Material to Compost

The following is a list of compostable materials:

Food

Other

Apples and apple peels

Cucumbers

Algae (pond weeds)

Leather waste and dust

Artichoke leaves

Egg shells (crushed)

Apple pomace (cider press waste)

Leaf mold

Asparagus bottoms

Grapes

Blood meal

Leaves

Bananas and peels

Grapefruit

Bone meal

Muck (marsh and swamp mud)

Beans

Lettuce

Corn stalks

Peanut hulls

Beet tops

Lemons

Cotton rags

Peat moss

Berries

Melons

Feathers

Pine needles (chopped)

Bread

Onions

Felt waste

Rope

Broccoli stalks

Oats

Flowers

Sawdust

Brussel Sprouts

Pears

Garden wastes (trimmings, plant remains)

Seaweed

Buckwheat hulls

Pineapple

Grape plant waste

Soil

Cabbage stalks and outer leaves

Potatoes

Granite dust

Straw

Carrot tops and scrapings

Pumpkins

Grass

String

Celery tops

Squashes

Hair

Weeds

Citrus rinds

Tea leaves and bags

Hay

Wood ash

Coffee grounds (and filters)

Turnips

Hops, spent

Wool rags

Corn cobs (chopped

Zucchini

Do not compost meats, fats and dairy products including:

Butter

Lard

Salad dressing

Bones

Mayonnaise

Sour cream

Cheese

Meat scraps

Vegetable oil

Chicken

Milk

Yogurt

Fish scraps

Peanut Butter

Common Organic Wastes You Can Compost (from around the community)

Coffee wastes – every restaurant has coffee grounds. Ask if they will save their grounds for you to pick up.

Leaves – you’ll find these bagged and waiting at neighbor’s curbside.

Food scraps – minus meat, bones, dairy or fatty foods. Ask your greengrocer or supermarket for their wastes.

Sawdust – don’t use any kind of treated lumber as it may contain toxic material.

Grass Clippings – are plentiful; landscapers are always trying to get rid of these.

Wood chips – a tree service may deliver a load if you are willing to take a large uantity. Use first on garden paths, then compost it after the initial decay.

Hair – very high in nitrogen

Non-Compostable Organic Materials

Everything of an organic nature will compost, but not everything belongs in your home compost pile. Some materials that create problems include:

Certain grasses with a rhizomatous root system, such as crabgrass. These may not be killed by the heat of decomposition and can choke out other plants when compost is used in the garden.

Plants infected with a disease or a severe insect attack where eggs could be preserved or where the insects themselves could survive in spite of the compost pile’s heat (examples are apple scab, aphids, tent caterpillars….).

Cat and dog manures, which can contain pathogens. These pathogens are not always killed in the heat of the compost pile.

Plants which take too long to break down, such as rhododendron and English Laurel leaves.