Basically, any natural organic material is suitable for composting. There are a few exceptions you might want to consider, though.
Any material out of the following list is suitable for composting:
Wood composts very slow if it is added as complete trunks, blocks or branches to a compost pile. It is better to turn it into wood chips by using a shredder of to take it to one of Columbia's mulching sites (see further information section for addresses).
There are few things from your kitchen you don't want to put into your compost:
any kind of meat or fish, because this material attracts rodents like rats.
Don't add bones to your compost. They don't attract animals, but they don't
compost and will show up in your garden.
Another material to avoid is old kitchen fat: it decomposes very slow and attracts
animals. Furthermore it covers your material in the compost with an oil film and
slows down the composting process.
If you compost old bread, cake, pizza or any other food that comes in rather
large pieces, just break it down into small pieces to make it fit into your
compost pile. This also speeds up the process of composting.
Composting paper should be avoided whenever possible. Recycling is always the better way to treat old paper. When you compost paper, don't add highly colored paper like catalogs to you compost. Simple cardboard, egg boxes and scratch paper work fine.
Some things are to be considered when you add material to your compost pile.
When you add yard clippings, ask yourself whether you recently used herbicides or
pesticides in your garden. The poisons in them last a very long time and may
poison your compost, and consecutively your garden when you use the compost.
The best thing would be not to use these substances and to use
mulch instead.
Diseased plant parts added to the pile might spread the disease with your compost.
Only a well-maintained, hot compost pile (see the compost recipe section) will kill the disease. If you don't want to take the
effort to maintain a hot pile, don't add these plants.
Weed seeds may survive composting if you add too many of them. If you have
seed-loaded weed, just put it in some corner of your garden, let the seeds fall
off and the plants dry in the sun. They can be added to the pile later.