By Robert Grigg & Benjamin Forcier
With the seasons’ lawn care or gardening efforts potentially underway, another great step to reduce waste is to compost it. Practicing composting will not only prevent filling up trash & recycling bins too quickly, but it will provide your lawn & garden with a natural fertilizer that improves growth, increases soil stability, improves drainage, and retains moisture. Of course, one won’t be tossing cans or plastics in the pile, but leftover food and the natural scraps of what’s been eaten can still serve another purpose besides being landfill filling, among other things. However, some compostable and non-compostable items may not be readily obvious. Below, we try to explore some of the more interesting things that fall on either side of the composting spectrum.
| Do | Don’t |
| Hair / Pet fur | Pet Feces or Litter |
| Newspaper & uncoated paper | Meat or fish bones |
| Tea Bags | Diseased & Insect-Infested Plants |
| Coffee Grounds & Filters | Black Walnut tree (leaves & Twigs) |
| Uncoated Cardboard | Dairy Products |
| Sawdust & Woodchips | Grease & oil |
| Layer Compost with Soil | Large pieces of material (shred it) |
| Cotton & Wool Rags | Charcoal Ash |
| Vaccum & Dryer Lint | Anything treated with pesticides |
Even if you aren’t planning on making a garden of your own, compost can still be helpful to take care of your yard and cut down on costs surrounding the purchase of fertile soil. For more information on what you can and can’t compost, as well as its benefits, please visit https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home. We at Vixster are proud to support sustainable practices and even hope to begin offering compost-related services soon.