Things to Avoid In Compost Bin

Last week we tried to understand what kind of biodegradable waste ….oh..wait a minute! Shouldn’t we call it as a ‘raw material’ rather than calling it ‘waste’ ? Because there is nothing like waste in nature. And raw material could be an appropriate description as you are going to get most precious ‘product’ namely the Bio-compost out of this process using this biodegradable raw material.

Now the following picture tells you what you SHOULD NOT add to your compost bin.

You may ask why? There are multiple answers.

Most important is that the things or the waste materials shown in this picture are ‘man-made’ and hence the microorganisms in the compost bin will not be able to process these things. On the contrary, by adding these ‘waste’ items, you will be creating a ‘mini garbage dump’ rather than a compost bin. So, please avoid them. If at all you see any of these, then remove them. But remember one thing. Bio-composting is a natural process. Sometime, something may go wrong. For example, one day, you may observe that your compost has lost it’s powdery texture and has become muddy and gooey.

Most probable cause is, accumulation of lot of moisture in your compost bin. In such case, you may cut dry cardboard into few small pieces and/or newspaper pieces into your compost bin. This is under such exceptional circumstances. Alternatively, you can add saw dust, dried brown leaves to reduce the moisture.

Now, you may think that newspapers -or any paper for that matter- cardboard etc. are directly or indirectly the plant products, so why are you telling us not to add these into the compost bin under normal circumstances? You are right. These are natural products. But these are not ‘purely natural’ because they are processed using variety of industrial methods and are and mixed with different chemicals to make them usable and saleable products.

For example, paper used for newspapers printing is derived from trees. But to print on it, ink is used which is rich in certain toxic elements like cadmium. This ink and it’s organic/inorganic elements might ‘leach’ into the compost and could interfere in the process of composting. Most of the cardboard is lined with plastic. That is why as far as possible, you try to avoid adding these into the compost bin except for the conditions as described above.

So finally, your first batch of compost is now ready for harvesting and for using it for your house plants or your community garden. Go ahead and enjoy. Remember? While setting up your compost bin for the first time, you had added a culture of decomposing bacteria called bio-inoculum available in the market. Now you have your own bio culture ready which you can use over and over again. Dear readers, you know what you have done? You have created a new, natural ecosystem inside your compost bin. Now what is this ecosystem thing? More on this, next week. Till then, have a nice weekend!

(The author is an environmentalist. Views personal.)