Bigger compost piles coming to Minneapolis

Minneapolis has made way for bigger backyard compost piles.

The City Council passed an ordinance today allowing back yard composters up to 245 cubic feet for a typical tenth-of-an-acre city lot. That's seven feet square and five feet high -- about twice the capacity the previous law allowed. If you have a bigger lot or one that doesn't have a house on it, you can make your heap even bigger.

Creative commons photo from @nacybeetoo via flickr.

The piles must be contained with something durable -- a wooden box, say -- but they don't need to be covered with anything more than "leaves, straw, wood chips, or finished compost."

Neighbors worried about the smell of decomposing organic matter can take comfort in this, though: Only plants are kosher for composting within city limits.

No humanure in Minneapolis, please.

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