Tips to compost kitchen scraps

If you know what to compost, have proper equipment to store food scraps and manage your compost correctly, you can easily have nutrient rich compost for your home or garden.

While certain foods can create a rich and nutrient-rich soil for plants, other foods can ruin a compost project and leave you with a stinky compost pail with little nutrients for plants. Foods you should use in your compost include grains like rice and oats, old breads, fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, and even coffee grounds and teas bags. Items you must never compost are meat products, fish and shellfish, dairy products like butter, cheese, and yogurt, and oils or fats of any kind. Using these items will throw off the balance of nutrients in the compost, attract rodents and maggots, and will smell terrible.

Make sure to buy a pail with a secure lid to keep out pests. A great tip is to line the lid with newspaper to keep out fruit flies. Get a pail with enough storage for your food scraps and buy one with a handle for easy transportation. Size may matter in your kitchen, so a pail that can fit under the sink is a good option. Outside your home it's recommended to build a larger compost bin where you can bring your kitchen compost, but you can just as easily use a large plastic bin.

As your pail fills up, take the compost outside to your larger compost bin and scatter it evenly. Depending on how many food scraps your house creates, you may need to empty your food scrap pail daily or every few days. Then add a layer of dirt, leaves, or even sawdust on top. As you continue to add food scraps to the bin and layer it with organic material, the scraps will begin to break down into nutrient-rich soil.

With just a few items you can make your own nutrient-rich compost for your home or garden. In a few months, you can have rich soil for gardening projects or household plants.