How to Compost Old Cotton T-Shirts

The average american throws away more than 64 garments a year into a landfill. With this quick, easy tutorial, I'll show you how to turn stained and ripped natural fabric clothing that can't be donated into beautiful compost for your plants and yard in a few minutes with a little time and a pair of scissors. This is a great way to treat both yourself and the environment great! Happy gardening.

This quick 6 step tutorial will teach you how to turn cotton and natural fabric clothing with rips and stains in it into beautiful compost for your garden to hold in moisture and make your plants grow. To start you will need:

1) Old or ripped clothing you want to turn into fabric scraps

2) Scissors

3) Potting Soil Mix

4) Garden Container

5) Pants You Want to Plant

6) Water

Take your t-shirt or pants and remove any metal or non-natural fabric parts like buttons, zippers, or snaps that are not biodegradable. Cut the remaining garment into long strips about 2 inches wide.

Stack the strips you just cut into 4-8 thick and cut them into smaller 2-3 inch squares. This does not need to be an exact science. Just have fun cutting. The cotton will help retain moisture in the soil keep the plants from drying out.

Collect your small squares of natural fabric and mix them with your potting soil, 2 parts soil to 1 part fabric. I can generally get several women's t-shirts in a larger container this size pictured. But you can just save up the scraps like compost that doesn't smell and add it to your garden when your bucket gets full like we do.

After mixing the fabric and soil, add your plants. I then normally add a layer of potting soil on top so I can press the plants firmly into the soil to make sure the plants have good contact with the surrounding mixture.

The last step is to add water to help your plants grow. That's it. Now you too can turn old fabric into beautiful flowers for your garden. Happy fall.