Compostable: Yes
Category: Green
Peppers, like most other vegetable scraps, can be put in the composter.
If these are kitchen leftovers, there will likely only be the central core left with the seeds and the stalk attached. Or if they have started to go off before you had a chance to use them, perhaps you will be throwing the whole pepper in the composter. Either way, this will be fine and these will decompose quickly.
Compostable: Yes!
Category: Green
Potato Peelings and Skins are a great addition to the composter.
Some people may be worried about potatoes sprouting in the compost. This can start to happen if you are adding whole potatoes or large pieces of potato. However, if there is sufficient heat in your composter, the heat will kill off the sprouting potato shoots.
This problem will not happen if you are just adding potato skins or peels. They will decompose quickly without sprouting.
Compostable: Yes!
Category: Neutral
Before adding Egg Shells to your composter, rinse them out to remove any remaining egg white. Then crush the egg shells into small pieces. The reason for this is that egg shells do not decompose in the same way as a lot of organic material, they tend to just break down into smaller and smaller pieces. However eggshells are a great source of nutrients for your soil and provide some structure to your compost. Crushing them into small pieces gets the process of breaking them down off to a good start.
Compostable: Yes!
Category: Green
Tea Bags, both used and unused, can be put in to your composter. These can help add good structure to your compost.
Depending on the brand, the bag itself may or may not completely break down, even after a few years. Avoid adding nylon-based bags but other natural fibre-based bags should be fine. As long as you get sufficient heat into your composter you will maximise your chance of it decomposing. Your best bet is to give it a try, and if you’re not happy with the result, maybe tear open the bags before putting in the composter.
If you are fussy about your compost, you might want to remove the tiny staples (if there are any) from your tea bags.
You should avoid pouring a cup of tea, or tea from the pot, straight into the composter, only because of the risk of introducing too much moisture.
Compostable: Yes!
Category: Green
Banana Skins are an excellent thing to put in to your composter and a good use of a common throw away item. They are a great source of organic material and valuable nutrients for your compost. Some people cut them up first to help speed up the composting process, others put them in whole, but it really doesn’t matter either way. They will quickly and easily decompose in your composter or compost heap with no problems.
Alternatively, banana peels are an excellent source of nutrients for roses. Some people bury the banana skins a few inches under the ground, around their rose bushes. Roses seem to benefit greatly from the nutrients provided by the banana skins and produce a good healthy show of flowers. And it’s a good simple natural way of fertilising your roses without having to resort to chemical fertilisers.
But if you are doing this, you should be aware that it may take a bit longer to decompose the banana skins if they are buried beside your roses. Decomposition works best and quickest in the presence of air, and burying the banana peels under the soil deprives the decomposing microbes of the essential oxygen. They will break down eventually and release their nutrients, but it may be faster to add them to your general compost heap or composter, allow them to break down, then add the compost to the roses.