Kitchen Composting Works for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

One of the largest contributors to home-based composting piles is kitchen waste. Scraps from meal preparations as well as cooking supplies can be added to a compost bin and, in turn, contribute to your soil and mulch.

Composting guides generally sort matter into two categories, according to what they contribute to the process; green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon).

A lot of kitchen items are perfect for your pile. Here are just some of the more prevalent compostables from each meal of the day. To view the rest of this list, visit Plantea.com.

Photo: Earth911

Breakfast

• Apple cores
• Banana peels
• Burned toast
• Coffee grounds
• Date pits
• Egg shells
• Grapefruit rinds
• Oatmeal (cooked or raw)
• Outdated yogurt
• Stale or soggy breakfast cereal
• Sunday comics
• Tea bags and grounds
• Soy milk
• Watermelon rinds

Related: Fight Waste, Revive Stale Food with These Tricks

Lunch

• Brown paper bags
• Chocolate cookies
• Freezer-burned fruit
• Fruit salad
• Peanut butter sandwiches
• Peanut and other nut shells
• Pickles
• Popcorn
• Pumpkin seeds
• Stale potato chips

Read: 5 Ways to Pack a Zero Waste Lunch

Photo: Alexandra Vietti, Earth911

Dinner

• Artichoke leaves
• Cooked rice
• Corncobs
• Fish scraps, such as shrimp shells, crab shells and lobster shells
• Freezer-burned vegetables
• Jell-o
• Old pasta
• Olive pits
• Onion skins
• Pie crust
• Potato peelings
• Produce trimmings
• Rhubarb stems
• Seaweed and kelp
• Spoiled canned fruits and vegetables
• Stale bread and bread crusts
• Tofu
• Tossed salad

Supplies

• Cardboard cereal boxes
• Expired flower arrangements
• Grocery receipts
• Shredded cardboard
• Matches (paper or wood)
• Old spices
• Paper napkins
• Paper towels
• Shredded newspapers
• Wood chips and ashes
• Wooden toothpicks

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