Kitchen Waste Composting

Burying Food Scraps

Worm Composting

Green Cone Composting

Food scraps contain valuable nutrients that can be used to improve garden soils. Waste fruit and vegetables, peelings, coffee grounds, egg shells, bakery products, and many other leftovers can be safely composted using proper methods. These food scraps contain valuable nutrients that can be composted to produce a rich soil additive. "Green cones" are a convenient easy to compost many leftover food scraps. Worm bins are an interesting way to compost food scraps and they are fun for kids to use. Burying food scraps in the garden is an easy method that requires only a shovel.

Burying Food Scraps

Food waste can be buried in empty spots in vegetable and flower gardens. Use a shovel to make a hole at least twelve inches deep. Add three to four inches of food scraps to the bottom of the hole. Use a shovel to chop and mix the wastes into the soil to speed composting. Cover food scraps with at least eight inches of soil to prevent rodents and pets from digging them up.

Many kitchen wastes can be buried under several inches of soil for composting.

Buried food scraps may take from two to six months to decompose, depending on soil moisture, temperature, worm population, and food source. In good garden soil, leafy greens will break down in weeks while whole citrus peels may take several months in a loose and fertile garden soil. Wait a month or more if the soil must be tilled before planting. Annual plants may be planted immediately. Check areas with buried food scraps before tilling to make sure that undecomposed food does not come to the surface.

Worm Composting

Green Cone Composting

More information about this topic is available through your local WSU Extension Office

Source: James A. Kropf, Extension Faculty, Horticulture, Small Farms and Farm Marketing. (1998)