What to put in a compost heap and what not to

Many owners of summer cottages and household plots decide to compost. This is a correct, reasonable decision, but you need to clearly understand that you cannot put everything in a compost heap. Our tips site tells you what to compost and what not..

Composting has several benefits:

1. You get free, useful, environmentally friendly fertilizer for your garden and beds.
2. You get rid of garbage that would otherwise have to be removed from the site.
3. You care about nature by recycling waste.

Composting is easy to start. The portal has already written how to arrange a compost heap in a box. You can use ready-made plastic containers, they have a number of advantages. But the most important thing in composting is not the container, but its contents, what your fertilizer will be made of..

It is clear that it is useless to send plastic, glass, rubber and metals to the compost heap. This waste will definitely not turn into fertilizer; it needs to be processed in a completely different way, in an industrial environment. But there are other things that cannot be composted:

• Pet feces. They can contain parasites and harmful microorganisms, including Toxoplasma gondii, which are especially dangerous for pregnant women. In general, you should not allow cats and dogs to equip a toilet in the beds, you need to keep animals away from them.

Important! But the wool of cats and dogs can be thrown into the compost heap. Unless, of course, before combing your pet, you did not treat it against fleas and ticks.

• Animal fats, meat, bones, including fish. Such waste will quickly begin to emit a very unpleasant odor, and will also attract various pests – rats, for example.
• Plants that have been treated with pesticides. If you send them to a compost heap, you will not receive natural fertilizer, but a mixture that is harmful to plants..
• Sick plants. For example, potatoes infected with a nematode, apples with moniliosis, plants that have been damaged by onion, cabbage, carrot flies, and so on. Diseased plant parts are destroyed only at temperatures above + 55 ° C. Are you sure the temperature inside your compost heap is so high? Better not to risk it.
• Some particularly resistant weeds, including wheatgrass creeping. It is also very difficult to destroy and recycle them in a compost heap. If you scatter the resulting fertilizer over the beds, you will contribute to the spread of weeds..
• Air cleaner filters. Microscopic particles of synthetics accumulate in them, which simply do not decompose in compost..
• The contents of the vacuum cleaner bag. Household dust should not be considered harmless. It may contain phthalates, flame retardants, pesticides and other chemicals. All this definitely has no place in compost..
• Sawdust of painted or antiseptic wood. The rest of the sawdust can be used, but in limited quantities, since they decompose slowly and can “lock” nitrogen from other waste.
• Drywall. He, too, can be saturated with toxins..
• Paper with pictures and texts. It contains heavy metals, it is better to recycle it in a different way, hand it over to waste paper, for example.
• Tobacco butts. Smoking is generally harmful, nothing useful will come of cigarette butts.

You can and should add to the compost heap:

• Coffee grounds, coffee filters and tea leaves.
• Eggshell.
• Lawn trimming.
• Fallen leaves.
• Finely chopped cardboard if it is not labeled in colored ink.
• Peelings, peels of fruits and vegetables.
• Vegetable tops.
• Shredded branches and flower stems.
• Straw and hay.
• Weeds that have not yet developed seeds. First, they must be dried in the sun in order to accurately destroy and make it impossible to germinate again..
• Soil from flower pots, which was left after transplanting indoor plants.
• Rinse water (without detergents, of course) and decoctions.

Experts do not advise putting leftovers of food cooked in fat or vegetable oil into the compost heap. Milk is also questionable, although it decomposes quickly in the compost. In general, many kitchen and garden waste is great for compost heaps..