Going Green - Top Cities for Composting in 2026

 

Where are U.S. cities trying to recycle organic waste — yard trimmings and food scraps — into “black gold” and energy? As thousands of industry leaders head to Sacramento for the COMPOST2026 conference (Feb. 2–5), LawnStarter looked at the Top Cities for Composting in 2026.

Top 10 Cities for Composting in 2026 San Diego New York Los Angeles Boston Santa Monica, California Orlando, Florida Austin, Texas Gainesville, Florida Minneapolis San Francisco   To come up with this ranking, we compared the 500 largest U.S. cities based on 11 total metrics, including access to both city-run and private composting services, average yard size, and policies driving compost access, like zero-waste initiatives.   Key Insights: 28 cities in our ranking have both municipal and private composting options for residents. This is the case for our top 5 cities, as well as cities like Washington, D.C. (No. 19), San Antonio (No. 25), and Raleigh, North Carolina (No. 60). Residents of cities like Cedar Rapids, Iowa (No. 45), Athens, Georgia (No. 48), and Knoxville, Tennessee (No. 110), enjoy access to both municipal and private composting programs and ample yard space for creating a compost pile at home.  Despite scoring in the bottom half of our ranking for a lack of composting access, cities like Birmingham, Alabama (No. 339), Colorado cities Westminster (No. 429) and Lakewood (No. 465), and Nampa, Idaho (No. 449), land among the top 100 cities for local interest in composting.  Read the full story here: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/top-cities-composting/ Other helpful links: City Rankings Ask the Experts Control Your Footprint with Backyard Composting   Why should Americans compost? “Organic wastes from yard clippings and food decomposing in landfills are the third largest source of methane emissions in the U.S.,” says professor Marianne Krasny, director of Cornell University’s Civic Ecology Lab. “And remember methane is 84 times stronger than CO2 as a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming in the near-term.”  Composting is complicated, but why does LawnStarter care? Grass clippings and other organic yard waste are compostable, and 26 states require yard waste to be sorted from the bin. Read more about recent composting statistics, accomplishments, and obstacles in Beyond the Bin: U.S. Composting Stats, Policies, and Roadblocks. More from LawnStarter: Most Sustainable Cities How to Use Compost in Your Yard How to Keep Pests Out of Your Compost Bin Best Cities for Urban Gardening How to Compost Grass Clippings (4 Methods) Dirtiest Cities in America