Cris
Twenty-five Things You Can Compost
Composting organic material reduces household waste and helps feed your garden. Did you know that you can compost more than just your vegetable scraps and eggshells? Here are another twenty-five things that you can compost to provide nutrients to your soil.
A good mix of compost includes greens and browns. Greens are your vegetable scraps, grass clippings and coffee grounds. Browns are things like twigs, pine needles, sawdust, and paper products. Ideally, you want this mixture in a 1:1 ratio, that is equal parts greens and browns.
Meeting this ration is sometimes hard when you don’t think outside of the box for what you can compost. The more you can add to that bin, the less you will send off to a landfill. And you will get more nutrients to feed your garden, and thus yourself.
List of Compostable Items:
This page contains affiliate links which means I earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Please read our disclaimer for more information.
Coffee Grounds and Filters
Let’s face it, we all love coffee. Now we can get some benefit from our morning addictions. Coffee added to the compost bin will add great organic matter to the finished product that helps with water retention, aeration, and drainage.
No need to worry about making your compost too acidic by using coffee, the acids mainly end up in your cup. What you do get however is some slightly caffeinated soil. This actually helps deter snails and slugs in your garden, either the caffeine or the texture really does keep them away.
Coffee filters are made of nice thin paper that breaks down pretty fast. Even though traditional white filters have been bleached, the worms still love them. You can use organic brown filters or a permanent reusable filter like I do.
Tea Bags
Tea bags made of paper are easily compostable, they are pretty similar to coffee filters in that regard. Worms and other microorganisms will break them down pretty quickly. If they are not compostable, you will find the bag in your finished compost, and you simply pick it out before using the compost. I grow and make my own herbal tea using a diffuser, so no worry about a bag when I’m done with my tea.
Paper Bags
As the world tries to lean farther and farther away from plastic grocery bags, we are seeing the use of more paper bags. You can reuse them to a point, but then what should you do with a bag that has fallen apart? Add it to the compost to get those valuable browns of course.
Plain brown paper bags add much needed carbon to your compost pile. Do be careful of the amount of ink on the bag, some inks may not be good for your soil. An alternative is to lay them in the bottom of a garden bed as a weed barrier. They will eventually break down as a natural compost under your bed in time.
Cardboard and Newspaper
This is just like composting brown paper bags, and I love using it to line new beds. It is an effective weed barrier. Do not use those nice pretty packages that are glossy and colored all over. Stick to the plain brown ones. The wax coating does not break down well, and it will take the longest to decompose in your compost bin. It is most effective to shred your cardboard before adding it to the bin to speed up the process.
Shredded newspaper is another great source of those carbon packed browns to add to your compost. It helps retain moisture and worms love it. You can actually house worms in a worm bin filled with moist shredded newspaper.
Plain Cooked Pasta
Did you cook too much pasta but not enough for leftovers? Instead of tossing it out, add it to the bucket to be taken out and composted. Pasta is an organic material made from flour; it will break down to add nutrients to your compost.
Stale Bread
My kids are notorious for not closing up the bread bag. Then half the loaf gets all hard and no one will eat it, not even the ducks (it’s bad for them anyway). Off to the compost with it. Much like pasta, it is made from flour and will break down into starches that beneficial microorganisms can use.
Used Paper Products
Thinks like napkins, toilet paper, paper plates, and paper towels can be composted just fine. These thin, soft paper products break down fast and feed the worms. Make sure there are no waxes on these products before adding them to the bin. I would also watch what they were used for before adding to the compost. Cleaning products on paper towels might not be as good as say a few crumbs from a sandwich.
Stale Pretzels, Cereal, and Crackers
To go with the bread issue, we lose a fair number of crackers when the box does not get closed up tight. You could crush these and give them to the chickens, but you can compost them as well. More nutrients for those worms and other microorganisms.
Pizza Crusts
More bread to the compost! Many people do not eat the crust of the pizza, even though it is delicious when dipped in ranch dressing. Reap the benefits of this wasted portion for your garden rather than letting it go to a landfill.
Nutshells
Nutshells provide additional nutrients to the compost mixture. It is, however, important that you keep walnut shells out of the compost because the shells are toxic to plants.
Moldy Cheese
Normally you would not compost meats and cheeses, but the fact this is moldy makes it all right. This is because it is bringing its own fungus to speed up the breakdown into usable nutrients.
Dryer Lint
Lint from the screen in your dryer can go into the compost. If you hang dry your clothes and then shave off the lint, you can add that too. It adds brown material to the pile to get a good mix in the finished product.
Cotton and Wool Rags
Rags made of 100% cotton or wool will break down in the compost bin. It will break down faster if they are shredded first, or you might have to keep putting them back in when you are using your compost. Try not to make more than 25% of your compost out of these items.
Eggshells
Of course, eggshells are compostable. They add minerals more than anything else so they are not considered either green or brown. The calcium that is left in your finished compost is great for your garden plants. You might think that they are not compostable because they seem to take forever to break down. Crush them first and you will add great nutrients to your soil.
Cotton Balls
As long as these are 100% cotton and not another synthetic material you can compost them. Like the paper products above, I would be careful of what they were used for before adding them to the bin. Nail polish and other harsh solvents are not a good idea to try to compost due to their toxicity.
Loofah Sponges
Loofahs are great and fun to grow. Embedding them in homemade soaps for some added exfoliation is awesome. When you are done with the loofah, simply make sure it is free of soap residues and toss it in. This adds more of those great brown items.
Shredded Paper
Not just newspaper, but old bills, old homework assignments. Scratch paper, post it notes, your favorite book that fell apart from reading it one too many times. All of these can be composted, but will of course break down faster if shredded first. Plus, you keep your personal information out of the landfill which may help prevent identity theft.
Old Cotton Clothing
Much like those organic material rags you used earlier, clothing can be shredded and composted if it is made from cotton, wool, or hemp. Synthetic materials will not break down and should be donated to a thrift store before going in the trash.
Fireplace Ashes
Yes, ashes are compostable. They add lime, potassium, and other trace elements to the finished compost. Ash does add alkalinity, so don’t add too much all at once.
Wood Chips
Wood chips and saw dust are a great source of fiber and carbon for your compost bin. They will break down slower and give you a chunk final product. They will continue to add aeration and drainage when used in your soil though.
Hair and Nail Clippings
It sounds gross, but they are organic, and they will break down. Hair and nails are made of keratin protein, which does provide nutrients to plants and keeps the drains from getting clogged. It’s not just human hair, but pet hair as well. Go ahead and add it to the bin for some added nutrients.
Vacuum Contents
Let’s face it, what you get in the vacuum is mainly pet hair and dirt, I know mine is. Since you are making good organic dirt in the compost some real dirt is not going to hurt it at all. The dog and cat hair gives a nutrient boost for the plants later.
Feathers
Feathers are a great source of nitrogen for the compost. When you clean out the chicken coop, scoop all of those feathers up with the old straw and toss them into the compost. The nitrogen will help speed up the decomposition of the whole pile and leave great nutrients in the finished compost.
Dead Houseplants
It happens to the best of us, we buy them, water them, give them sun and they still die. It’s not your fault at all, they have had so much fertilizer in the nursery they came from that they just can’t support themselves without it. They don’t have to die there though, dump them dirt and all into the compost so they can live again in your garden next season through the nutrients they give to the soil.
Stale Beer
Yup, after that barbecue, go pour all of those half full beers into the compost. You need a proper mix of greens and browns and well, moisture. Beer will give that moisture boost and it adds nitrogen and yeast to stimulate the other microorganisms to break down materials faster. Don’t pour it down the drain, pour it on the compost pile.
Awesome Compost, Less Landfill
Adding all of these additional items to the compost keeps them from going to the landfill. It also gives you more material to create that good black garden gold with. As long as you keep your brown to green ration in line, you will have a nice large compost pile to fertilize next year’s garden with.
Check out these other articles for more information on gardening and compost.