Saturday, May 20, 2017

Compost update: Paper cups and egg shells

May 19th, 2017.

The active pile is filling up quickly and getting hot. The warmest part was at 120°F!

Two observations for this week:
  1. Paper cups are, for the most part, non-compostable, as they are usually lined with a plastic film. These, unfortunately, belong to the trash (and it's best to avoid them as much as possible).
    Don't be confused by the recycle symbol! It indicates that the cup is made with recycled material, but it is NOT recyclable.
  2. Egg shells need to be thoroughly crushed. They take forever to decompose and usually look intact even after everything else is fully composted. They can go to the soil anyway and will VERY SLOWLY provide calcium and other nutrients, BUT THEY HAVE TO BE IN TINY PIECES. An alternative is to use the shells to prepare a liquid fertilizer for blooms.  
    These shells probably spent close to a year in the compost pile and are still intact!
    Crush the shells before composting. The smaller the better!
Thank you for helping return these nutrients back to the earth!
 

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