Composter

A composter is a block that converts some biological material into bone meal. It also serves as a farmer villager's job site block.

Obtaining[]

Composters can be broken using any tool, though an axe is the fastest. The composter does not retain the compost inside; instead, it drops empty.

Block	Composter
Hardness	0.6
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default	0.9
Wooden	0.45
Stone	0.25
Iron	0.15
Diamond	0.15
Netherite	0.1
Golden	0.1

Crafting[]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any wood Slab

Natural generation[]

Composters generate in village farms.

Usage[]

Composters can be used to recycle food and plant items (excluding bamboo^[1], poisonous potatoes^[2], dead bushes^[3], meat, and fish) into bone meal. To do so, the player must use any of a selection of items on the composter. When an adjacent comparator is facing away from the composter, a comparator signal strength of up to 8 is emitted depending on the fullness of the block. Composters appear to have an empty interior. As such, entities can enter and exit a composter through the top, but not the sides or bottom. The composter has a "floor", whose height depends on the fullness. When the composter is completely empty, this floor is slightly above the block below, and when it is completely full, there is a slight dip on top. When the composter’s fullness increases, any entities inside are pushed up accordingly‌.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Composting[]

The composter can be filled with compost, which is done by adding compostable items to it. When successfully adding an item, a green particle () appears. The table below lists supported items, which have different levels of compost-ability. The higher the percentage of an item, the more likely it is for it to add another layer of compost. Each layer of compost has a podzol-like appearance. When the composter reaches the 7th layer of compost, the compost changes appearance indicating that bone meal can be collected by using the composter a final time.

The following table shows the items that can be used in a composter, the percent chance for an item to add a level of compost, and the average number of items needed to fill a composter. Smaller pieces (individual pieces of wheat, melon slices, etc.) produce more compost than the blocks or other items that can be made from them. The exception is cookies, because each recipe produces 8 cookies, and together those give more than 3 times the compost.

Composting chance (per item)
30%	50%	65%	85%	100%
Items
Beetroot Seeds Dried Kelp Glow Berries Grass Grass Block‌[BE only] Hanging Roots Mangrove Roots Kelp Leaves Melon Seeds Moss Carpet Pink Petals Pitcher Pod Pumpkin Seeds Saplings Seagrass Small Dripleaf Sweet Berries Torchflower Seeds Wheat Seeds	Cactus Dried Kelp Block Flowering Azalea Leaves Glow Lichen Melon Slice Nether Sprouts Sugar Cane Tall Grass Twisting Vines Vines Weeping Vines	Apple Azalea Beetroot Big Dripleaf Carrot Cocoa Beans Ferns Flowers Fungus Lily Pad Melon Moss Block Mushrooms Mushroom Stem Nether Wart Potato Pumpkins Roots Sea Pickle Shroomlight Spore Blossom Wheat	Baked Potato Bread Cookie Flowering Azalea Hay Bale Mushroom Blocks Nether Wart Block Pitcher Plant Torchflower Warped Wart Block	Cake Pumpkin Pie
Average items to complete compost
23.33	14.00	10.77	8.24	7.00
Average compost yield (per stack)
2.74	4.57	5.94	7.77	9.14

Changing profession[]

If a village has a composter that has not been claimed by a villager, any resident villager who has not already chosen a job site block has a chance to change their profession to farmer.

Redstone component[]

A composter can act as a power source for a redstone comparator. With a composter behind it (either directly, or separated by an unpowered solid block), a comparator outputs a signal strength between 0 and 8, proportional to how full the composter is: 0 for empty, 1 for ¹⁄₇ full, 2 for ²⁄₇ full, and so on to 6. 7 is for completely full but the bone meal is not ready to collect, and 8 for completely full and the bone meal is ready to collect. However, if there is a block between the composter and comparator, the comparator does not immediately update.

Hoppers[]

Composters can interact with hoppers. A hopper directly below a composter pulls bone meal from it. A hopper or dropper facing downward directly above a composter pushes items into it. See Hopper § Redstone component for more details.

Hoppers cannot interact with the sides of a composter.

Fuel[]

A composter can be used as fuel in a furnace to smelt 1.5 items.

Note Blocks[]

Composters can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass" sounds.

Sounds[]

Generic[]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.wood.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.wood.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.wood.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	None[sound 1]	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.wood.fall	None[sound 1]	0.5	0.75	16
	Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.wood.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.wood	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	dig.wood	1.0	0.8
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.wood	0.23	0.5
	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.wood	0.4	1.0
	Players	Walking on the block	step.wood	0.3	1.0
	Players	Jumping from the block	jump.wood	0.12	1.0
	Players	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.wood	0.18	1.0

Unique[]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Composter empties	Blocks	When a composter is emptied	block.composter.empty	subtitles.block.composter.empty	1.0	1.0	16
	Composter filled	Blocks	When adding to a composter	block.composter.fill	subtitles.block.composter.fill	0.3	0.8	16
	Composter filled	Blocks	When successfully adding to a composter	block.composter.fill_success	subtitles.block.composter.fill	1.0	1.0	16
	Composter composts	Blocks	When composting completes	block.composter.ready	subtitles.block.composter.ready	1.0	1.0	16
	Farmer works	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while a farmer is working	entity.villager.work_farmer	subtitles.entity.villager.work_farmer	1.0	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	When a composter is emptied	block.composter.empty	1.0	1.0
	Blocks	When adding to a composter	block.composter.fill	1.3	0.8
	Blocks	When adding to a composter [sound 1]	item.bone_meal.use	1.0	0.9-1.1
	Blocks	When successfully adding to a composter	block.composter.fill_success	1.3	1.0
	Blocks	When composting completes	block.composter.ready	1.0	1.0
	Blocks	Randomly while a farmer is working	block.composter.fill	1.3	0.8

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Composter	composter	Block & Item	block.minecraft.composter

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Composter	composter	468	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.composter.name

Block states[]

Composter with different compost levels

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Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
level	0	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	When at level 8, bone meal is able to be collected from the composter.

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
composter_fill_level	0x1 0x2 0x4 0x8	0	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	When at level 8, bone meal is able to be collected from the composter.

History[]

Java Edition
1.14		19w03a			Added composters.
					Composter blocks are found in the Miscellaneous tab in the Creative inventory.[4]
					The crafting recipe of composters is 4 fences and 3 planks. Recipe
		19w03b			All mushroom blocks can now be used in composters.
		19w04a			Composters now spawn in village farms.
		19w05a			The chances of composters have been changed from 10/20/50/80/100% to 30/50/65/85/100%.
		19w11a			Composters now serve as farmer villagers' job site block.
1.15		19w45a			The crafting recipe of composters has been changed to match Bedrock Edition. Recipe
1.16		20w06a			Moved composter blocks to the Decoration Blocks tab from the Miscellaneous tab in the Creative inventory.[4]
		20w15a			Weeping vines, twisting vines, roots, nether sprouts, fungi, nether wart, nether wart blocks, and warped wart blocks can now be composted.
		pre3			Shroomlights can now be composted.[5]
1.17		21w05a			Azalea, dripleaves, hanging roots, glow berries, moss blocks, moss carpets and spore blossoms can now be composted.
		21w11a			Glow lichen can now be composted.
1.19		22w11a			Mangrove propagule can now be composted.
		22w12a			Mangrove leaves can now be composted.[6]
		22w15a			Mangrove roots can now be composted.[7]
1.20 (Experimental)		23w07a			Torchflowers, torchflower seeds, and pink petals can now be composted.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Added composters.
					Composters are currently available only through Experimental Gameplay.
					The crafting recipe of composters is 7 wooden slabs. Recipe
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Added functionality like in Java Edition.
					Added level 8 "content ready" state.
					Changed models of level 0-7.
		beta 1.11.0.3			Composters now support hopper placement.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Weeping vines, twisting vines, roots, nether sprouts, fungi, nether wart, nether wart blocks, and warped wart blocks can now be composted.
1.16.100		beta 1.16.100.55			Shroomlight can now be composted.
1.16.220		beta 1.16.220.52			Azalea, dripleaves, glow berries, moss blocks, moss carpet and spore blossoms can now be composted.
1.17.0		beta 1.16.230.50			Hanging roots and glow lichen can now be composted.
		beta 1.16.230.54			Small dripleaf can now be composted.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.91					Added composters.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Composter" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

• The compost texture is based on the podzol texture.
• If planting crops specifically for composting, potatoes produce somewhat more than beets, carrots, or wheat. However, melons offer nearly the same yield per field space, and do not require replanting after harvest.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

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  A composter generated in a village

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  A full and partially filled composter in a farm

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  An official screenshot of a composter used on Minecraft.net.^[8]

Renders[]

Java Edition

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Bedrock Edition

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References[]

External Links[]

• Block of the Week: Composter – Minecraft.net on March 23, 2023