What you can compost

Find out what materials you can (and can't) add to your compost bin, so that you get a great mix of ingredients to produce your soil improver.

Hands putting vegetable scraps into a compost bin.

It's important to get the right mix of materials in your compost bin. Aim for a 50:50 mix of 'green' and 'brown' materials. You can either add them as a mix or as layers.

Too much 'green' material can lead to your compost being too wet, slimy and smelly. Adding too much 'brown' material can lead to your compost being too dry.

Green materials

Green materials are rich in nutrients and compost quite quickly.

These include:

coffee grounds
grass clippings
fruit and vegetable peelings
nettles
soft prunings

Brown materials

Brown materials are rich in carbon, absorb excess moisture and provide structure, but take longer to compost.

These include:

cardboard
dry leaves
shredded paper
twigs
used kitchen paper

Brown and green materials

Some materials naturally contain a mix of greens and browns.

These include:

hedge clippings
old bedding plants
pet bedding (vegetarian animals only, such as rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs)

What to avoid putting in your compost bin

Products such as meat, bones, dairy and cooked vegetables should not be placed in a standard home compost bin. These foods need to be composted at a higher temperature and may encourage unwanted pests and odours in your home compost bin. These items can instead be placed in your kerbside food recycling container.

Other items to avoid placing in your home compost bin include:

perennial weeds and diseased plants as these can survive the composting process and be spread over your garden
cat litter and other animal faeces as the composting process cannot destroy the parasites and bacteria, which can be very harmful to people
nappies and any type of plastic