I found this list online and thought if you'd like you could add whatever you put in yours that isn't on the list.
Paper napkins
Freezer-burned vegetables
Pet hair
Potash rock
Post-it notes
Freezer-burned fruit
Wood chips
Lint from behind refrigerator
Hay
Popcorn
Freezer-burned fish
Old spices
Pine needles
Leaves
Matches
Seaweed and kelp
Chicken manure
Leather dust
Old herbs
Bird cage cleanings
Paper towels
Brewery wastes
Grass clippings
Hoof and horn meal
Molasses residue
potato peelings
Unpaid bills
Gin trash (wastes of the cotton
plant)
weeds Rabbit manure
Hair clippings from the barber
Stale bread
Coffee grounds
Wood ashes
Sawdust
Tea grounds
Shredded newspaper
Egg shells
Cow manure
Alfalfa
Winter rye
Grapefruit rinds
Pea vines
Houseplant trimmings
Old pasta
Grape wastes
Soil
Phosphate rock
Corncobs
Jello
Blood meal
Winery wastes
Spanish moss
Limestone
Fish meal
Beet wastes
Sunday comics
Harbor mud
Felt waste
Wheat straw
Peat moss
Kleenex tissues
Milk
Bark
Hops
Starfish
Melted ice cream
flower petals
Pumpkin
seeds Q-tips (cotton swabs)
Expired
flower arrangements
Elmer's glue
BBQ'd fish skin
Bone meal
Citrus wastes
Stale
potato chips
Rhubarb stems
Tobacco wastes
Bird guano
Hog manure
Dried jellyfish
Wheat bran
Guinea pig cage cleanings
Nutshells
Cattail reeds
Clover
Granite dust
Moldy cheese
Greensand
Straw
Shredded cardboard
Dolomite
Cover crops
Rapeseed meal
Bat guano
Fish scraps
Tea bags
Apple cores
Electric razor trimmings
Kitchen wastes
Outdated yogurt
Toenail clippings
Shrimp shells
Crab shells
Lobster shells
Pie crust
Leather wallets
Onion skins
Bagasse (sugar cane residue)
Watermelon rinds
Date pits
Goat manure
Olive pits
Peanut shells
Burned oatmeal (sorry, Mom)
Dryer lint
Bread crusts
Cooked rice
River mud
Bad wine
Banana peels
Fingernail clippings
Chocolate cookies
Toothpicks
Moss from last year's hanging baskets
Stale
potato chips
Pickles
Dust bunnies
Pencil shavings
Wool socks
Artichoke leaves
Leather watch bands
Fruit salad
Tossed salad (now THERE's tossing it!)
Brown paper bags
Soggy Cheerios
Theater tickets
Lees from making wine
Burned toast
Feathers
Animal fur
Alfalfa
Horse manure
Vacuum cleaner bag contents
Coconut hull fiber
Old or outdated
seeds Macaroni and cheese
Liquid from canned vegetables
Liquid from canned fruit
Old beer
Wedding bouquets
Greeting card envelopes
Snow
Dead bees and flies
Horse hair
Peanut butter sandwiches
Dirt from soles of shoes, boots
Fish bones
Ivory soap scraps
Spoiled can food items
Produce trimmings from grocery store
Cardboard cereal boxes (shredded)
Grocery receipts
Urine (It's true! Read the letter below)
Dear Marion,
I have been visiting your site with great interest for a while now -- thank goodness for your sensible advice for gardening in northern parts -- I am in the north of Scotland and have many of the meteorological challenges that you face, wind, rain, cold, etc. (but no bears)!
Your list of 163 materials for the compost bin is really useful but perhaps I can add another -- a British organic gardening writer, Bob Flowerdew, swears by peeing on his compost saying that urine acts as an accelerator. Actually he refers to it rather delicately as 'recycling his cider and beer.' This isn't so easy for us women but I do encourage my husband to provide the goods! One for the list?
Many thanks for all your ideas and beautiful photographs,
--Jean Bell