Please compost these!
- Veggie scraps (e.g. corn cobs, orange peels, apple cores, etc.)
- Egg shells
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Sugar packets
- Wooden coffee stirrers
- Paper napkins
- Oil (in small amounts)
- Citrus
- Any kind of paper that’s not plasticky or waterproof looking
- Bones and shells (a little meat on the bone is okay)
- Small amounts of dairy
- Small amounts of meat
- Dead plants
- Wooden/bamboo disposable cutlery
Please please don’t compost these
- Plastic fruit stickers
- Plastic produce ties
- Receipts (they’re made of plastic)
- Plasticky/waterproof looking paper or cardboard
- Anything plastic!!
- “Compostable” rigid plastic-looking cutlery and cold drink cups (not very compostable at all)
- Big pieces of meat (bacon bits on your salad and the like is okay)
- Large amounts of dairy (cheese on your salad and the like is ok)
- Pet manure
- Human manure (one day we hope! But not today)
If you really must…
“Compostable” plastic bags. These don’t break down well and glob up our pitchforks when we are trying to turn the compost. You also technically can’t use the resulting finished compost for organic agriculture. However, our first concern is preventing food waste from going to the landfill, so if you absolutely refuse to compost your food waste unless you can put it in a compostable plastic bag, then yes, go ahead. If you are worried about smell and grossness, we suggest freezing your compost until it’s time to put it out and/or lining your bucket with a paper bag
Here’s a visual representation of this list if you’d like to print it out and hang it near your compost bin: can/cannot compost list!
If you have specific questions left unanswered, feel free to email compost@groundworkri.org.