Tip Details Add a Related Tip

Rate as: Positive Negative

Materials you can use in compost

Composting is a great way to reduce waste and creating healthy soil for your garden. If you are making your own compost, here's a list of the materials that can and can *not* be used in your compost bin. This list is for some of the more unusual things people ask about composting. The obvious stuff such as plant clippings (yes) and battery acid (no) are not included.

Materials that you can compost

- Algea, seaweed, lake moss, pond scum.
- Cardboard (make sure you tear it into little pieces)
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Cornstalks and corncobs
- Dryer lint
- Eggshells
- Hair clippings
- Manure from farm animals (horses, cows, pigs, sheeps, goats, etc)
- Newspaper (tear or shred it into pieces first to speed it up)
- Pine needles
- Sawdust and wood chips (so long as they are not from "treated" lumber)
- Tree leaves
- Sod (break it apart into pieces so that the grass dies)

Materials that you should not compost

- Ashes from the fireplace or wood-burning stove
- Cat or dog poop
- Plants with diseases or pests
- Fish scraps
- Lime (the mineral, not the fruit... it'll stop the composting process)
- Meat scraps, fat, grease, bones.
- Milk products
- Weeds (they will compost, but depending on the weed seeds may survive)
Rating: 50% positive, 2 total Votes
Categories: composting Gardening green eco friendly environment
Added: on Feb 28, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Added By: fablin
Searches: compost composting material eco green

Comments on this Tip

Add a Comment
There are no comments for this tip
Your Comment:
(how to format)
Rate This Tip:

Verify Humanity:
Sorry, we know it's annoying, but please enter the characters shown in the image to the left so that we know you're an actual person and not an evil spammer. Thanks.
       

Related Tips

10 Amazing, Beautiful Houses Built from Trash

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Oct 09, 2008 at 11:27 pm

Save ink when printing

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Dec 22, 2008 at 12:30 pm

How to make a Compost Aerator

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jun 21, 2009 at 10:04 pm

Improve home heating in the winter

100% positive, 1 comment - last added on Apr 23, 2009 at 12:39 am
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Apr 22, 2009 at 9:31 am

Water Filtration

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by tcorbs on Feb 24, 2009 at 8:55 am

Make Your Personal Computing Carbon Neutral: 12 Easy Steps

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by sunnyspeaks on Dec 18, 2008 at 12:06 am

100 Big and Little Ways to Make Your Kitchen More Earth-Friendly

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by sunnyspeaks on Oct 29, 2008 at 12:01 am

Green Gears: 50 Great Green Blogs for Car Lovers

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by sunnyspeaks on Oct 08, 2008 at 12:58 am

The Top 100 Environmentalist Blogs

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Oct 06, 2008 at 11:22 pm

Weeds as fertilizer

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Aug 25, 2008 at 7:16 am

minimize your cooling costs

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jun 18, 2008 at 10:48 am

How To Rent A Hybrid Car

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by renthybridcar on Jun 08, 2008 at 4:39 pm

Line dry clothes in summer

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on May 19, 2008 at 10:29 am

Go Green Tip

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by kewlchick2003 on May 05, 2008 at 9:43 am

Get public transit information via Google Maps

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Apr 28, 2008 at 8:29 am

Reduce your paper towel usage

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Sep 27, 2009 at 9:35 am

How To Go Green

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by EasyGreenLiving on Mar 26, 2009 at 2:06 pm

Rechargeable batteries

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Sep 25, 2008 at 8:08 am

Guide to green products

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Sep 11, 2008 at 1:35 pm