Compost can be purchased in bulk from:

• Lara Garden Supplies (previously Elcho), 180 Elcho Road Lara
• Southpoint Garden Supplies, 15 Boneyards Avenue Torquay
• Wallington WRG, 370 Grubb Road Wallington

Garden waste is collected and painstakingly decontaminated to remove plastics and other impurities. 

It’s then shredded and windrowed at our Anakie compost facility. Here, seagrass from Geelong’s beaches and even rhino and elephant dung from the Werribee Zoo are sometimes added to the mix for extra nutrients. 

The compost is watered and turned over the next few weeks until it breaks down and matures. 

It is then screened once again for quality before it’s made available for sale.

Compost is not meant to be directly planted into, think of it as a conditioner you can add to improve the biology, health and water capacity of your soil. 

If creating new garden beds, mix 20-30% of compost to regular soil or potting mix. 

If you want to give an existing garden a boost, spread about 1cm of compost onto your existing garden soil and stir it into the surface. 

Finally, you can add compost directly to your home compost system or worm farm as a brown material. This is especially useful if your compost is too wet or smells rotten.

We spend a significant amount on collecting and processing Greater Geelong's garden waste into high quality recycled compost. This includes the cost of collection, transport, decontamination and processing facilities.

While this is still far cheaper and better environmentally than sending garden waste to landfill, this cost means we cannot provide compost for free all year round. 

However, we offer samples of our compost free at Community Compost Days in spring and autumn each year. To be updated on the next one, subscribe to our Rethink Your Rubbish newsletter. 

By purchasing Better for Geelong compost, you're helping to support your local recycling and circular economy industry, keeping jobs in Greater Geelong, reducing emissions from transportation and keeping waste out of landfill. 

Compost is generally alkaline between pH 8.0 to 8.5 when it leaves the compost facility. However, the pH will reduce about 0.5 every six months as the organic matter breaks down and releases organic acids.

Please also be aware that powdered pH test kits will give a false high reading on soils with high organic matter. 

Maximum compost application rate for salt sensitive plants is 4 L per square metre and 16 L for non-salt sensitive plants.  These volumes can be doubled if dug to a depth of at least 10 cm

Yes, our compost is completely safe to use on edible gardens. In fact, we test our compost on tomato plants! 

The composting process is designed to kill harmful pathogens through pasteurisation. This involves allowing the compost material to heat up to 55 degrees Celsius as it breaks down. Compost is kept at this high temperature for three days before being turned and allowed to heat again twice more. This is done in accordance with Australian standards for compost.

Some plants like citrus are heavy feeders and will benefit from also adding some fertiliser.

Yes, the compost can definitely be used as a mulch.

The composting process is designed to kill harmful pathogens and weed seeds through pasteurisation. This involves allowing the compost material to heat up to 55 degrees Celsius as it breaks down. Compost is kept at this high temperature for three days before being turned and allowed to heat again twice more. This is done in accordance with Australian standards for compost.

Our Anakie compost facility tests and screens every batch of compost to ensure a weed free product.

Our Anakie compost facility tests and screens every batch of compost to ensure a weed free product. Weed seeds cannot survive the pasteurisation process our compost goes through.

If weeds have grown where the compost was spread, they have likely come from seeds in the soil underneath. The compost holds moisture and will unavoidably benefit weeds as well as other plants in your garden!

We do our very best to decontaminate our compost, using both local workers and machinery. However, unfortunately some small particles can sometimes make it through. The good news is this occasional tiny contamination is far outweighed by the billions of healthy microbials found in our compost, and will not harm your garden. Keeping plastics and rubbish out of your green garden bin is crucial to helping us recycle and recover more from Geelong’s waste.

If stored correctly the compost should be fine for up to 12 months. After this, some nutrients will begin to degrade, however the compost will still be a valuable addition to your garden or compost system.

The compost should ideally be stored in the shade. Do not open the bag until you’re ready to use it.

Put the compost bag in your red rubbish bin, or reuse it as you would any plastic potting mix bag.

Unfortunately while we have trialled paper bags, the paper is prone to breaking down when it comes in contact with compost and moisture.