  Unincorporated Escondido
• Crestridge Ecological Reserve at Earth Discovery Institute  Crest
• 4S Ranch Community Garden (locked gate) 4S Ranch Community Garden- 17117 4S Ranch Parkway San Diego, CA 92127
• Terra Madre Farm - unincorporated Escondido
  
  

Landscaper Best Practices

Design and maintain commercial and residential landscapes?
Reduce the amount of yard waste you dispose

• Sustainable Landscape Practices Guide
• Trees: how to select proper trees for landscaping
• Trees: proper pruning techniques
• Trees: proper planting treachniques
• Trees and utilities

Yard Waste

• Locations to recycle your green yard debris and woody material or to pick up compost and/or mulch

•  Full Yard Trimmings Recycling Guide 

No-Cost Chipping Service for Fuel (Vegetation) Reduction

• No-Cost Chipping Service for fuel reduction to qualified residents in certain areas of the unincorporated County

Other Resources

• Neighborhood Composting 101: This is A 5 week intensive, experiential, roll in the dirt type of course, designed to prepare you to successfully compost... for yourself, for your family, and for your neighborhood! Enrollment for February is open! If you or a friend have the slightest interest in learning to craft top notch compost, Inika is here to help! Apply online now.
• Soil Safari: Join in on the Soil Safari, an educational excursion into the universe that lives under our feet. Students will learn the importance of transforming foodbits into nourishing soil, they'll learn the ingredients of gourmet compost (and the importance of reducing food waste), and they'll learn the means of crafting a complete compost pile! For more info and sign ups click here.

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Reducing Food Waste