When you prepare your compost, it’s an excellent idea to add organic matter to have active benefits for your plants. With that in mind, you need to be very selective, as sometimes you may end up adding stuff that might not be suitable for your compost. This begs the question, can you put rice in compost? Let’s find out.
Should You Put Rice in Compost?
We recommend that you do not put rice in your compost pile. If you’re a beginner, composting rice can be very tricky and is not worth the risk. While you can technically do it, you should only pursue it if you are an experienced composter.
Rice, like other grains, is made of long chains that the microbes can’t break down in your compost piles. These chains will take a lot more time to break down than, say, vegetable scraps or coffee filters, which means it’ll take much longer for your compost to finish its composting process.
Rice is an organic matter, and it will break down in a closed compost bin. That happens no matter if it’s cooked or uncooked rice.
With that in mind, this is not a simple thing to do. Composting both cooked and uncooked rice at home may attract rodents and pests, and cooked rice can also bring in harmful bacteria and bad smells.
Uncooked Rice
Can uncooked rice be added to your compost pile? Yes, technically, you can add uncooked rice (or raw rice) to a compost heap. But as we mentioned above, we do not recommend you compost uncooked rice as it can attract rodents, rats, insects, and many other pests.
Composting uncooked rice can can be large problem for the urban composter that prepares their compost close to their home. This is especially true if you already have some rodent problems. Stuff like this can only make things worse. So take this into consideration.
Cooked Rice
When people think to compost cooked rice, the idea is that it has already been cooked, so it will decompose faster. However, it will instead start breeding bacteria.
Composting cooked rice can also attract a variety of unwanted visitors to the pile. Adding oil or sauce to the pile will certainly make things worse.
Sure, pests might not always be a deal-breaker. However, bacteria-related issues are something that you need to take into consideration.
Why You Shouldn’t Compost Rice
- Rice takes a long time to break down, which means it’ll take much longer until you have finished compost.
- Rice grains may attract pests and unwanted animals (e.g., rats, insects, etc.) to your backyard.
- You can only do so much at a time before it gets overwhelming, and you may have larger chunks of unmixed food in there that will decompose slower.
- Rice (both white rice and brown rice) can cause bacteria-related issues.
- Rice will likely make your bin very smelly.
Conclusion
So, can you put rice in compost?
Composting rice is not impossible, but it comes with some risks. If you are an experienced composter, then go for it! If you know what you’re doing, you can put that leftover rice to use (especially if you have a hot compost pile).
But if you are still learning the ropes, then we recommend you stick to more simple materials.
Instead, opt for other compostable materials like paper, kitchen waste, food scraps, etc. These materials are easier to manage and will give you healthy compost for your garden soil.
If you’ve accidentally added a tiny bit of rice to your compost, you’ll be fine. A small amount of rice won’t ruin your compost entirely.
Good luck!