Are there brands or varieties of bagged compost that do not contain plastic waste, such as small pieces of plastic bags?
In recent years the bagged compost I’ve got at garden centers and such contains pieces of plastic, that look like they are pieces of plastic bags such as the plastic bags one gets a stores for carrying things in and that people put in their organic waste for the city. I think the free compost from the city has the some problem.
I want compost, but I don’t want to put plastic pollution in my garden. Does that option exist?
Hello:
Yes, plastic gets in the compost because people use plastic bags to hold their organics waste, instead of just using bags as liners for their organics bin. If you’re raking leaves in the fall, even though you might be putting them in paper bags, there can still be some bits of plastic that have blown in. Dump sites do their best to remove the plastic but they can’t get it all. You can pick more of the plastic bits from your compost yourself. Small bits of plastic will do no harm, they just look unsightly. There may be less plastic in the compost if you buy it from a company that is focused on making compost rather than the dump where compost is a sideline. Possibly high end compost bought in bulk, not in bags, will have less plastic. I do not know of any brands of bagged compost that are guaranteed to be plastic free. That said, I buy composted manure in bags from the grocery store and I’ve never really noticed any plastic. Maybe you’ve had bad luck with your compost.