Are Pencil Shavings Compostable?

Between old term papers, broken crayons, dried-up markers, and half-full notebooks, schools generate a ton of waste.

But there’s one schoolhouse scrap you can easily keep out of the trash and put to good, immediate use. Pencil shavings—which are actually really beneficial in the garden [1].

You can either mix them into the compost bin or work them into the soil around plants to help keep bugs and other pests away. Because pencils are made from cedar [2]—a wood that insects hate—pests tend to avoid flowerbeds peppered with pencil shavings like the plague [3]. Less waste, with fewer pests? Seems like a no-brainer to us.

Photo credit: Thrive Market