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The 10 Worst U.S. Cities for Composting Entering 2025The 10 Worst U.S. Cities for Composting Entering 2025
Composting may be taking off in some major cities around the United States, but others are lacking participation due to a lack of knowledge, community restraints, or a lack of available programs. As some cities are rolling out composting programs, like New York City, others are lagging behind.
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Composting may be taking off in some major cities around the United States, but others are lacking participation due to a lack of knowledge, community restraints, or a lack of available programs. As some cities are rolling out composting programs, like New York City, others are lagging behind.
LawnStarter provided a comprehensive survey on the top 500 cities for composting going into 2025. Yesterday we featured the top cities in the U.S. for composting, but all lists must come to an end, meaning the survey also highlights large cities in the country that are in a less favorable position for composting as we approach the new year.
As stated yesterday, the survey from LawnStarter surveyed over 2,100 U.S. on their household composting habits, pitting the country’s 500 biggest cities against each other to find out who is doing well and who is pulling up the rear. LawnStarter used five categories to determine the list: infrastructure & accessibility, waste initiatives & policies, local interest, climate, and residential space. Plus, the survey looked at access to municipal and private composting programs, zero-waste initiatives, yard size, and local interest in composting.
Through that methodology, LawnStarter came to some interesting conclusions, pointing out some of the issues households have with their current relationship with composting. Factors like knowledge, community restrictions, and more are reportedly in the way for these households at the bottom of the list.
Respondents aged 18-24 are three times more likely to say that a lack of knowledge is the reason they don’t compost, compared to those aged 65 or older.
Additionally, younger generations are two times more likely to attribute time constraints to keeping them from composting more often.
Odor concerns are keeping half of high-income respondents (over $150,000) from composting more.
Respondents in this income bracket are most likely to live in an area where an HOA prevents them from composting.
Respondents with advanced degrees are nearly two times more likely than those without schooling to claim a lack of knowledge as a reason for not composting.
Additionally, the same people are two and a half times more likely to cite worries over odor and HOA restrictions than those without the same level of schooling.
Of the factors getting in the way, ‘lack of space’ and ‘time constraints’ tied for the most common (44.15 percent) factor preventing households from composting, followed by odor concerns (34.62 percent) and lack of knowledge (22.72 percent).
Click through the slide show to see which cities make up the bottom of LawnStarters list as the worst cities in the U.S. for composting.
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