Are you composting these household items?

Do you compost? If the answer is no then you should consider it as a vital part of your zero-waste lifestyle. The number of items you can compost is practically unlimited, but I bet there are a bunch of stuff you haven’t even thought of before.

I simply love composting, and it’s one of the best ways you can reduce your household waste. By composting a household can reduce their trash from 30-60%. Woah! Thats a staggering number isn’t it?

Usually people are under the misconception that their organic waste will decompose in a landfill, but that’s usually not the case. Infact landfills preserve organic matter and cause them to release methane, a greenhouse gas 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. In reality composting is taking food scraps, plants, and other organic matter and returning it to the earth to create a nutrient rich soil. Awesome isn’t it?

Composting is actually pretty beneficial for the environment, so let’s talk about what is compostable a little.

There are in general two basic types of materials to add to your waste bin:

Greens (nitrogen-rich) and browns (carbon-rich). In order to share my love for composting, I’ve made this list of items you can compost around the house. This will help you reference it whenever you want to know if you can compost something.

Composting is actually pretty beneficial for the environment, so let’s talk about what is compostable a little.

It simply means that you can simply place the item in a home compost bin with fruits and vegetables. It will break down in a tumbler, worm bin, or DIY bin you have set up at home.

Now let’s jump into the list of compostable items.

The no1 place in your home with the most organic waste is the kitchen. To name a few items, food scraps, paper, even boxes make the list. However, you need to make sure that you add them to your compost bin in small pieces.

Here is the list:

• coffee grounds
• coffee filters
• loose leaf tea
• paper bags for flour and sugar
• onion and garlic peels
• kale stems
• carrot peelings
• corn husks
• corn cobs
• pepper seeds and stems
• brussel sprout stalks
• broccoli stems
• strawberry tops
• apple cores
• banana peels
• avocado pits
• avocado shells
• stale energy bars
• cooked plain pasta
• stale bread, pitas or tortillas
• cooked plain rice
• dried herbs and spices without flavor
• melon rinds
• spoiled nut milks like soy, almond or coconut milk
• stale chips
• used paper napkin
• used paper towels (as long as you haven’t used any heavy chemical cleaners)
• paper towel cores
• stale crackers
• stale cereal
• burnt popcorn or unpopped kernels
• stale pretzels
• pizza crusts
• nut shells
• old oatmeal
• old jams or jellies
• paper cupcake or muffin liners
• stale candy
• used paper plates
• spoiled tomato paste or pasta sauce
• seaweed, kelp or nori
• cardboard egg cartons
• parchment paper
• wine corks
• toothpicks
• stale beer or wine
• bamboo skewers
• seeds
• cardboard boxes from pasta, cereal, etc.
• unwaxed cardboard pizza boxes
• spoiled tofu or tempeh
• egg shells
• dairy*
• bones*
• meat*
• fish*
• cooked foods*

The bathroom is definitely one of the most wasteful rooms in our house. Here is a list of compostable items in the bathroom.

• hair from hairbrush
• toilet paper cores
• the paper wrapping that comes around your toilet paper
• nail clippings
• compostable floss
• natural loofahs
• 100% cotton, cotton balls
• plastic-free cotton swabs
• 100% organic cotton sanitary pads
• 100% organic cotton tampons
• cardboard tampon applicators
• used facial tissues
• trimmings from razor blades
• bamboo toothbrush
• soap scraps

Remember composting is an important aspect to live a zero-waste life. These household items can be composted very easily, which means you can help keep them out of the landfill. If you know about more items that can be composted, do tell me about them in the comment section.

Check out my book Going Waste Free Room By Room