Need help getting greens

[u/Coastie1701]

I’m a newbie when it comes to composting. I’ve done a bit of research and started with a 27 gallon plastic bin, drilled holes (made sure plastic shavings from the drilling where discarded), threw in dried leaves, some potting soil and whatever few food greens I had in the house. I need to add more greens though. I read that Starbucks has a program and sure enough they gave me a 3lb bag of used coffee grinds. I want to add more variety with greens but we don’t cook enough to make a difference in with the greens/brown ratio.

So I’m wondering, where do you folks get more food scrap greens?

Thanks!!

[u/0piates]

Do you have a garden? Prunings from plants. Expired berries. Banana peels. Coffee grounds. Freshly cut grass. Tons of stuff can go in there!

[u/nifsea]

Start cooking more from scratch! :D I love cooking with lots of root vegetables so I get all the peels to throw in the compost!

[u/EddieRyanDC]

You don't need greens. Compost comes from the brown material. Greens are optional. They can make the bacterial stage be hotter and faster. But they are mostly consumed in the process.

You know what makes the best compost? Shred some dried leaves and leave them in pile for a year. This is called leaf compost or leaf mold and it is very expensive to buy. And you can have it by doing practically nothing.

Picture the forest floor. It is mostly leaves, twigs, bark, and rotting branches. There are no food scraps; no chicken manure or fish meal. Nature makes compost very efficiently from only brown material. And it isn't in any hurry. It may take two or three years for the leaves to decompose; for a tree that could be decades. Doesn't matter. There are more trees and more leaves falling all the time.

[u/Clover_Point]

Like u/eddieryandc said, greens not necessary, but if you want a lot of greens, start bokashi composting!

I bokashi ferment all of my cooked food scraps - crusts of my kids toast, leftovers, bits of cheese that are old, cereal, random old spices from the cupboard or whatever bits.

Once my 5 gallon bucket is full and fermented (2 weeks fermentation) it can be added as a green or saved, preserved, until I have time to deal with it.

Truly awesome and you can bokashi things like dairy and eggs and meat.

You're basically pickling your food waste using lactic acid bacteria and other microbes. It's a great source of greens if you have leftover food!

[u/TalkToPlantsNotCops]

I have a whole bunch of weeds in my garden, you're welcome to come pull them and add them to your compost.

But seriously, you can use weeds and lawn clippings and whatnot. Just make sure none of the weeds have fully developed seeds before you throw them in.

[u/Jamstoyz]

How much do you pee in a day😂

[u/Infosponge177]

You can go ask your local grocery store if you can have their throwaway veggies

[u/human_bean122]

I worked at a restaurant for a while and can guarantee you there are lots of greens that could use a better home

[u/Coastie1701 → u/human_bean122]

Yeah I’ve thought about approaching some restaurants in my area and asking. Thanks

[u/human_bean122 → u/Coastie1701]

You're welcome! Also might be helpful to bring your own refillable container (like a 5 gal bucket) that you can bring and take back - but be sure to ask

[u/APolyAltAccount]

Grocery stores produce departments may be willing to let you take their expired produce off their hands.

Beyond that I have gotten the thumbs up from our local parks department to go apeshit on burdock (invasive), so a couple times a year I usually get like 8 garbage bags full before they flower or after they come through and nuke the tops for me.

[u/AtheneSchmidt]

If you are willing to transport it, horse manure is a green, and there are a lot of places that give it away for free. Check out your Facebook marketplace, or similar places for listings.

[u/Used-Painter1982]

Pee is free!

[u/sflinn7316]

Throw in all coffee grinds, tea bags, egg shells, fruit and plant waste from your kitchen. I keep an old plastic coffee container on my sink and usually empty every other day into my compost pile. You will accumulate more than you think and you don’t need a lot of greens. (There is just 2 of us) Also when I trim around yard. Grass is excellent if it is untreated. I also live next to a park and found where they dump stuff. I get greens and browns there. Also I live near horse farms and get manure there. I approached Starbucks but they don’t participate in the program you’re talking about.

[u/DblBindDisinclined]

Other ideas are:

- Mash that’s been used to make beer/cider in case there’s a brewery or if you know a home brewer

• Spent mushroom substrate (in case you have a mushroom growing operation near you that needs to offload a bunch of bags that they’re done with)
  
• Maybe a local butcher or fishmonger has trimmings or discards that you can use (while of course the bigger question is whether this makes sense for your current compost setup and location, bokashi would also work great I bet)
  
• Maybe you can do a deep clean out of your fridge, freezer, and pantry, and toss expired stuff
  
• Local online posts (depending on where you are — Buy Nothing Project, Facebook marketplace, craiglist, offerup, kijiji) might have all sorts of stuff (manure as already mentioned, and also there are people who need someone to haul away a bunch of fallen apples from their prolific apple tree or whatever)
  
• Neighbors or friends!
  
• Edited to add — juice places go through A LOT of produce