The Best Food Scraps for Compost

The Best Food Scraps for Compost

Have you ever though about giving your food scraps a new lease of life? If you have noticed the amount of organic waste that a household accumulates in only a week, you may have thought about recycling it at home so it has a more useful purpose.

Making compost out of food scraps is highly beneficial for your home soil, especially if you want to grow plants that root better to your garden's ground and grow healthier, due to the extra nutrients that enriched compost offers. Thanks to the insects and soil bacteria that live in your garden, your unwanted food is turned into the nutrients you'll be able to actually feed to your home plants. If you want to start composting kitchen waste, at OneHowTo we'd like to give you a list of the best food scraps for compost.

Fruit & vegetable scraps

Any fruit or vegetable is great to put into your compost pile. The most nutritious part is the peel, especially if it's uncooked. Pulp from juices is also pretty good, though we should highlight that citrus fruits and onion peels are not recommended due to the high acidity of these ingredients.

Bread and dough

Another of the best food scraps for compost is bread. Due to the fact that they contain yeast, both bread and dough are great to fertilize soil, so pick up those bread crumbs and don't throw away any dough left from baking cookies or pies, as this will also be highly useful.

Uncooked grain

Grains will also be a great addition to your compost. The best are definitely rice, alfalfa, meal, corn and barley, and though they can also be used when cooked, it's better if you avoid it. Make sure you don't just dispose of any grains that have gone out of date and put them in the organic pile.

Tea & Coffee

You have probably wondered many times if you could do anything about the amount of tea leaves that go to waste in a single kettle. You should know that both tea leaves and coffee grounds are great for compost, so let the leaves or grains cool down as much as possible and add them to the pile. Any leaves are also good for compost as long as they are not from coniferous plants or trees.

Egg

The egg shell is about the only part of an egg we don't take advantage of when cooking, though you should know it can be highly nutritious for your plants. Dry the egg shell beforehand and crush it properly, then you can add it to your compost pile.

How to keep food scraps for compost

Keep a bucket outdoors, throw the food waste every day in it and make sure you put a lid on it to keep the compost warm. Put it near soil so biodegrader insects can help in the process of composting and voilà! The process will usually take about two weeks. If you want to learn another method in detail, take a look at our article on how to make natural fertilizer at home for your plants and garden.

If you want to read similar articles to The Best Food Scraps for Compost, we recommend you visit our Garden & lawn category.

Tips
  • Break up the foods mentioned, as smaller pieces tend to compost much faster.