Tips for Composting Avocado Skin and Pits

If you’re an avid avocado eater or you just happen to whip up an extra-large batch of guacamole, you may find yourself with peels and pits piled up in the waste bin. Is there something you can do with all this? As a matter of fact, there is!

Related: Waste not, want not. Here’s how to store half of an avocado.

Can You Compost Avocado Pits and Skins?

Yes! You can compost avocado pits, avocado skins, and even unusable or brown avocado meat. However, avocado skins tend to be slow to decompose. To speed up the process, cut the peels into small squares with kitchen scissors before adding them to your composter. Avocado pits take even longer to break down — grind them up before adding them to your composter.

If you’ve had your composter for a while, take some of the rich soil it produces and fill your empty avocado skins. These biodegradable “pots” make great windowsill-sized homes for herb, veggie, and plant seedlings. When the seedling is ready to be transplanted to a garden bed or larger pot, you can bury the avocado skin right in the soil — voila! Built-in compost!

Other Avocado Recycling Tips

If you’re not composting, that’s OK: You can still reuse your avocado pits and skins in these other ways.

• Plant the seed in your garden and growing your very own avocado tree.
• Grab the kids for these creative avocado arts and crafts.
• When your dogs are barking, whip up this simple avocado foot scrub.
• Reuse avocado skins and pits to make a DIY pink fabric dye.

Before you can compost avocado pits and peels, or turn them into your next work of art, you need a delicious recipe to use up the green goodness inside! Dig into our avocado recipe archive for breakfast, lunch, and dinner inspiration.