Materials Used for Composting

Contrary to the thought that composting is hard, it's as easy as 1,2,3.....You just need to have the right ingredients in order to have the right nutrients for the plants to grow.



Apart from the common grass clippings and dead leaves and fruits, it is surprising that you can find tons of stuff from your kitchen and home that you can use to make an organic compost. The important elements are ingredients containing carbon and nitrogen. These nutrients are nutritious for the growth of your plants.


These materials are organic and won't attract rats, and other animal pests...


Stuffs from the Kitchen: 

• paper towels
• freezer-burned fruits and vegetables
• popcorn (popped or raw)
• old spices
• lint found at the back of the fridge                                  
• post-it notes
• coffee grounds
• fruit peelings
• potato peelings
• tea bags and tea grounds
• egg shells
• gelatin (Jell-o)
• vegetable wastes or clippings (beets, carrots, or lettuce)
• burnt oatmeal (unintentional of course!)
• moldy cheese
• curdled milk
• citrus rinds
• faded floral arrangements
• onion and garlic skins
• watermelon and cantaloupe skins
• nutshells

Stuffs from the Office:

• unpaid or old bills
• receipts (after all, its paper!)
• pencil shavings
• scratch papers
• Elmer's glue (yep!)
• shredded paper bits

Stuffs from the toilet:

• leftover toilet paper
• hair clippings
• ivory or dove soap scraps
• fingernail and toenail clippings
• Q-tips (the stick should be cardboard not plastic)

Stuffs from the Shed and Garden!

• cover crops
• dried leaves
• dead insects
• coco hull fiber
• expired seeds
• moss from previous year's hanging basket
• clover
• rotten apples, pears, cherries
• dog poo
• bird droppings

Best Stuff of all - Urine!

Yes human urine actually helps accelerate the composting process by sending jets of nitrogen molecules to help decay the compost materials.

Now that we have our list of materials for compost straight from the corners of our home, it is now time to do the compost process! Check my other article for how to make the compost!