can you compost dental floss?
No — standard floss is nylon or PTFE thread, and it comes through a pile intact to tangle in your soil and tools.
which bins can take it?
- hot pile no
- cold pile no
- worm bin no
- bokashi no
- tumbler no
- curbside no
- curbside: Floss is a classic screen contaminant at compost facilities — keep it out of the green cart.
why?
Waxed floss is nylon-6,6 or expanded PTFE, the same polymer family as nonstick pan coating, wrapped in microcrystalline wax. Neither strand is food for anything in a pile, and thread-thin plastic is the hardest contaminant to screen out afterward — it wraps around tiller tines and reappears in finished compost for years. A 2019 peer-reviewed study also linked frequent PTFE-floss use to higher blood levels of one PFAS compound.
watch out for
- Silk floss coated in beeswax or candelilla wax genuinely composts; the package will say 100% silk, and it won't have the slick glide of a PTFE tape.
what to do instead
Floss goes in the household trash. Floss picks are worse still — a plastic handle plus a nylon strand — and neither belongs in recycling, since thread and small plastics jam sorting equipment.
often confused with
- Silk floss — Natural silk floss sold in a refillable glass vial does compost; the drugstore roll beside it does not.
quick answers
Is silk dental floss actually compostable?
Yes. Silk is a protein fiber that soil organisms digest and the beeswax coating is a simple lipid, so expect a few months in an active pile. Skip it in a cold bin, where the thread will just sit there looking like litter.
Can floss go in the recycling bin?
No. Anything thread-like winds around the spinning discs at a materials recovery facility, which is why hoses, textiles, and floss all appear on the tangler lists recycling programs publish.