What is compostable?

A good balance of materials will help your compost. Your compost heap needs a combination of half  ‘green’ (both fast and slow rotting) and half ‘brown’ ingredients.

Green – fast rotting

These are tender, young plant materials that are quick to rot, such as grass clippings, nettles and young weeds. These get the composting process started, but too many can make your compost wet and smelly.

Green – slower rotting

This includes green leaves, vegetable trimmings, vegetable peelings, bedding plants, fruit peel including citrus, coffee grounds and tea leaves and bags.

Brown

These are tough, fibrous items which take a long time to decompose, such as autumn leaves, tough hedge clippings, uncoated paper (glossy paper and card contain large amounts of chemicals), cardboard and straw.

These are used to balance the green materials and are best chopped, scrunched up or shredded before going into the composter. Just using cardboard and paper is fine if you don’t have anything else.