...And More Compost

It's been almost three years since we posted anything substantial about composting (see April 2009's "Compost, Compost, Compost"), but really, how often do you need to tell people, "Dude, like, compost your kitchen scraps, OK?"

But, I just read an article, "80+ Things You Can Compost", on Yahoo! Green, and I do indeed have a few "new" and maybe not-so-obvious items to report:

The contents of your vacuum bag.  It's mostly carpet lint, hair, crumbs, and dead skin cells, all already in teeny tiny pieces, which will biodegrade nicely.  But think back—did you recently vacuum up the smallest pieces of a broken glass?  Don't compost that particular vacuum bag.

Pumpkin/sunflower/sesame seeds, chopped up.  Ah ha!  This fall, we diligently removed hundreds of seeds before throwing our pumpkin guts in the compost, because every spring, we used to get hundreds of pumpkin sprouts in the compost bin, sometimes growing way up from the depths, stealing all the nutrients we wanted to put back in the garden.  It never occurred to me to chop the seeds first so they won't grow... Back to composting the seeds!  (I'll just throw 'em in the food processor for a few seconds_easy!)

The crumbs of baked goods.  When our bread goes stale, we usually turn it into croutons or crumbs for later use.  But if muffins grew moldy, they just went in the trash or down the garbage disposal.  Not anymore.

Cooked rice and pasta.  These are basically boiled baked goods, aren't they?  I can't say we've ever had to throw out leftover rice or pasta, but let's say you made a ginormous batch and then forgot it in your fridge for a month.  Compost it.

Beer and wine (and corks).  We actually use old or leftover wine to trap fruit flies, but you could pour it into your compost bin instead.  Lots of people save the corks for other things, but if you don't, remember that they are technically plant matter and can be composted.

Toothpicks, bamboo skewers, matches, saw dust, paper napkins, Kleenex...  Again, all things made from plants can go back to the plants.

Latex balloons, gloves, etc.  Now, that's a new one!  I checked a few other sources, and yes, latex is made from a natural rubber and is biodegradable.

The dead flies on your windowsill.
.