So many people responded with shock in my previous composting post that you could compost wine corks, finger nails and hair, I decided to write an expanded list of items that are all safe for composting! While doing my research on all of these items, I was shocked too!
For those non-composting folk: Once you see all the things that go in the landfills instead of back into the garden or earth’s soil – hopefully you’ll be encouraged to start composting too!
Here goes… 101 things you can compost!
- Coffee grounds
- Coffee filters
- Burlap coffee bags
- Milk (in small amounts)
- Outdated yogurt
- Tea bags
- Used paper napkins
- Pizza boxes, ripped up
- Paper bags, ripped or balled up
- The crumbs off of the counters & floors
- Cooked pasta
- Cooked rice
- Egg shells
- Stale bread
- Stale cereal
- Stale preztels
- Pizza crust
- Freezer burnt Veggies
- Freezer burnt Fruit
- Stale crackers
- Tofu
- Paper towel rolls
- Used paper plates (NO wax coating)
- Cellophane bags (Cellophane – not plastic.)
- Nut shells
- Expired herbs and spices (or new if you wanted to?!)
- Cereal boxes (ripped up)
- Wine corks
- Moldy cheese
- Potato peelings
- Melted ice cream
- Old jelly, jam, or preserves
- Stale beer (tragedy!)
- Stale wine (double tragedy!)
- Paper egg cartons
- Toothpicks
- Bamboo skewers
- Paper cupcake or muffin cups
- Used facial tissues
- Hair from your hairbrush
- Toilet paper rolls
- Matches
- Toe and fingernail clippings
- Urine (only a minimal amount!)
- 100% Cotton cotton balls
- Q-tips (cotton swabs: cardboard, not plastic sticks)
- Cardboard tampon applicators (yuck!)
- Latex condoms
- Lint from the dryer
- Old/stained cotton clothing (ripped or cut up)
- Old wool clothing (ripped or cut up)
- Wool socks (ripped or cut up)
- Shredded Bills and documents
- Envelopes (Without the plastic window)
- Pencil shavings
- Post-it notes
- Elmer’s glue
- Business cards (Not the glossy kind)
- Receipts
- Wood chips
- Grass clippings
- Pine needles
- Seaweed and Kelp
- Leaves
- Tree bark
- Clay soil
- Old leather gardening gloves (ripped up)
- Sawdust
- Leftovers from the garden
- Fur from the dog
- Fur from the cat
- Rabbit/gerbil/hamsters, etc. droppings/bedding
- Bird cage dropping/newspaper
- Feathers
- Alfalfa hay or pellets
- Rawhide dog chews
- Fish food
- Fish scraps
- Dead jellyfish, starfish, etc.
- Crab shells
- Dry dog food
- Dry cat food
- Vacuum cleaner bag or canister contents
- Newspapers (shredded or ripped up)
- Subscription cards from magazines
- Trimmings from houseplants
- Dead houseplants and their soil
- Flowers from floral arrangements
- Natural potpourri
- Used matches
- Ashes from the fireplace, barbecue grill, or outdoor fire pit
- Wrapping paper rolls
- Paper table cloths
- Crepe paper streamers
- Latex balloons
- Raffia
- Halloween Jack o’ Lanterns
- Hay bales used as part of your outdoor fall decoration
- Natural holiday wreaths
- Christmas tree (Chopped up)
- Evergreen garlands
Kitchen
Bathroom
Laundry
Office
Outdoors
Pets
Other: Around the house
It’s fun to watch how fast the compost pile grows when you are taking advantage of all things compostable!
About Karissa
OK LOVE IT! I so need to print this out. Thanks again! I’ll link to this in my next compost update – which I hope to have up tomorrow. I only started in April when my husband finally got tired of me tossing fruit/veggie remains down the back hill (he’s not really into the whole save the environment thing) into the woods and bought me a tumbler. We don’t really have a spot to build a bin so this tumbler thing works for now
PS…I brushed both cats today and put their hair in my compost bucket.
How about popsicle sticks?
Make it a 102 Things you can compost list!!
That’s a good one!
This is a really great list! We compost some but need to do a lot better. I see a lot of things that I’ll start adding.
Thanks again for the list. I posted a compost update and a link to your list here: http://www.busyworkingmama.com/2010/07/my-compost-sunchips-bag-update.html
Plus when I went to take some pictures, I found wiggly critters in my tumbler! My husband thought it was funny that I got so excited about it.
Thanks for including us in your post! I am sooo glad you got worms Aleksandra! Haha.. I get excited about all the little things, compost progress and worms! Can’t wait to hear more about the Sunchips bag!!!!!
Hi–
This is Alicia from I am wicked cheap! following you back.
I LOVE this list! I am starting a ‘Wicked Cheap’ manual, with one section being ‘The Wicked Cheap Gardener’ and I was wondering if I could include this.
I would give credit to you, of course.
Let me know,
Thanks,
Alicia
http://www.iamwickedcheap.com
iamwickedcheap@yahoo.com
No problem! I can’t wait to check out your article! I am glad you like the post!
Thanks so much!
Here is a link to the post:
http://iamwickedcheap.com/2010/07/18/the-wc-gardener-101-things-you-can-compost/
If you’ve got any other ‘wicked cheap’ tips (gardening or otherwise), I’d love to hear them!
Thanks,
Alicia
Love your blog and this post! I love composting! I would love it if you would check out my blog at http://mommymadegreen.blogspot.com
I’ve been composting for 3 years now, and people are always amazed at the things that can be tossed in.
Our city just introduced curb-side pickup of “green bins” and now I can toss in bones, meat, dairy, parchment paper, cardboard, vacuum canister contents, etc.
I keep a separate compost bucket for our backyard that gets the “good” stuff: fur, hair, nail clippings, fruits, veg, egg shells, drier lint, tea bags, coffee grounds (I take them home from the office), toothpicks, used paper towels, sweeping from floors, cat litter (and things found in the cat litter), etc
Glad you posted that extensive list. I had no idea about the laytex condoms, post-in notes or glue … interesting stuff.
Hi there
Just found you through Wobble over Wednesday. I’m following you now – looking forward to reading more interesting posts! So many things I never knew could be composted!! Thanks for sharing this!
I love your “environment” section… hits home for me. We actually have 12 lovely hens in our backyard. They get all our kitchen compost and leftovers, love it, and then give us beautiful eggs for breakfast in the morning! Great deal, it´s a win, win situation. We recycle the rest, or compost what our hens can´t eat. Loving your blog! Clau
http://handmadeconamor.blogspot.com
Does it matter if it’s a worm compost bin? That’s what we have and I don’t want to kill my worms! Thanks for this info!
I am new to composting…as of yesterday! I have been doing a lot of research on the computer tho and I have read that GLUE is not a good thing to compost…is that true (like what about the glue that holds boxes together?)? ALSO…..lists have said DO NOT ADD DAIRY but then I see people putting cheese and other dairy products on the “compost” list. Can you please help me so I have a successful compost??? I want to be able to follow only ONE SITE, and I am hoping this is the one
Thank you so much.
Sue, I haven’t put glue in our compost, because I don’t have glue around to do so… but I researched a lot before making this list and it seems okay as long as it is just a fraction of your compost mix. I DO however put dairy in our compost in small amounts. We have a thriving garden to show! I know a lot of people say no dairy, and generally for the newbie, I would say that too… but if you are careful to only do it in small amounts, my personal opinion is it is okay to do so! (I should also tell you we have a compost container that pre-composts on our counter and then a physical composter that spins in our backyard – So maybe for those that just have a pile in their yard this wouldn’t be good because of pests. No pests can get to ours in the sealed spinner.) How that helps!