Getting Creative with Compost: Cheers to Throwing Away Old Beer (and Other Things)

Are you at the end of your rope about your latest over-the-top cell phone bill? The good news is that both that rope and the bill can go into a big hole in the ground and help the environment. Even if you used white glue to paste a hate note on top of your overage minutes, you have a compostable bunch of chaos that you can easily toss away to a better cause.

What am I talking about? Compost everything to make sustainable fertilizer out of that upsetting billing statement and forget the blues! While composting usually brings to mind rotten fruits, vegetables and/or dry weeds, the truth is, many things that you would never think about are completely compostable.

Listing 30 unexpected and usual things you can still put in the compost, Eco Salon mentions everything from cotton to matches. Before you light a fire on the computer screen with the burning skepticism coming from your eyes, consider this: Bacteria can break down more than just food. So, let’s have some fun with this list I uncovered by turning some of the most fun findings into categorical groups to muse over.

The normal category

Hygiene products that aren’t just for your head:

• used tissues
• paper towels
• even your own hair!

Paper you waste:

• junk mail
• catalogs and magazines
• those bills!

(Note: Be careful with glossy paper, especially printed with color ink, which can contain heavy metals. Use your best judgment.)

Kitchen/house items you can toss care-free:

• cereal boxes
• vacuum cleaner bag contents
• dryer lint

The plain weird category

From food to foot and everything in between:

• expired dairy and moldy cheese
• old Halloween candy, skunked beer and ancient candy bars — as the site says, “When the chocolate tastes like ‘jelly bellies,’ it’s time to part ways!”
• latex condoms and cotton tampons, as well as old cotton underwear — a triple whammy for things you’d never talk about, but would like to never see again
• wipe your feet of any waste as well, as the site suggests, by tossing in “dirt, crap and grime from your shoes or boots”

But, when it comes to straying from the norm, be mindful that there are still things that even a compost bin shouldn’t bare. Willi Evans compiles a “no no” list that makes me cringe. From diseased plants to meat, the description line that Evans uses about such waste — causing the compost pile to “decompose slowly, smell and attract animals” — guarantees that I’d proceed with caution.

With guidelines in hand, what are you waiting for? Go make a healthy compost!