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When you’ve already made the environmentally conscious and responsible decision to compost, you need to make sure that you are doing so in the right way. Proper composting will ensure that your compost mix is at its prime levels and also such that you don’t invite unwanted pests into your compost pile. Most biodegradable foods can be composted, but not all. Through appropriate food choices, you’ll have great, composted soil for any sort of gardening or planting.

Foods That You Can Compost

People that eat more fruits and vegetables have an amazing start to their composting pile. The husks, peels, cores, and seeds from all of these food choices will help produce rich soil. Overripe or moldy produce and vegetables are also good for the compost pile and break down easily. Bread and grains are very good candidates for composting as well as stale bread, crackers or pasta. Make sure that none of the bread has been mixed with oil or meat, but otherwise, you can feel comfortable adding it into your composting pile.

Coffee grounds are another effective component for your compost pile. Grounds add nitrogen, minerals, carbohydrates, and vitamins to the soil and in turn to your plants when they are planted and grow in the composted soil. You can even add paper coffee filters to your composting pile. Teabags and loose tea leaves are also acceptable compost fodder as long as they don’t contain plastic. Eggshells are a nutritious addition to any composting bin and they add nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and calcium carbonate. Make sure to crush the eggshells before adding them to the pile so that they break down more quickly.

Foods Not To Compost

Certain foods are not able to be composted. Make sure that no plastic wrappers, staples, or other product packaging is in your pile. Leave out any meat products, oils, fish, and bones since these cause unwanted odor and attract rodents. Dairy is also not a good composting addition and should be avoided. If you add these items it will not only cause your compost pile to smell but will disrupt the balance of the soils that would otherwise have been nutrient-rich.

Composting efforts are important to our earth and can save you money as well. Avoided landfill tipping fees, transportation costs for hauling garbage, and free nutrient-rich compost all are financial reasons to compost. Let’s keep organics out of the landfills, TOGETHER!