Delos Plac — home composting | delosplac.com
Which household materials count as greens, which as browns, and where each sits around the 25:1 carbon-to-nitrogen target.
Green waste is the nitrogen-rich side of the mix: leaves, grass clippings and food scraps. Brown waste is the woody, carbon-rich side: stalks, paper and wood chips. Compost is the mixture of these ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve the soil's physical, chemical and biological properties.
The proportion between the two groups is what the pile responds to. Composting is most efficient with a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of about 25:1, and rapid composting is favoured by a ratio of about 30 carbon units or less; above 30 the substrate is nitrogen starved.
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In practice this means a pile built only of browns will sit cold and slow, while a pile built only of greens will mat, smell and starve for air. Alternate the layers and keep roughly two buckets of brown to one bucket of green by volume as a working check.
Shredding before layering helps both groups: it shortens the path to humus and gives the bacteria and fungi more surface area. Add water as each layer goes on so no section dries out before the next lands.
The table on the home page lists common household inputs against the 25:1 target. Use it as a standing reference when a scoop's identity is in doubt — judge by nitrogen or carbon content rather than by the name on the scraps.
Further reading