Compost bin materials

Selecting materials for your compost bin

When deciding on materials suitable for your compost bin, a simple rule of thumb is, if it is organic - it will be able to be composted. This applies to either to animal or vegetable sourced materials.

For the sake of hygeine purposes, care must be taken to select materials. Some, such as cooked food scraps though compostable, will be prone to attract vermin and therefore are usuitable for a garden compost bin. These can still be put in a kitchen composter. Others such as egg shells or cardboard, although suitable, may need pre-processing in terms of breaking up or shredding prior to submitting to the compost heap.

List of compost bin materials

The following is a comprehensive though not definitive list. It does however provide a good starting point and an idea of the range of materials which can be composted

From the garden

• Clover
• Dead flowers
• Flower petals
• Garden soil
• Grass cuttings
• Hay
• Leaves
• Moss from hanging baskets
• Mud from soles of boots & shoes
• Old leather gardening gloves
• Outdated seeds
• Pea vines
• Peat moss
• Pine needles
• Plant cuttings
• Sawdust
• Straw
• Tree bark
• Weeds
• Wood chips

From the kitchen

• Apple cores
• Banana skins
• Bread crusts
• Burned toast
• Citrus wastes
• Coffee grounds
• Coconut husk fibre
• Cooked rice
• Corn cobs
• Date pits
• Egg shells
• Fish bones
• Fruit salad
• Grape wastes
• Grapefruit rinds
• Mouldy cheese
• Nutshells
• Old herbs
• Old spices
• Olive pits
• Onion skins
• Outdated yogurt
• Peanut shells
• Popcorn
• Potato peelings
• Pumpkin seeds
• Pickles
• Rhubarb stems
• Shells (lobster,crab,shrimp)
• Stale bread
• Stale breakfast cereal
• Tea bags (including herbal)
• Tossed salad
• Vegetable cuttings
• Waste cooked food (using a kitchen composter)
• Watermelon rinds

From the freezer

• Freezer burned food (fish, fruit & vegetables)

Liquids

• Beer
• Juice from canned vegetables
• Juice from canned fruit
• Milk (small quantities)
• Soya milk
• Urine (it is an excellent composting accelerant)
• Wine

Household waste

• Aquarium plants
• Cotton swabs
• Dead bees and flies
• Expired flower arrangements
• Electric razor trimmings
• Felt scraps
• Houseplant trimmings
• Leather goods
• Matches
• Nail clippings
• Pencil shavings
• Wooden toothpicks
• Woollen socks

Household dust

• Vacuum cleaner bag contents
• Lint from behind refrigerator
• Lint from tumble Dryer

Paper

• Brown paper bags
• Grocery receipts
• Paper napkins
• Paper towels
• Post-it notes
• Used envelopes
• Shredded cardboard
• Shredded cereal boxes
• Shredded newspapers
• Tissues

Poo

• Bat droppings
• Bird droppings
• Chicken manure
• Cow manure
• Goat manure
• Horse manure
• Pig manure
• Rabbit manure

Animals / pets

• Cage cleanings (bird, guinea pig, hamster)
• Feathers
• Animal fur
• Horse hair
• Pet hair

Compost bin mix

From such a comprehensive list, it should be possible to ensure that a good mix of materials go into your compost. This is important as sometimes the predominence of some materials such as grass cuttings, can cause your compost heap to become too wet, especially if insufficiently vented.

More detailed information available in the guide to composting

Benefits of home composting

• Free source of nutrients for gardens / window boxes
• Less need for land fill
• Reduction in greenhouse gasses. If kitchen & garden waste breaks down in a landfill, harmful methane is produced
• Saves the Earth's natural resources by reducing the need for peat taken from endangered habitats
• Possible savings in future charges for refuse disposal