We have become rather lax composting our kitchen waste recently. The guilt and the kids nagging has got the better of me and we’ve got back into it now. It was heartbreaking to see all this perfectly good compostable material being put into the general waste.
Composting our kitchen waste reduces how much waste we send to landfill and also provides free nutrients for the vegetables we grow in the garden.
So what can you compost from the kitchen?
- Vegetable and fruit peelings
- Apple cores and banana skins
- Past sell by date fruit and veg – don’t put whole potatoes in though as we found out – they can grow!
- Teabags
- Coffee grinds
- Egg shells
- Egg cartons
- Paper kitchen towels that have not been contaminated with meat, citrus fruits etc
What can’t we compost?
- Citrus fruits and their peelings including oranges and lemons as the acid is not good for the compost
- Any meat, cooked or raw
- Cooked vegetables
We have a peelings bin that we keep under the sink but you can use anything for example an old saucepan or a plastic bag – you can get special ones that are compostable and therefore better for the environment. kisskl.com. We tend to put one of these bags inside the peelings bin which makes transferring and cleaning easier – just make sure the bag has not got a hole in it!
When the peelings bin is full we transfer it to our compost bin in the garden.
You can get the kids involved by teaching them about what can and can’t go in and making sure they put their apple cores and other fruit in the compost bin. Very soon they will be reminding you when you put your banana skin in the main bin!
That reminds me of a tip I learned while living in New Zealand. Rather than putting discarded meat in the bins, which would otherwise stink, my flatmate used to dump all meat into a sealed container in the freezer (admittedly she had a big freezer). Then on bin day she’d tip it into the outside bin. Between that and her compost bin, there was very little organic matter hanging around the bins to rot.
Brilliant tip Jane! I love the idea of not having discarded meat hanging around to rot till bin day. I’m off to make some room in my freezer!
Thanks a million,
Debbie