what do you put in your compost bins?

[BumMum]

OK. our local council have changed our rubbish collections to recycling one week, and everyday rubbish the next.. and I can't believe how little everyday waste I have now its all being recycled!
All I seem to throw away is scraps of food, which got me thinking is it worth my while getting a compost bin! DH says no as they are smelly and attract flies. Is this right?
Please tell me what you put in yours..
Our local water board sells them for £11

[foundintranslation]

We have to have them over here (Germany)

We put in:
fruit and veg peel/cores etc. (and we eat a lot of fruit and veg - it fills up v quickly)
tea leaves/bags and coffee pads (if you use coffee filters they can go in too)
leftovers we can't use (e.g. already reheated once)
little scraps of newspaper or brown paper
dead flowers/plant leaves

It has a lid and doesn't smell if emptied regularly. In summer we do sometimes have fruit flies, but they are attracted to the normal household rubbish as well. I wouldn't be without it now. HTH

[BumMum]

Thanks foundintranslation...
But what do you mean "leftovers we can't use (e.g. already reheated once)"

[foundintranslation]

I just mean when we've cooked something, served it up, there's been some left over, reheated once and then rhere's still some left - as it's not a good idea to reheat something twice, we chuck it - into the compost

[BumMum]

Ohhh I see... I thought you couldn't put reheated food in the compost... [ninny emoticon]

[foundintranslation]

Nah, it's fine - just let it cool off first

[BumMum]

Thanks foundintranslation... I'm on a mission to go green at the moment.. Off to google eco balls now...

[snorkle]

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[cece]

I have a pair of toads and at least one mouse living in my compost heap. Not sure if this is good or bad for the compost. But they are so cute. Must stress though this is a heap not a bin!

[TheHighwayCod]

t he children fit in nicely

[Pruni]

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[Pruni]

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[Pruni]

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[sansouci]

poo

[BumMum]

good god... I've just had a vision of getting my arse stuck in it whilst Peeing in it....

and then thinking... now, did I just pass that worm..

[Skribble]

We have one the council collect but you can put veg peelings in only garden waste.

[Skribble]

Sorry that was you can't put in veg peelings.

[mw14]

I have a wormery. Like a compost bin, but with a specific worm colony in it. They consume their own body weight in waste every day and the population is self sustaining. They are so efficient I get no unpleasany smells whatsoever. I add any fruit or vegetable waste, tea bags, rice, pasta, hair clippings, but no meat.

After a few weeks you start to get liquid feed from the sump (the wormery has a tap for this purpose), and before long you generate so much you'll be giving bottles to everyone you know. It is a concentrated plant feed that needs to be diluted to 10%.

After 9 months or so you can shovel out the top layer of the bin (where the worms live) and remove a good quantity of high grade compost. Then simply put the worm layer back in and start again.

[martini]

I have a Bokashi. Am hopeless at links but you can get them from Wiggly Wigglers which is easy to find on Google. Basically the kit consists of some bins with close fitting lids & some special bran impregnated with microbes. You fill up bins with waste and microbe bran over period of about 3 weeks.

You can put all food including cooked meat & fish in it. You leave it to "pickle" for a couple of weeks and then stick it on your compost heap or mix it into the soil. The pickled food breaks down in a few days in the compost heap.

You can do all sorts of uncompostable things like orange peel.

Its great. The only downside, which I think is pretty minor, is that the "pickled" waste reminds me a bit of something regurgitated! But as long as you shove it in your big compost bin and cover it up quick, in a few days you don't notice adn then it just seems to disappear.

[PrettyCandles]

We don't put any animal products in the compost bin, other than eggshells. Also no cooked starches (bread, pasta, cooked potatoes). All food waste that can't go in the compost goes into the waste-disposal unit.

To get it to compost down proplery into decent compost (rather than just go slimy, rotten and disgusting) you need to have a good mix of green stuff (kitchen waste, grass clippings, fresh leaves) and woody stuff (most other gardening waste). As we're not doing any gardening this year we don't have any woody waste, so instead we put in the shredder waste and also ripped-up egg-boxes.

Domestic composters don't always generate enough heat to kill everything that goes in, so don't put raw tomatoes in it unless your happy to risk having tomato seedlings sprouting all over your garden next year.

[Bozza]

I put in all fruit/veg peelings, egg shells, egg boxes torn up, the contents of the shredder, garden waste although not weeds, so deadheads, prunings, bedding plants that have done. I worry about weed seeds and germination so just bin them. I am amazed at how much you can put in without it really filling up. Sometimes we put the grass clippings in but not every time because of worrying about it getting too heavy on the greens side.

[PrettyCandles]

Do you put roses, blackberry stems, etc in your compost? I'm never certain about thorns - I worry that they will not rot down and will prick our fingers when we use the resulting compost. Also large fruit pits, like apricot, peach, avocado - do they rot down?

[Bozza]

I don't have roses or blackberries! I think I probably would put them in though. I do put avacado and peach stones in but am not convinced that they will rot. I am yet to actually use any compost so am not an expert.

[NannyL]

we put the stuff from the dyson in ours (where i work)

along with fruit /veg / egg shells / tea bags

they are going to have a urinal installed in the house to go directly into the compost as well

• will be using grey water for toilet flushing!