Lint in compost - ?

[countrygrrrl]

Can I put lint from the dryer in my compost? I seem to recall reading that it's okay to do that, but can't find the reference. Anyone know?

[Jan Doling]

If it is not okay, run it through the firepit first, then put the ashed in the compost. I use my lint stuffed inside empty cardboard toilet paper tubes to start the fires.

[BlueRidge]

Depends on the lint. What kind of clothes created the lint? Whatever the clothes are made of, the lint is made of.

Synthetics? You are putting plastic in your compost. Probably won't hurt, but is that really what you want in your garden?


Cotton, wool, other natural fibers? Sure! Good stuff!

[moopups]

Clothing is treated with pesticides, fireproofing chemicals, and manufacturing oils. Chemical sensitive people have to wash and detox their clothing because of it before they can wear them. I would think that some saturated chemicals would remain and be removed in the dryer's heat cycle.

[countrygrrrl]

Hmmm. Not sounding too good. Okay, well ... so much for that bright idea!

[Jenn]

I compost it but my clothes are almost all natural fiber, and few new clothes so not much 'treatment' chemicals in the lint of 30-100 times washed clothes.

[Thumper/inOkla.]

The amount of lint you produce wouldn't matter, even if it was contaminated an active compost bin is one of the BEST ways to safely deal with such toxins, the microbes and natural chemical action can bind the toxins in a way that they are not absorbed by plants. It can stablize the molicules in large enought size that they remain inert there after.

It is possible the lint will last a long time before it disappears, but I just toss it back into the next bin. I sift with a large screen and any thing that didn't finish into soil is tossed back for another round.

There are so many things way more toxic than dryer lint.

[countrygrrrl]

Hmmm. (readjusting thinking cap )

Okay, that makes sense, Thumper. Truth is, I don't get that much lint. I only use the dryer when it gets cool-cold out. But it seems like such a shame to waste that stuff.

I'd give it to the birds, but they're all already nesting in every available nook and cranny in this place. And I don't do fire. You don't want to know.

So thanks, Thumper!