Is composting better than recycling?

They handle different streams, so it is not either/or — but organics are usually the largest and most climate-damaging part of a household bin, and composting is the part you can act on without waiting for policy.

Can I compost compostable plastics at home?

Usually not. Most certified compostable packaging requires the sustained high temperatures of an industrial facility and will not break down in a garden bin.

Living

Composting vs recycling

Recycling gets the household attention; food waste gets the landfill methane. For most kitchens, diverting organics is the higher-impact change, and it is the one entirely within your control rather than dependent on distant sorting infrastructure.

Side by side

Composting compared with Recycling
Criterion	Composting	Recycling
What it handles	Food scraps, garden waste and, in industrial systems, compostable packaging.	Paper, glass, metals and a narrow subset of plastics.
Climate benefit	Prevents anaerobic methane from landfilled organics — a direct, immediate gain.	Real for aluminium, steel, glass and paper; weak and inconsistent for most plastics.
Failure mode	Odour and pests from too much nitrogen and not enough carbon or airflow.	Contaminated loads get rejected wholesale; wish-cycling makes this worse.
Control	You can do it at home, in a bin or a bokashi bucket, with no municipal system.	Entirely dependent on local infrastructure and end markets.

Questions people ask

Is composting better than recycling?: They handle different streams, so it is not either/or — but organics are usually the largest and most climate-damaging part of a household bin, and composting is the part you can act on without waiting for policy.
Can I compost compostable plastics at home?: Usually not. Most certified compostable packaging requires the sustained high temperatures of an industrial facility and will not break down in a garden bin.

Our reporting on this

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