Despite futile attempts to educate my neighbors they persist in
remaining stubbornly ignorant about composting and insist that my
compost bins, which are screened and tidy, will surely cause a
horrible stench (though they have not in the past 3 years) and result
in their back yards becoming unusable. Nothing anyone says will ever
convince them otherwise because they know what they think they know
and that is that.

My question is this: do I have a right to compost yard waste? I live
in a city with small but not tiny lots and the bins built from wood
from a very large tree we had removed are in the back of the yard
screened with lattice and various vines. I'm sure that the city has
some kind of an ordinance covering disposal of yard waste as it seems
to have an ordinance covering everything, but it seems completely
ridiculous for me to purchase a sticker (I would probably need
several- they only pick up yard waste biweekly) so that the city can
throw it in their municipal compost site and then sell it back to me
contaminated with pesticides and who knows what other chemicals. Not
to mention that if I throw everything in a garbage can and let it sit
for 2 weeks with no airflow it will start stinking for real. I'm
willing to fight the city, I just wondered if anyone had had any
experience with this.