So what kind of kitchen scraps can you compost? Well thankfully, you can compost most things from the kitchen.

Fruit and vegetable leftovers are the obvious ones. Old bread, coffee grounds, egg shells and teabags are just as good.

But to be honest, you’re probably more interested in what you CAN’T compost. There’s always a bit of worry when you’re new to composting, whether you’ve added something you shouldn’t have, which could mess up your whole compost pile too!

Out of bounds are any kind of meat, fish, dairy, or oils. But perhaps more importantly than what you can and can’t compost, is making sure you add the right amounts of each to your pile.

Even if you do use the best, most easily compostable food scraps on Earth using too many of one thing or the other can really set you up for a fall and by that I mean your compost pile will end up stinking and attracting all kinds of horrible insects or simply won’t compost at all.

And there’s not much that’s more depressing than just having a completely inactive pile of scraps and waste sitting around the place.

And why would you get these things happening?

I don’t know if you’ve heard of C:N ratios in composting. They’re not as confusing as they sound at any rate.

It means, the ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen, but really, you can look at it in terms of composting “greens” to “browns”

And what makes up composting greens? Food scraps like leftovers from fruits and vegetables, coffee grounds and eggshells like I mentioned earlier, as well as things like grass cuttings and seaweed.

Composting browns are typical yard waste things, like leaves and twigs and pine needles, as well as paper, shredded cardboard and sawdust.

As for getting a good ratio, experienced composters agree on about 3 parts browns to 1 part greens.

So for each bit of kitchen waste you throw into the compost bin, make sure you add about three times as much in browns. » Read more: What Kind of Kitchen Scraps Can You Compost? How Not to Mess Up