Neither Eggshells Nor Banana Peels — This Food Scrap Belongs In Your Compost Too

Home composting is a simple habit that keeps your kitchen clean of food scraps, and it can also create a rich DIY fertilizer for your garden. Some kinds of food waste break down quickly and easily in your compost, but other items, like banana peels and egg shells, seem to take forever to turn into dirt. But a slow breakdown period doesn't mean these items aren't good for your compost. Like bananas and egg shells, avocados may take a while to decompose without some help, but they're a worthy addition to your compost bin nonetheless. 

Every part of an avocado can be composted, from peel to flesh to pit. Avocado skins and pits are considered "brown matter," which, in the world of compost, is an important fibrous element that feeds the microbes that break everything down into soil. Avocado skins and pits have healthy amounts of magnesium and potassium, which are important plant fertilizers, especially for veggies like lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers. The flesh of an avocado is "green matter," like most food scraps, and will break down easily in your compost pile. While there are definitely things you cannot put in your kitchen compost, avocados are perfectly safe.

To speed up the breakdown of avocados in your bin, you'll need to avoid throwing them in there whole. Otherwise, you may be looking at those pits and skins for months as you tend to your compost. You can help the skins decompose much faster by cutting them into small pieces and placing them deeper down into your compost layers. Mixing them well into the rest of your compost is also important to help with decomposition.

Just like the skins, a dense avocado pit won't break down on its own very easily, but you can smash or cut it first to help it decompose faster. Use a hammer or meat tenderizer to break the pit apart before throwing it in your bin. Be careful if you're trying to cut a pit with a knife, though, because they can be slippery. For people who've been getting started with worm composting, it's worth knowing that worms seem to love avocado pit pieces. Breaking down the pits is also a good idea if you want to avoid little avocado trees sprouting from your compost. Don't be discouraged if your pits and skins still take a while to break down: With time, they'll become part of a rich compost that you can use throughout the garden.