Make compost with nutritional balance

The nutrition in waste determines largely how good your compost is likely to be. A start with the right relative amounts of carbon and nitrogen in your waste, is crucial for its orderly conversion into compost.

An excess of carbon results in a long wait for all wastes to break down. An excess of nitrogen causes disruptions like bad smell and infestation of tiny soldier flies.

Compostable wastes are sorted by convention into 2 types - rich in either carbon^[1] or nitrogen^[2]. You layer these two types to form, e.g. waste composites comprising 2 lots of carbon to one of nitrogen for ordinary systems like open-ended bins and tumbling bins. Vary your waste mix to suit different systems.

A balance in waste nutrition gives you the best start.

Carbon-rich include cut up garden waste, autumn leaves and toilet paper roll. ↩
Nitrogen-rich include weeds without seeds, coffee grounds and poultry manure. ↩