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Composting enriches and improves soil, plus it’s a great way to dispose of food. Since bread and other grain-based foods are important components of many diets, it’s worth knowing if you can compost bread.
You can compost bread and other grain-based products. They are dense sources of nitrogen for the compost pile. Bread requires minor processing to decompose rapidly and integrate with the rest of the compost pile.
Meet the Expert
- Lauren Click is the founder of Let’s Go Compost, a non-profit that helps make composting free and accessible throughout the US.
- Lauren Gropper is the founder and CEO of Repurpose, a provider of compostable household goods.
Bread Composting: Greens vs Browns
A healthy compost pile is built of both green and brown materials. Greens are nitrogen-rich materials like food waste and grass clippings. Browns are dry, woody, carbon-heavy items like twigs and leaves. For the proper compost ratio, add one part greens to three parts browns.
Where does bread stand in the greens-to-browns ratio mix?
“Bread is generally considered a green material due to its high nitrogen content, even though it looks brown,” says Lauren Click, founder of Let’s Go Compost. “This is because it’s made from grains, which provide the nitrogen necessary for the composting microbes to thrive.”
This means that one container of bread should be followed by three containers of browns—materials like leaves, straw, or clean paper. For convenience, the bucket does not need to be exclusively bread. It can be mixed with other greens.
| Green Materials | Brown Materials |
| Bread and other baked goods | Dry leaves |
| Pasta | Sawdust |
| Vegetable scraps | Straw |
| Green yard waste | Newspaper |
| Grass clippings | Cardboard |
Why Composting Bread Is a Good Idea
Composting bread works well because it is loaded with nitrogen. Because bread and other grain-based products are such a large part of most diets, you’ll have no shortage of compost materials.
Most grains and grain products—oats, wheat, rice, quinoa, millet—contain far more nitrogen than fruits and vegetables. Whole wheat bread contributes more nitrogen to the compost pile than white bread.
Whole wheat bread contains about four times more nitrogen than even nitrogen-rich green vegetables like spinach and kale. You would have to add nearly a pound of raw spinach to a compost pile to equal three slices of whole wheat bread’s nitrogen content.
| Nitrogen Content of Foods | |
|---|---|
| Food (100 grams) | Nitrogen |
| Whole wheat bread | 1.97 grams |
| Whole grain millet | 1.72 grams |
| White bread | 1.51 grams |
| Brown rice | 1.22 grams |
| White rice | 1.18 grams |
| Kale | 0.47 grams |
| Spinach | 0.46 grams |
| Beets | 0.27 grams |
| Roma tomato | 0.11 grams |
How to Add Bread to the Compost
Break up the bread by hand. Or use a blender or food processor to break it into smaller pieces with less effort. Avoid tossing full loaves or slices of bread on the compost pile.
“When composting bread, try to add it to the middle of the compost pile with another layer or two on top—the middle of the pile is the hottest part of the compost,” says says Lauren Gropper, founder and CEO of Repurpose.
Gropper says that adding bread to the middle of the pile serves two purposes.
“One, it aids in quickly decomposing the bread. Two, it will protect it from pests and wildlife looking for a little snack.”
Composting Other Grain Products
“Other grain-based products like pasta and cereals can be composted,” Click says. “Just like bread, they should be broken into smaller pieces and buried deep in the pile. Breaking any grain product into smaller pieces and ensuring they are well-mixed with other compost materials will help it break down faster.”
Not all grain products should go in the compost pile, cautions Gropper.
“It’s best to avoid adding foods high in sugar and dairy, like cookies and pie.”
She notes that sugar and dairy elements will only attract pests and wildlife. This even includes pasta sauce.
“It often contains sugar, dairy, and oil, which can all offset the organic balance of compost,” Gropper says.
Tips for Composting Bread and Grains
- Remove fatty or oily sections (like frosting or cheese) from the bread.
- Rinse the sauce off of the pasta.
- Hot compost the bread to help it decompose faster.
- Break the bread into small pieces while it’s still soft to make it easier to break up.
- Use bread in other ways (such as making croutons) before composting it.
FAQ
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You cannot compost inorganic materials (like plastics or metal), dairy items, pet or human waste, bones, meat scraps, fat or lard, oils, or treated wood. Also avoid putting charcoal grill ash, pesticides, herbicides, diseased plants, and seafood waste on the compost pile.
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Old bread can be composted and turned into a fertilizing agent that benefits plants. Among gardening products, though, compost and fertilizers are not the same thing. Fertilizers, sometimes called NPK fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), add nutrients to plants in concentrated form. Compost fertilizes soil but it also improves soil structure by helping soil drain or retain the correct amount of water.
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It can take bread from a week or two to several months to decompose on a compost pile. Mold and fungus are major causes of decomposition, so if they are already present, the bread will decompose faster. Preparing the bread for the pile by breaking it up and adding it to the center of the pile aids in decomposition.