Composting tips, advice and science.

Compost Materials

Learn about the different organic materials you can compost – which vary from fallen leaves to human poo! If you’re new to composting, we recommend starting with What You Can Compost: From Everyday Items To The Bizarre…

Retrieving compost from a compost bin.

Study Finds One Key Ingredient for Faster, Better Compost

01/25/2025 Bulking agents are essential for successful composting. They create air pockets to help oxygen-loving bacteria thrive, absorb excess moisture, and improve the structure of dense, wet material. Without them, composting can be slow and inefficient. Now a new study published in Nature.com has identified the best bulking agent for home composting – and it’s […]

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Chickens on the manure heap.

Use Manure, But Make Sure You Compost It First, Say Scientists. Here’s Why…

20th April 2023 Boy, do we produce a lot of manure.  In the EU alone we produce 1400 million tonnes of manure (and that’s just the animals!) This causes problems – think methane being released into the atmosphere, for example. But it also has the potential for some serious benefits for our soil and ecosystems

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Elephant taking a poo.

Zoo Animals’ Poop Turned into High-Quality Compost – Available for Sale Now!

17th April 2023 In an exciting new initiative, Tend, a sustainable product brand, has partnered with the Buffalo Zoo to produce compost made entirely from the manure and bedding of 14 different species of hooved herbivores, including rhinos, giraffes, and zebras. The combination of high-nitrogen exotic animal poop and carbon-rich aged stall bedding, straw, and

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Mixture of green and brown material in a compost bin.

Carbon-Nitrogen Ratio List: A Complete Guide to C:N Ratios for Composting

Looking for a handy Carbon-Nitrogen Ratio List to guide your composting efforts? In this article, you’ll find a comprehensive table of C:N ratios for everything from food waste to manures—and even a simple calculator to help you mix materials. C:N Ratio Calculator Please note this is a beta version. In future iterations, we plan to

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Hair lying on floor in a hairdressers.

How Do You Compost Hair?

If you have access to a lot of hair, you’re in luck.  Hair is high in nitrogen and has excellent water retention ability.  Before composting, hair can contain both heavy metals and chemicals from treatments.  However, multiple studies show that despite this the final result makes great compost. This may be partly down to the

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