Can I compost the stuff that my vacumm picks up. Mainly dog hair and dirt?




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On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 20:35:06 -0700, "Mogie"
wrote:

Can I compost the stuff that my vacumm picks up. Mainly dog hair and dirt?




I tried this years ago and it did not work for me. It turned out to
be a total mess, caused a sneezing fit, and the nylon carpet fibers do
not compost well. I put human hair directly into my shade garden to
help ward off the deer, and I believe it is working (my neighbor's
impatiens are all eaten and mine have not been touched.) Your vacuum
waste might work better than mine, particularly if there is no
nylon/polyester fibers in it.

Mogie wrote:

Can I compost the stuff that my vacumm picks up. Mainly dog hair and dirt?

Hair doesn't compost very well; put the vacuum bag in the trash.

Chris Owens


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On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:56:30 -0400, Chris Owens
wrote:

Hair doesn't compost very well; put the vacuum bag in the trash.

Really? A book I have says it is a good source of nitrogen.

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 03:15:25 GMT, Paul Below
wrote:

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:56:30 -0400, Chris Owens
wrote:

Hair doesn't compost very well; put the vacuum bag in the trash.

Really? A book I have says it is a good source of nitrogen.

Composting isn't rocket science. Stuff rots. There's plenty of
information on the web and elsewhere for hot, cold, organized, lazy,
fast and slow composting, as well as "recipes" for ingredients. Seems
to me this is pretty much a matter of individual choice. No matter
what 'ingredient' is mentioned, there will be 'for' and 'against'
opinions. There are those who dump *everything* into the pile or bin,
and those who use a recipe. All claim success. I wouldn't *think* of
throwing veg trimmings into the trash, but that's where the vacuum
cleaner dust goes. Satirical aside: many caution against composting
grass clippings that may have been contaminated by weed-killers, but
what about *hair* treatments? Bleach, dye, oil, gell, spray -- I'll
bet our hair is a lot more toxic than our grass. :-)

"Paul Below" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:56:30 -0400, Chris Owens
wrote:

Hair doesn't compost very well; put the vacuum bag in the trash.

Really? A book I have says it is a good source of nitrogen.


I agree with Chris that it doesn't compost very well, but I put it in my
piles. In my experience, hair composts better than egg shells (another
current topic). I've also read about it begin a good source of nitrogen. If
so, why is it slow to compost? Maybe one of the university composting sites
will have an answer. Cornell University is my favorite composting site for
learning the science of composting. E.g., lignin content explains why
newsprint composts poorly, but office paper composts very well. (Maybe also
because office paper, if written upon, contains more b.s.)

My approach is to try it and see what happens. That's much more fun than
treating composting like an exact science that needs a perfect formula.

Compostman
Washington, DC
Zone 7

Paul Below wrote:

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 02:56:30 -0400, Chris Owens
wrote:

Hair doesn't compost very well; put the vacuum bag in the trash.

Really? A book I have says it is a good source of nitrogen.

Well, yes, hair is mainly protein, which is, in turn, mainly
nitrogen. It's just that it takes hair a LONG time to break down
unless it's in a very harsh acid or alkaline environment . . . in
forensics, hair is often the only part of an exposed body that
will be recovered intact. So, you can put it in your compost;
but, it will hang around for quite some time.

Chris Owens




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"Compostman" wrote in
news
office paper composts very well. (Maybe also because office paper, if
written upon, contains more b.s.)

LMAO!