COMPOSTING 101

What is composting?
What can be composted?
Composting technologies
What's so good about compost?
EPA Region IV overview

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An estimated 70 percent of the global waste stream is biodegradable and, therefore, compostable. That makes composting the aspirin of waste management, since the majority of the world’s waste disposal problems can be improved or eliminated by composting.  There are even certain non-organics that can be used as amendments in composting, gypsum products (sheetrock) being the most notable.

Today’s commercial, institutional, industrial, and municipal composting operations recycle everything from hatchery waste to chicken nuggets:

◊ All types of wood wastes and by-products such as grass and tree trimmings, land clearing debris, charcoal, ash, pallets, scraps and discards from furniture and flooring manufacture, construction and demolition debris, chips, sawdust, paper and cardboard

◊  By-products and residuals from livestock and crop production like manures, effluent, bedding, spoiled hay and feed, hatchery waste, mortality,[1] lagoon sludge, field residuals, diseased plants

◊  Food and food processing waste like wastewater treatment sludge, culls, scraps, biodegradable food service containers and utensils, cooking oil and grease

◊  Residuals from the treatment of industrial and municipal drinking and wastewater, as well as by-products from the manufacture of chemicals and pharmaceuticals

Anything that was once part of an animal or a plant can be used as a feedstock in the manufacture of compost and will biodegrade. But composting is not a one-method-fits-all process. 

Composting can be used to neutralize toxic compounds, for example, but not without special permits and (usually) a dedicated facility.  Potatoes are appropriate for the backyard bin, but not the grease that fried them. Certain materials are not recommended for backyard composting, not because they won’t compost, but because most backyard systems don’t reach the temperatures required for pathogen kill or use containment and management methods that will deter flies, rodents, and other neighborhood marauders.