Weekly Review: Compost Wins, Compost Traps, and One Battery Reminder

Item of the Week

Nut shells. They look compostable because they are plant material. They also break down like tiny pieces of wood, which means they can sit around for a long time if you toss them in whole.

The short version: plain, unsalted nut shells can usually go in backyard compost, especially if you crush them first. Skip shells that are heavily salted, coated, or mixed with candy, chocolate, or seasoning. Extra hard shells may be better as a slow carbon ingredient than a quick kitchen scrap.

Read the guide: Do nut shells go in compost?

Featured Guide

Paper towels are where people overthink and underthink at the same time. Clean paper towel? Maybe compost. Used with window cleaner? Trash. Soaked in bacon grease? Also trash.

The part people get wrong is treating paper towels like normal paper. Used paper towels usually do not belong in curbside recycling because the fibers are dirty, wet, or contaminated. Compost is only a good call when the mess itself is compost friendly, like water, crumbs, coffee drips, fruit juice, or small food smears.

Featured guide: Do paper towels go in compost?

Recycling Fact

Composting is not a permission slip for every gross thing. Mold alone is usually fine. Plastic stickers, cleaning chemicals, pet waste, heavy grease, and invasive weeds are the problems.

A fuzzy peach can be compost. A fuzzy peach still wearing a produce sticker is now a tiny contamination problem. Pull the sticker off before it hits the bin.

Related reads:

• Can moldy food go in compost?
• Do banana peels go in compost?

What's New

New guides from the past week leaned hard into compost confusion, which tracks. Compost looks simple until you hit the weird edge cases.

• Do nut shells go in compost?: Usually yes for plain shells, but crush them and expect a slow breakdown.
• Do weeds go in compost?: Young green weeds are usually fine. Seed heads, invasive plants, and diseased growth are where the trouble starts.
• Avocado skins vs pits in compost: Skins usually make sense. Pits are technically compostable, but painfully slow.
• Do banana peels go in compost?: Yes, but remove produce stickers and check your curbside food scrap rules.
• Do paper towels go in compost?: Compost only the ones used for compost friendly messes.
• Can moldy food go in compost?: Moldy plant based food is usually fine if your compost system accepts food scraps.

Before the next toss, check the right bin: What Bin Is This.

Question of the Week

Can batteries go in the trash if they are dead?

Usually, do not treat batteries like normal trash, especially rechargeable batteries and lithium batteries. A dead battery can still spark, overheat, or start a fire if it is crushed in a truck or facility.

The safer move is to use a local battery collection box, household hazardous waste site, retailer take back bin, or your city’s battery program. Tape the terminals on lithium and rechargeable batteries if your local program asks for it, or if you are storing several together before drop off.

Small choice, real stakes: batteries in the wrong bin can turn a sorting facility into a fire call. Check the right bin before you throw it away.