Composter Background

A few months ago I experimented putting a “compostable” coffee cup in my home composter to see how it would come out. This was inspired by the UCL citizen science experiment I participated in a few years ago. Read about this here.

Update 

The cup came out after just over 6 weeks, as that is how long this composter takes for most things. Of course like any compost process there are always things that need to go in again. For example, twigs, avocado skin, fruit stones. I always sort through my compost (breaking up where needed) and put appropriate items in again.

I was surprised the cup hadn’t broken down much, compared to the regular cardboard that I add. Cardboard is to balance the food waste. But 6 (ish) weeks is quite a short time, and it has been during late autumn when the composting process is slower. The pieces had stuck together quite a bit inside the net bag. This bag was needed to enable me to find them at the end of the process. But hadn’t helped the decomposition!

What have you found?

Have you found compostable items break down in the system you use?

Do you think the labelling around compostable and biodegradable items is clear, or confusing?

Do share your thoughts below in the comments.