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)