Bread is an acceptable addition to your compost pile. It makes little sense to toss it in your regular trash when it could contribute to the plant quality and soil health in your backyard.
You can quicken the fermentation of bread and decomposition by mixing it with other elements that break down faster.
Keeping your compost pile ventilated and supplementing the mix with fresh compost should do the trick.
Can You Compost Moldy Bread?
Yes! Mold is a type of fungus, and although slower than bacteria, fungus breaks down materials just as effectively. Of course, there are ways to go about the composting bread to expedite things:
- Keep moldy bread items in a sealed container (try not to keep it around too long to prevent rooting into your container and spore activity in your kitchen)
- Place it on top of brown compost like sawdust, dead leaves, or shreds of paper
- Supplement with aged animal waste and garden soil
- Layer the moldy bread amid other green compost such as grass clippings and vegetable waste
- Aerate the pile once a week by turning it over
Or if you’re like me, toss it in your current pile, give it a good mix and then let the composting process work its magic. Bread is one of the easier materials to work with and it doesn’t long for it to disappear within your heap.
What Types of Bread Are Compostable?
All types of bread are compostable. Similar to composting eggshells, seaweed, grass clippings and sawdust, plain bread decomposes relatively quickly without nasty side effects like putrid odor or pest infestation.
It’s important to remember that sweetened breads like cake, pastry, doughnuts, and cupcakes are much more likely to attract insects and rodents. Having these pests around could degrade the effectiveness of your pile.
Among the various kinds of bread, there are differences in composition.
Grain kernels are a triad of bran, germ and endosperm:
- Bran is good for fiber
- Germ is for nutrients.
- The endosperm is the starchy element, and the only one that remains in white bread.
Whole grain bread and whole wheat bread contain all three in its kernels. Sprouted grains do so because of the moist and warm atmosphere in which they grow.
Why does any of this matter? Because the nutrients in sprouted grains are already partially broken down and ferment more rapidly when composted.
So there you have it, go ahead add bread to your list of safe things to compost.
