Compostability – What can (or can't) be composted? GoZERO's Accepted & Prohibited Items

GoZERO prides itself on being a "broad spectrum" food waste to composting disposal service provider by offering a "broad spectrum" of acceptable items it can accept due to the larger scale and its more "disposal centric" approach. We're focused on getting food waste out of landfills not curating specific materials for a particular compost blend or bio-digestion process.

Backyard composting typically is best when only vegetative food waste is composted, and many composting service providers constrain what they accept due to limitations in their composting process or focus on producing a particular compost.

Download our general purpose compostable flyer.

Below are our long form acceptable and prohibited item lists.

These items CAN be composted and are ACCEPTABLE in GoZERO containers.

• Fruits & Vegetables (including woody pits and shells)
• Baked Goods & Pasta
• Beans & Nuts
• Egg & Egg Shells
• Dairy (..including up to 50% flowable liquids by volume per container. Please let us know if you think you may be disposing of large quantities of any flowable liquids.)
• Meat & Bones (uncooked and cooked)
• Seafood & Shellfish (uncooked and cooked)
• Sugars
• Fats (..including flowable food grade oils up to 50% by volume per container. Please let us know if you think you may be disposing of large quantities of any flowable liquids.)
• BPI Certified Compostable Plastic Packaging/Containers
• ASTM D6400 compliant materials 
• Paper & Paper Products ( Please make items are not coated with plastic and do not have plastic parts)
• Pizza Boxes (don't include any plastic parts)
• Paper Towels 
• Wax Paper (Please make sure it has a wax and not plastic coating.)
• Tea Bags, Coffee Filters & Egg Cartons (..so long as they are not made with petroleum based plastic bits or Styrofoam. Many are paper, cotton, and/or fiber based.)
• Animal Bedding & Waste (one unique exclusion is clay-based kitty litter.)
• Wood Waste & Yard Trimmings
• Chopsticks (wooden, bamboo, or other fiber-based)

These items CANNOT be composted and are PROHIBITED in GoZERO containers.

• Rock & Stone of any kind
• Glass & Glass Containers
• Metal of any kind
• Aluminum in any form (eg. foils, cans, etc)
• Styrofoam of any kind
• Saran of any kind
• Traditional Petroleum Based Plastics (eg: containers, coatings, films, etc.)
• Plastic Film Bags of any kind (eg. snack food bags, sandwich bags, grocery bags, etc)
• Cartons of any kind (eg milk cartons, juice cartons, etc. They have plastic coatings.)
• Clothing of any kind
• Nitrate & Rubber Gloves
• Healthcare & Hygiene Products of any kind
• Electronics

If you have any further questions – "When in doubt keep it out." However, very often, "If it grows it goes." Leave us a comment below or contact us with specific questions, or ideas on how to improve these lists.

Thanks for considering composting, and thank you for considering GoZERO!