Everyone knows that it is important to reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill. However many are not aware of how much we can actually compost at home. It is estimated that more than a third of household rubbish is food or garden waste. If sent to landfill green and food waste breaks down giving off methane; a gas that has a big effect on climate change.
Benefits of Home Composting
When green waste is composted properly at home, it doesn’t give off methane and helps reduce climate change. Mixing compost into soil provides important nutrients that help plants grow and helps the soil hold on to moisture. As well as saving money on buying compost, home composting helps avoid peat-based composts. Peat extraction is damaging to wildlife and is not very green. Compost can even eliminate the need for chemical fertilisers by suppressing plant diseases and pests.
List of Things That Can be Composted
It’s not just leaves and vegetable peelings that go to the home composter. Here are forty-five things that can easily be composted:
1. Popcorn
2. Peanut shells
3. Seaweed
4. Coffee grounds and filters
5. Coconut shell fibre
6. Stale herbs and spices
7. Tea bags
8. Hay
9. Straw
10. Wood chips (from untreated wood)
11. Sawdust (from untreated wood)
12. Brown bags
13. Pizza & cereal boxes (rip into small pieces)
14. Used paper napkins
15. Paper towel rolls
16. Wine corks
17. Toothpicks
18. Old seeds
19. Hair
20. Feathers
21. Nail clippings
22. 100% cotton balls
23. Latex condoms
24. Dead bees and flies
25. Pencil shavings
26. Contents of vacuum cleaner
27. Leaves trimmed from houseplants
28. Dead houseplants and their soil
29. Flowers (dried or fresh)
30. Used matches
31. Ashes from the fireplace
32. Paper cupcake cups
33. Shredded paper
34. Cotton Rags
35. Cotton string
36. Old wool/cotton clothes (shredded)
37. Real leather (cut up into small pieces)
38. Hops
39. Peat moss
40. Tree bark
41. Lawn clippings
42. Magazines (shredded and in moderation)
43. Waste from vegetarian pets such as guinea pigs
44. Pet bedding
45. Pet fur
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