What we accept

“Just because something can be composted, doesn’t mean it’s good for the soil.”
— The worms 🪱

We want to make the best quality compost possible! So that it can nourish the soil ecosystem and be used to grow organic, nutritious kai for the community.

Our composting staff manually sort through your food scraps by hand to remove potential contaminants from entering our soils and food systems. Even though they use gloves and wear masks, it is unpleasant, unhygienic and can cause diseases to spread.

Please help us look after Te Taiao by following these 5 steps:

  1. Read through the guide below

  2. Share with your workplace or household so that everyone is familiar with the do’s and don’ts

  3. Print this A4 guide to stick up next to your food scrap bucket

  4. Stop & think - would I want this item to be put in the soil for growing veggies?

  5. Keep contaminants out of the compost

Which tea bags do we accept?

It depends on the brand. Unfortunately, most teabags contain plastic, which is why we love loose-leaf tea leaves the most! As a general rule of thumb, tea bags tied at the top with a string (pictured) tend to be plastic-free and we are happy to compost these. On the other hand, square-shaped tea bags with flat edges are usually sealed with plastic threads, so please avoid these. Don't even bother with the 'premium' pyramid bags as these are 100% plastic!

Top 5 sources of contamination to watch out for

  1. Fruit stickers. We receive over 300 stickers every week! Particularly on mandarins, kiwis and bananas. This costs us time & money to remove by hand. Please remove them before adding to the compost bucket.

  2. Paper, napkins, kitchen towels, baking paper and cardboard. They do not benefit soil microbes or make good quality compost, and are often contaminated with chemicals. Better to recycle them! We add enough brown material to our compost already (woody mulch donated by arborists).

  3. Compostable packaging and cups do not fully break down in our composting system, are harmful to soil microbes and can leach chemicals into the soil (more info below).

  4. Hair, nail clippings or tooth floss are tapu and do not align with tikanga Māori - as bodily wastes should be keep separate from food (and soil used to grow food). They can also be a source of chemical contamination and are unhygienic for staff to handle.

  5. Meat, fish or dairy can attract pests and spread disease.

FAQs about whether we accept:

  • No. We ask that you don’t add paper or cardboard products including newspaper, kitchen towels, egg cartons, coffee filters etc.

    This is because paper based products can contain a multitude of contaminants, many of which can't be removed and accumulate once they enter the environment, including microplastics, PFAS, heavy metals and more. This is particularly an issue with recycled paper products: https://unwrappedproject.org/recycled-content-in-food-packaging-toxic-chemical-exposure

    Since our compost will be used to grow kai & we are unsure of the health impacts, we prefer to keep it out of the soil.

  • Kaicycle does not accept compostable single-use packaging/serviceware, including paper/cardboard/starch/wool-based products as well as bioplastic products. This includes coffee cups, takeaway containers, cutlery, food wrappers/bags, and wool insulation from food boxes/meal kits.

    This is for several reasons: 

    • It is often very difficult to tell the difference between home compostable, commercially compostable and non-compostable products, resulting in us receiving items (like conventional plastics) that we can’t compost (contamination);

    • Even if a product is certified as being home or commercially compostable, it may not break down well in our composting system, which is different to large industrial composting operations;

    • Compostable packaging is tricky for us to process and doesn’t add any value to our finished compost, and ultimately, our soil;

    • There is a lack of transparency about chemical additives in compostable packaging, and increasing evidence that many common packaging additives do not break down and may be harmful to soil, ecological and human health;

    • All single-use products have a high resource and emissions cost. We support choosing reusable over single-use products, which are more climate-friendly. 

  • Yes! We accept all citrus fruits like lemons and limes.

    The acidity of citrus fruits can be harmful to worms.

    However, because of the sheer volume of food scraps we collect each week (nearly a tonne!), our composting system gets hot enough (up to 70 degrees!) to break down the acids in citrus fruits in the early stages of composting.

    It’s too hot for worms and invertebrates at this stage, that tend to come out to play once the compost pile has cooled down. By that time, all the citrus fruit has degraded.

  • Yes! We accept avocado stones. They take a while to break down or often don’t break down at all but they provide a unique surface area and environment for microbes & invertebrates.

Get in touch if you’re unsure

Please feel welcome to email us if you have any queries :-)