What can I compost?

What can I compost?

Depending on the type of composting system you use - practically anything and everything!  Check out this page here for some different types of composting systems. 

Imagine if every single person composted all of these things! How much waste could we save from landfill?!! And how much happier would our gardens be - and our wallets too (from saving us from buying compost!)! The Compost Revolution estimates that they have saved over 2,500,000 kg of waste going to landfill by providing compost bins and worm farms for residents of Australia. Join the revolution!!

We have a little food scraps bowl by the kitchen sink and chopping board - all food scraps go in here! This includes avocado pips, mango pips, cherry and stonefruit pips.

Worm farms, compost bins, direct digging:

• Food scraps
• Grass clippings
• Tree prunings - the smaller the better
• Eggshells - crush before you add
• Human urine
• Leaves
• Cardboard
• Paper and newspaper (Avoid glossy or colourful)
• Coffee grounds
• Vacuum bag contents
• Dryer machine fluff (we use only very occasionally)
• Tea Bags
• Saw dust
• Seaweed
• Weeds ** I will stew these in a bucket of water with a lid for about a month - to ensure all is dead - and use the water for a fertiliser and the slimy muck for the compost bin
• Hay
• Manure - animal
• Dirt from your garden  -adding microbes from the garden may also help speed up the process. You can do this with your worm farm, too!

What to avoid:

• Small amounts or avoiding garlic, onions, citrus. 
• Meat - attract vermin
• Dairy - attract vermin
• Large bones - will take a long time to break down - unless you don't mind!
• Diseased plants or plant clippings
• Inorganic material
• Human and dog/cat manure

With the Bokashi bin you can compost dairy, meat scraps, onions, garlic and citrus. 

How to:

The idea is to have a balance between nitrogen and carbon so that the organic contents breaks down well and quickly. High nitrogen materials are generally your 'wet/green' things -like food scraps, green grass and clippings. Carbon items are newspaper/cardboard or dry clippings.

Make sure you have layers of items - e.g. everytime I add food scraps I'll put a few handfuls of damp shredded newspaper or clippings. I don't have half a bin full of food scraps with half a bin full of newspaper on top. 

Increasing the speed of composting:

Moisture

Moisture is important! Make sure you have a moist compost pile. This may mean you need to water it as you add each layer, particularly if you have a lot of materials to add at once. It should not be sopping wet, but a dry pile will compost very slowly. 

Turning 

Turn your compost pile - this will help speed up the process. The pile should heat up if the moisture, mix and size is right, however may cool down after a few days - therefore turn every few days as the pile starts to cool down. 

Location

Have your compost bin in the sun - heat will help to break down the pile.

Wee wee wee!

Instead of needing to flush the toilet and wasting water every time you wee - why not wee on your compost pile? Ladies may choose to use a jar and the gentlemen of the household can go direct! It is a great source of nitrogen and a great water saver.  I've definitely noticed speedier composting since encouraging this method....

Size

Having a larger pile with larger mass will also help to break down the pile quicker as it can heat up quicker. Don't forget to turn every few days to keep the temperature up. 

Is there anything else that you add to your pile? What types of composting system(s) do you use?