This weekend Jody aggressively brushed out our older dog who has been shedding like mad lately. The pile grew larger and larger as he added more and more to it, and I joked that we had enough to make another dog. When he and the dog had had all of the fun they could stand, he looked a little surprised when I told him to knit a sweater throw it all into the composter. I admit I was going out on a limb, but it seemed like a good idea. After all, it’s organic material, surely it couldn’t be bad for the compost heap, right?
I did a little research today to find out that pet hair is acceptable material for the composting, but I probably should have had him break it up into smaller bits. From Organic Gardening, “Human and pet hair can be added in small amounts, if you keep in mind that it breaks down slowly, mats easily, and sheds water.” Oops. Looks like I may be sifting through the pile to remove some of the dog, I mean hair, to add back into the mix at a later date.
Wondering what else can go into your composter? How about shredded newspaper and junk mail? Here are 163 Things You Can Compost (and still counting!).
Have any green tips you’ve recently learned? Please email them to me and I may include your tip with a link to your site or blog in a future post. :)
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Pet Insurance » Blog Archive » Green Tip of the Week #23 - Composting pet hair and other oddities says:
[...] amygeekgrl has a reputation for providing reliable and awe-inspiring information. Check out the latest post on Green Tip of the Week #23 – Composting pet hair and other oddities that may be of interest. Below summarizes what was written: [...]
July 9th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Renee says:
Great post! We too do a lot of compost!!! but in a old bath tub LOL!!!! it’s in the back of our garage and it does work wonderfully for us!
we put everything biodegradable to organic stuff (even plastic grocery bag from the convinience store across the street – they are made to be composted!!!!!)
My husband have a small pizza shop and we use sugar cane plate (100% compostable!!!!) we do recycle pizza boxe so client could bring them back and we will put their pizza in the boxe that they brough
So we try to do all kind of little thing to stay green!
July 9th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Dawn @ My Home Sweet Home says:
What I want to know is this: Is there really a book called Knitting with Pet Hair?
July 9th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Nicole says:
I still have dog hair in my compost bin (and thus garden) from 8 years ago. I probably should have added it more slowly, but I’m not sure it’s possible to add it slowly enough. Hope you have better luck!
July 9th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Cat says:
Cool, something else to compost!
July 9th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Penny says:
I put my own hair in there too.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Rebecca says:
If I had a dog, you pet it’s hair would be composted.
I use our junk mail to make paper.It’s very cathartic.
July 10th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Lisa Sharp says:
Ever need more hair my Great Pyrenees would be happy to help.
Also I have a green giveaway on my blog right now.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
tanya@motherwearblog says:
Thanks for the link to that list of things we can compost. I was just wondering about the “old maid” popcorn kernels the other day!
And while I forgot to sign up for your shower challenge, I did order one of those timers, and the whole family is using it now. :) Ever since we moved away from the West Coast my water conservation reflex has weakened (know that saying, ‘In the East they take water for granted, in the West they take water from each other?’), so this is a great reminder.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Tara says:
THANK YOU for the link! I will be checking it out and taking notes!
July 10th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
CondoBlues says:
I compost my dog’s hair all of the time and don’t have a problem with it breaking down in my composter. I have a double coated rescue dog that was beaten when he was groomed (and given his long double coat that should have constant brushing, I’m sure this was very often.) While working with my dog to overcome his fear of brushing, I had to do very short grooming sessions with him that yielded about a softball sized wad of hair before the dog would start to stress out and we’d have to stop brushing for the day. If you keep the hair clumps that size or less they will break down in your composter without a problem.
PS: After years of positive reinforcement training my dog no longer fears the hairbrush. In fact, he gets very happy excited upon hearing the world “brush” because it’s an opportunity for him to earn treats for good behavior.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Kim says:
Another way to reuse/recycle animal hair is to hang it up in some kind of holder in a tree somewhere or leave tucked away in the garden for birds to come and use for their nests!
July 13th, 2008 at 6:10 am
One Mom says:
Have never tried composting hair (pet or human) but I do use it my my garden around those plants that our wildlife love to nibble, especially in the spring around tulips. The human scent is supposed to deter the foragers.
July 13th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Michelle says:
Today when I picked up my daughter from horse camp, I grabbed a few shovel-fulls of shavings and horse poop…Perfect for getting things moving in the compost heap! A wonderful mix of carbons and nitrogens to heat things up a bit.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
My Natural Furniture » Blog Archive » Green Blog Tour says:
[...] is more on the topic from Eco-Chick.Can you compost your pet’s hair? Crunchy Domestic Goddess does a little investigation into this. And the answer is yes, but [...]
October 27th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Groomer T says:
Any suggestions on what to do if you have huge amounts of dog hair? I groom 5 days a week-about 15 dogs!!
August 5th, 2009 at 3:06 pm