Are you interested in starting a compost pile but feel a bit leery of the whole process? Well, don’t worry, because you are in good company! In this article I hope to ease some of your concerns and explain 10 worst things to compost and also 10 best things to compost. I’ll also give you 5 helpful composting tips for success.
Compost is known as “black gold” in the gardening world because it is so rich in nutrients. By using our own compost on our plants we can save money buying unnecessary fertilizers and it will help our garden be productive. Even if you are a beginner gardener you have the abilities to start a compost pile right now. Be sure to read till the end because I share my own composting experiment with you.
10 Worst Things to Compost
Composting is a process where organic materials decompose and are then converted into a rich soil known as compost that help our plants grow. While creating a compost pile is fairly easy, you do need to follow some basic rules in order to produce a more useable and healthy soil. The following 10 things are best to avoid adding to your compost pile.
1. Fish & Meat Scraps
Stinky! You can definitely compost fish and meat but the smell will be horrendous and may attract unwanted animals like raccoons, mice, rats, and cats. Also, if you live in a more remote area you could be inviting bears and coyotes unknowingly. Fish and meat will decompose just fine but the process is slower than your other organic materials. They will add nutrients to your garden but you will have to be willing to put up with the smell. Take the smell factor into account if you have neighbors that could be offended especially if they are down wind.
2. Bones, Fat and Cooking Oils
First of all, by adding bones, fat and cooking oils to your compost you could be slowing down the composting process. The reason being is that the bacteria that do most of the work in a traditional compost pile are aerobic. But, the bacteria that break down animal products is anaerobic.
Try an indoor approach to composting your animal products that is not smelly and works faster than a traditional outdoor compost pile. This bucket creates an anaerobic environment and through fermentation creates “compost tea” and “compost” that are both beneficial to your garden.
In addition to slowing the compost process down, bones, fat and cooking oils, can catch the unwanted attention of animals and insects.
3. Animal and Human Poop
It might be tempting to treat your compost pile like a trash can and throw everything in it, including kitty litter and the dog poop you picked up in the yard. But, don’t! They can carry pathogens and parasites that transmit infectious diseases and are harmful to humans. This goes for other carnivorous animals and human feces as well.
There is some debate over human urine though. Plants need nitrogen to grow and pee is rich in nitrogen. We did an aquaponics garden a few years back and added pee to it. The plants did really well! In my opinion, it’s not harmful, but if you are skeptical you may want to leave pee out of your compost pile.
4. Plastic Coated Paper
Don’t throw paper that has been treated with plastic-like coatings to make it bright, colorful, and glossy into your compost pile. They won’t decompose properly and they also have toxins on them that make them harmful for your plants. Magazines, wrapping paper, and catalogs are examples of this type of paper.
If you are looking for a way to get rid of magazine or old books that are cluttering your house, you might consider passing them on. Besides your own friends who might enjoy them, often times doctors offices, clinics and anywhere there is a waiting room would be all to happy to reuse your magazines and books.
5. Citrus Peels and Onions
Since we want to do all we can to have a productive compost pile, there’s no reason to throw a large amount of citrus peels and onions into it. If you have worms in your pile, which I hope you do, the acidity from citrus peels and onions could kill them. The acidity could also slow down the decomposition in your pile.
It’s up to you if you want to add them occasionally in with the rest of your compost but realize that they decompose much slower than other organic materials and you need to cut them up into very small pieces.
6. Charcoal Briquettes and Ashes with Additives
Charcoal briquettes with additives contain potentially dangerous chemicals and you should not put them in with your compost. This goes for the ashes from your grill as well. It is recommended that after fully cooling them down, wrap them in foil and throw them in the trash.
On the other hand, if you have additive free briquettes you may add it to your compost. Just be sure they are completely cool so you don’t start a fire hazard.
7. Treated Wood Sawdust
For similar reasons as not composting charcoal briquettes with additives you also don’t want to compost treated wood. This includes painted wood, stained wood, varnished wood, and pressure treated wood. They all contain toxic compounds that will negatively affect your plants health.
8. Bread and Rice Products
Ok, this is a debatable point, but I am including it as a worst thing to compost because you need to think about it. Not only bread and rice are included here but also cakes, donuts, and pastas. These all will decompose fairly quickly in your compost pile, especially if mold has already begun to grow. Like the moldy heels no one has eaten!
What you need to think about is whether you want to attract certain pests to your compost pile because by including these items you surely will! You can avoid a nasty smell by making sure to bury them and cover them fully. So it’s really a choice you have to make individually. Your decision might be based on the location of you compost pile and how far it is away from the house.
9. Dairy Products
What is that awful smell? If you don’t want your yard to smell like a dump then I suggest that you don’t add milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, or any other dairy product to your compost pile. They will in fact decompose just fine, the bad thing is is that as they decompose they emit an awful smell. Besides the odor just being grossly awful, it also attracts the attention of mice, rats, wildlife and annoying flies.
If you really want to compost dairy products I suggest that you bury them deep down in your compost pile and always add a lot of brown nitrogen rich materials such dried grass, shredded cardboard, or straw. By adding these brown materials you will “trap” that disgusting smell and help the composting bacterial work efficiently.
10. Inorganic and Non-Biodegradable Materials
Inorganic and non-biodegradable materials like plastic, glass, aluminum foil, and metal should never be thrown into a compost pile because they will never break down. Be careful because this includes the little sticky labels that are on banana peels as well. You don’t want those ending up in your garden some day.
Most food packaging is not organic and needs to be left out of your compost pile. If you’re purging your refrigerator of all old, moldy and stale food to compost, just be sure to only add food items. Either wash and reuse or throw away sandwich baggies, plastic wrap, and aluminum foil that are commonly used to save leftovers in the fridge.
10 Best Things to Compost
We’ve talked about 10 worst things to compost, now let’s mention 10 best things to add to your compost pile.
1. Coffee Filters and Grounds
I am a coffee lover! Not fancy coffee, normally I just drink it black. Coffee grounds are a great source of nitrogen “green” material for your compost pile. Most people nowadays don’t use coffee filters, but if you do, add the filter too. Worms love coffee grounds and coffee filters. Do not throw those coffee pods in though. Most are not made with organic materials.
2. Tea Leaves and Bags
I have found that you are either a coffee drinker or a tea drinker. Most people prefer one over the other. If you drink tea, which my daughter does, then add them to your compost. Loose leaf teas are great to add as well as tea bags if the bag is made from a natural material like cotton. If the bag is not natural empty the contents into your pile and throw the bag away.
3. Horse, Rabbit, Cow, and Chicken Poop
Manure is a great source of nitrogen. Horse, rabbit, cow, chicken and other herbivores’ poop is high in nitrogen and great for your compost. Add carbon rich materials to balance the pile and the manure will break down better.
4. Fruit and Vegetable Scraps
As you might expect fruit and vegetable scraps are a great source of nitrogen “green material” to be included in your compost pile. You can help the decomposing process move along faster by cutting the scraps into small pieces. Be sure to bury these fruit and vegetable scraps with brown materials like dried leaves and straw so that unwanted pests and flies won’t be attracted to your pile.
5. Most Paper Products
A lot of paper products can be composted but don’t get carried away. If you have a lot of newspapers and cardboard consider recycling them instead. Cardboard can also be used in the bed of your raised bed garden. Read this article on 10 reasons to choose raised bed gardening.
Paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, shredded cardboard, and newspapers are all examples of paper products you can compost. These materials are “brown” materials like dried grass and fall leaves and are low in nitrogen and high in carbon.
6. Wood Ash
There are many practical uses for wood ashes in your home and garden. Check out this article to learn some very helpful tips about wood ashes. One of the things you can do with wood ashes is to compost them. Sprinkle them on your compost and mix them in as long as the wood ash came from wood that was not treated, stained or painted. Avoid adding those types of wood ashes to your compost pile because they contain toxins that will be harmful to your plants.
7. Sawdust
Sawdust and wood shavings are a “brown” material high in carbon. You can add these to your compost pile but in moderation. You’ll need to balance your pile with “green” materials such as fresh grass and manure for best results.
8. Leaves and Grass
If your leaves and grass are fresh then they are a “green” material high in nitrogen. If they are Fall leaves and dried grass, then they are considered a “brown” material which is low in nitrogen and higher in carbon. Either way they are a great material for adding to your compost pile. Just be sure you know whether you are adding a nitrogen or carbon rich material and balance the pile with another ingredient of opposite value.
9. Egg Shells
Egg shells are actually a great source of calcium for your compost pile. Go ahead and throw them in but to help yourself along, make sure to crush them or even grind them up into a fine powder. Egg shells compost very slowly and you may be frustrated at having to pick egg shells out of your compost before adding it to your garden. Read below about my own composting experiment with egg shells.
10. Pee
Urine is high in nitrogen which makes it a “green” material for your compost pile. I talked about our personal experience with using pee in #3 of “10 Worst Things to Compost” above. In my opinion it’s great to use! I’m not prepared to personally pee on my compost pile to achieve success, but I don’t mind if my husband or son does! 🙂
5 Helpful Tips for Composting
- Aerate your compost pile every three days, or when it is noticeably cool about 6 inches from the top. You can just use your hand to feel the temperature. Most of the organisms in your compost pile need oxygen to work. We help them out by turning our plies periodically.
- When you add fruit to your compost pile, fruit flies will be attracted. You can avoid this problem by never leaving fruit pieces exposed. Always bury them under other compost material.
- Each time you add more green material add a layer of brown material as well. This will give balance to your compost, speed up the decaying process and produce great compost faster.
- You need to have some moisture in your compost pile. Most “green” materials, like kitchen scraps and fresh grass have a lot of moisture. If your pile is dry, try soaking your cardboard or newspaper pieces in water before adding them to your compost pile.
- Don’t be overly concerned with nitrogen to carbon ratios. While it is important, it isn’t necessary to fret over it. If your balance isn’t just perfect you will still end up with compost, it may just be a little slower process.
My Composting Experiment
The Process: I decided before I went all in on composting I wanted to test the composting theory on a small scale first. Kitchen scraps were put in two 5-gallon buckets for several weeks. They were kept outside because the smell was getting horrific. When they were almost completely full I dug a hole and alternately layered kitchen scraps with dried leaves I collected on the property.
A large amount of dried leaves were the top layer. I was afraid the awful smell would attract the neighborhood cats and annoy the neighbors so I was hoping the leaves would hide the smell.
The Outcome: To my surprise, I am pleasantly happy to report that there was no awful smell at all and it didn’t attract any rodents or cats or dogs. I didn’t do any turning or aerating the compost pile. The reason being, I just wanted to see what would happen with a passive experiment. After 4 months of just sitting, I went out with a shovel and was really amazed!
This picture above is of my compost! Happy dance! The only things that didn’t decompose all the way are the sunflower seed shells and the egg shells. Everything else is just beautiful “black gold”! And there are a ton of worms that found their way in and did a lot of work.
So, what do you think? Are you ready to compost? I personally think it’s worth it because you can make your garden that much better and find a good use for your kitchen scraps. This is especially true if you don’t have chickens to feed them to.
What other suggestions do you have? Any things that you avoid adding to your compost? Let me know in the comments. Keepsm:)ing!
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