What Not to Compost

What not to compost can be the easiest way to know what to compost.

Things that you should not compost are

• chemically treated wood
• diseased plants
• meat and bones (unless very experienced)
• fatty foods and oils
• pet and human wastes
• dairy products
• inorganic material (plastic, wood)
• bleached paper

What can I compost?

Essentially, you can compost anything that was once alive. Be careful about meat though (see below for more comments).

The most obvious things to compost are:

• any fruit/vegtable peelings, etc. leftover


• leaves


• grass clippings (although I have a mulcher on my lawn mower and prefer to leave the grass clippings on the grass to help that soil)


• plant clippings - keep your yard under control by taking small clippings every day and adding them to your compost.

Other things you can compost are:

• hair


• nail clippings


• coffee and tea grounds


• unbleached paper such as paper towels, toilet rolls, etc.

Some things that take a bit longer, but are definately compostable include:

• egg shells (crush them up a bit with your hands before putting them into your compost bin)


• nut shells

Meat is compostable, but if you are new to composting I could not recommend it. If you choose to compost meat, I would not compost it in a compost pile - only compost it if you are using the direct to garden method that I discussed yesterday. Also, it needs to be dug in immediately, not left sitting about and rotting. I would definately only compost meat by throwing in some conifer clippings with it as they are strong smelling and throw off the scent to any vermin that it might otherwise attract.