Compostable Container Gardening

From the CSWD, we learned that “in Chittenden County, food scraps account for nearly ONE THIRD of most people’s trash. You can keep these items out of the landfill – and put them to better use by composting them! Composting is the process by which microorganisms decompose organic material like food scraps and yard debris, producing a nutrient-rich soil amendment for your garden or house plants.”

Containers that are compostable break down into small pieces in about 90 days. During the composting processes, millions of tiny microbes consume the waste and transform the material into compost; carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds and biomass. We often see this as dirt or soil. Some containers that are familiar to us like egg cartons can also break down into compost. Egg cartons that are molded paper pulp products with no waxy or shiny coating are compostable. The “cardboard" or paper pulp egg carton will start to break down once it gets wet. This is a great container to start seeds in because later you can plant the entire egg carton in the ground.

What other compostable containers can you find in your home?