Paper towels: you may love them, you may hate them, but they
are a part of most everyone’s life. Call me a super-freaky-hippy chick, but I
try to avoid paper towels whenever possible. In my house we use cloth towels to
dry our hands, wet wash cloths to clean up messes, and cloth napkins when we
eat a particularly messy meal.
Even trying to avoid them, they still come in handy
occasionally (I have two kids and a cat; use your imagination). So the question
remains, can you put them in your backyard compost bin? The answer depends on
what you cleaned up with that paper towel.
Greasy Paper Towels? Nope
If you use a paper towel to clean up oil, butter, or
anything greasy do not put that towel in your compost. Oil and grease
push air out of your compost, creating havens for anaerobic bacteria (the smelly kind you want to avoid). Throw greasy paper towels in the
garbage.
Chemically Paper Towels? Nope
Using strong cleaning products with your paper towels? Also
throw these chemical-laden paper towels in the trash. You don’t know how they
will affect your macro and microorganism friends hanging out in your bin.
This also goes for paper towels covered in "green" cleaning products as well. Even green cleaners strive to kill bacteria and we do not want to invite that into our compost bin.
All Other Paper Towels? Yep
Paper towels not filled with grease or chemicals will
decompose quickly in your compost bin. They are considered a brown or carbon
rich material and can substitute for leaves if you are running low.
A paper towel with dirt, water, or plant-based food is perfectly welcome
in your compost bin.
 |
| A peak inside my home kitchen collector. |
In our office we collect paper towels from hand-drying and
mix them into our compost bin along with our fruit and
vegetable scraps. The
towels decompose quickly after getting wet.
In addition to being an unapologetic hippy, I am also a
pretty big cheapskate and never buy the super thick, fancy quilted paper
towels. Has anyone had luck composting this kind? Leave a comment below.
I actually line my kitchen compost bin with Bounty, the super thick, fancy quilted version (green), not the basic (yellow). I do this to help reduce clean up of the bin itself--my wife's coffee grounds have a bad habit of sticking to the inside of those green bins you hand out. I also throw in Bounty that has been used to dry hands, or clean up messes, as they break down well. A bit of moisture and nitrogen go great with these!
ReplyDeleteIf you are not using Bounty, I hope you use Tide PurClean to wash all your towels, wash cloths, and napkins! ;-) #PGEmployee
Good to know! And I love the shameless plug. :)
DeleteOk, this might be kinda gross, but one of the ways I use paper towel (thin type), is to blow my nose after using the neti pot. Would that be ok to include in the compost bin??!!
ReplyDeleteActually, yes that would decompose. Unless you had some contagious virus you were worried about spreading to others who tend the compost bin.
DeleteThanks for the great advice! I actually considered greasy towels even better for some reason. We use paper towels on a daily basis (natural ones without chemicals) and I never considered selecting them based on whether they've been soaked in grease or not. I guess most of them are since they are used for wiping a lot of kitchen stuff. Anyway, thanks for the tip! Cheers
ReplyDeletehi!
ReplyDeletei make my own cleaning solutions (vinegar+water+essential oil), if the paper towel has been soaked with this, can it be considered compostable?
Yes, that small amount of vinegar will be fine in a compost bin.
DeleteThanks for asking! I googled this question because I'm trying to be more green this year and I'm using vinegar to clean with both rags and paper towels.
DeleteLove the idea of composting bathroom paper towels!
ReplyDeleteI use paper towels to clean up when my dog has accidents. Are these ok to place in compost bin?
ReplyDeleteNo, these may contain pathogens.
DeleteThanks for sharing ! I am using a closed compost bin a sterlite plastic bin with lid, so far once a week I'll dig a hole and bury all organic scraps I've been saving. First week done friday. Thinking about looking into some brown paper towels too. Need more research. Also I don't think open compost bins are cleanly; don't you get a lot of flies and bugs; and the smell of it being in the open ? If I had land space and more time I'd bury organic compost shortly after using it. For now I'll use the bin and lid and see if once a week bury will be clean enough.
ReplyDeleteChristopher- I do not have odors or bug issues in my compost bin for two reasons. First, I ALWAYS bury my food scraps under a layer of leaves. Fruit flies will not burrow to lay their eggs so you will not have issues with bugs. Second, I balance my food scraps with one part scraps to three parts leaves. This decomposes the material without odors. Aerating the pile also helps eliminate odors.
DeleteGood luck with your trench composting!
My husband doesn't want me to put paper towels in our compost bin because he thinks the chemicals in them (think Chlorine and Formaldehyde?) will not be good for his garden. He uses the compost in his garden and doesn't want anything unnatural in it. Do you have any thoughts on this? Thanks
ReplyDeleteMy personal thought- why would he be willing to rub something he believes is toxic on his skin but be unwilling to compost it? I don't use paper towels very often but when I do, I buy the organic ones with high recycled content. They don't work as well as the pricey, quilted fancy white ones, but they work.
DeleteI am not sure what chemicals they use in manufacturing paper towels but if they are white it makes sense they are using some sort of bleaching agent. Does that break down in the compost pile? I am not sure. These are my thoughts based on little scientific research, just my instinct.
I, too, am a husband gardener and was curious about this. After a bit of research, it seems to be ok to use in the compost bin and subsequently your garden. We use Bounty PT around the house fairly regularly so figuring this out was a big deal for my wife and I. Here are a few (of the many) things I read that made me feel at ease composting "clean" paper towels;
Deletehttps://bountytowels.com/en-us/discover/faq
From that link; "Is bleaching your products harmful to me, my family, or the environment?
No. 100% of the virgin fibers used in our products is elemental chlorine free (ECF). If pulp is said to be ECF, it means that no elemental chlorine gas was used during the bleaching process. For more information read this (Facts About the Use of Bleaching Agents in Tissue and Paper Towel Manufacturing) from the American Forest & Paper Association."
Here's the above-mentioned link; https://www.afandpa.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/facts-about-the-use-of-bleaching-agents-final.pdf?sfvrsn=2
I also found this informative;
https://formaldehyde.americanchemistry.com/default.aspx
Happy composting everyone!
Bleach breaks down in the environment very quickly, and does not accumulate in the food chain.
ReplyDeleteI have learned a lot in the last 5 minutes! I am just started composting, have a new Joracomposter which I am thrilled with, and I'm looking into having enough Brown material. I use the Costco brand paper towels so I'm assuming that they're considered the heavy or quilted ones. I will check into other options. I do use a lot of these, I noticed that they could be added to my compost bin. What about paper plates? I also use the cheap ones from Costco, I'd be willing to rip them up so that's a smaller item but it would be so nice to be able to add them also. I need to find more Brown material because my garden is mostly vegetables, and chickens! Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteYes, you can add paper plates as well, especially if they are the cheap ones with no coating. I would not recommend the colored or coated ones.
DeleteThis site was very helpful. I am a beginner planter of veggies/fruits and learning how to compost. I find that I was able to use the paper towel rolls and T-Paper rolls in my compost. Also have made my own starter kits with seeds and dirt with those rolls. if you need to. Wish me luck as I am doing all of this from pinterest and I have NO Green Thumb experience what so ever!
DeleteHAPPY gardening and composting!! This was an excellent thread and I learned a lot as well..... ps..hadnt thought about using T Paper for composting! thx :-)
DeleteThis is perfect for anyone with a small yard ... I don't get much leaves or cut grass as my mower is self mulching which is great for the yard. This unfortuneatly leaves me with tons of banana skins, egg shells, and other green matter. The addition of paper towels and napkins greatly reduced the slime factor and produces a cleaner compost IMO.
ReplyDeleteAre wipes compostable?
ReplyDeleteNo, they usually have plastic fibers and do not break down.
Delete