Acceptable Materials for our Compost Bins

What can I compost here?

•       All raw fruit and vegetable scraps, including hard pits from avocados
•      Coffee grinds with filters
•            Tea bags, tags are ok (please cut open fancy tea bags made of plastic mesh)
•            Egg shells
•            House plant trimmings (no diseases)
•            Soiled paper towels (no oils)
•           Weeds without seed heads

What can’t I compost here?

•    Meat, chicken, fish scraps
•       Spoiled dairy products,
•    Grains, bread
•       Leftover prepared food with oily residue
•    Mango and peach pits (they take years to break down)
•    Treated wood
•    Charcoal ashes
•   Weeds gone to seed

5 steps for adding waste to bin:

1)  Make sure your scraps are chopped into 1-2 inch pieces.  This ensures that material will break down quickly.  You don't have to be so careful chopping up soft scraps like melon rinds, apple skins and banana peels, but please be meticulous when chopping tough woody scraps like broccoli stems, carrot tops, cabbage trimmings and brussel sprout stalks.  Woody material will take much longer if not chopped up.  

2)  Add your kitchen scraps to the bin labeled, “Active Pile, add material.”

3)  Evenly spread food waste over top of pile, no mounding please!

4)  Spread an even layer of brown material over food waste, so none is exposed (this attracts flies).  We have assorted browns like leaves, wood shavings and ripped cardboard.  All are fine to use.

5)  Moisten material. Either with the hose or by filling a bucket/red watering can with water, wet down material.

Viola!! You are finished.


Freezing food waste:
Some people who can't drop off their food waste as frequently prefer to freeze it instead of storing in the refrigerator.  This frees up refrigerator space and prevents any smells from invading your kitchen!  If you choose to freeze, please chop up material before storing it in your freezer. You may notice that when you add these frozen pieces to the active bin, they spread easily across the top of the pile, like ice cubes. If you store your food waste in yogurt containers, it may become a frozen blob, difficult to spread atop the pile.  Please make sure you chop it up somehow before adding,  for example:  smashing between 2 rocks.  You could also unmold the waste, tuck it into a warm spot in the pile, do something else and return in a few minutes. This will partially melt the blob, making it easier to break up.  The reason we don't want to add a blob of food waste is if we should do that, it won't be mixed evenly with browns and may become anaerobic, starting to smell and potentially attract rodents.

•       The other piles with labels, “Closed, Do Not Add,” are in the process of decomposing and no fresh material should be added.  It’s takes about three months for a full batch to mature into stable compost.  
•      When adding water, you may want to fill up the red watering can or a bucket with water instead of unwinding the hose as you'll have to wind it back up. 
•      You may add weeds to the bin, only if they have NOT gone to seed yet.  Please cut them up into 2-inch lengths with scissors or pruning shears. 
•      If you have a lot of food waste, you may wonder, how much should I add for 1 layer?

---A grocery size bag of food waste is what householders typically add, but commercial/restaurant kitchens have more waste to handle.  For larger quantities, add 1/2 of a 5-gallon bucket for 1 layer, and then add browns. Use an empty bucket in the garden to measure.  Basically, the food material should be a 1 inch thick even layer.

If you're contributing waste to our bins or those at another drop off-site, you know the value of composting.  We currently receive food waste from several sources including our gardeners, the campus cafeteria, a nutrition science class, and occasionally from produce markets.  Once in a while manure comes our way from Kensington Stables.  

Compost is beneficial on so many levels! It reduces the overall amount of garbage sent to landfills.  Methane gas is created in landfills when food waste mixes with other trash.  Adding compost to our plots and perennial beds improves soil texture and increases organic matter and nutrients needed for growing robust plants.  Thanks for doing your part, we LOVE you!