Turning garbage into supercharged garden soil is easier than you think. If you have food scraps and a pitchfork, you're halfway there.
Getting started doesn't necessarily require any special equipment: Piling up materials and letting nature take its course will eventually produce compost.
Material considerations
Successful composting depends on the right combination of "green" and "brown" material. The greens (food scraps, lawn cuttings) provide nitrogen, while the browns (dry leaves, newspaper, hay) provide carbon. To create optimal conditions for decomposition, you'll need twice as much brown material as green.
Food scraps (green): Fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggshells, cooked pasta and rice, coffee grounds and used filters, and loose tea and tea bags can all be added to the pile. Do not compost meat, cheese, bones, or vegetable matter with added fats or oils, such as dressed salads.
Paper, lint and hay (brown): Newspaper and hay make good brown matter when dry leaves are in short supply. Shred newspaper so it doesn't form a mat. Do not compost glossy or colored paper.
Soil (neutral): A handful (or shovelful, depending on the size of your bin) of garden soil in the middle of the pile helps to inoculate it with the micro-organisms that are necessary for decomposition.
Garden waste (green): Flowers, leaves, grass clippings and weeds are great candidates for the compost pile. Do not compost weeds bearing seeds, or diseased or pest-ridden foliage.