Every backyard composting guide ends with the same short list of don'ts: no meat, no dairy, no bones, no oily stuff. That list exists because a home pile can't get hot enough to break those materials down safely. A commercial facility can.
Goes in a commercial bin
- Meat, fish, poultry, bones, and seafood scraps
- Dairy — cheese, butter, yogurt, milk-soaked anything
- Greasy or food-soiled paper: napkins, pizza boxes, paper towels, parchment
- Coffee grounds, filters, tea bags (string and tag removed)
- Produce trim, plate scrapings, expired prepped food
- BPI-certified compostable packaging, cups, utensils, and liners
Still keep out
- Conventional plastic, glass, metal, foil
- Produce stickers (PLU labels)
- Latex or nitrile gloves
- “Biodegradable” items without BPI certification — those are not the same thing as compostable
The wider input list is the practical reason commercial composting exists. It lets a real kitchen put almost everything off the cutting board and off the plate into one stream — which is what makes staff training stick and what makes the diversion numbers actually move.
