Our city has a public compost program. We are required to deposit all food waste into a compost can. We therefore have a compost garbage basket in our house. Is it permissible to throw all items in there on shabbos- would throwing a seed into the garbage where it could potentially grow (although highly unlikely) be a melacha?
Answer:
It is permitted to throw food into the compost-garbage, even if it has seeds.
Sources:
The act of throwing something away is not an act of planting, but rather an act of throwing something away, without any intention of course of the seed sprouting.
Even if the seed will grow, this is therefore a davar she-eino mitkaven, something that is unintended, and because its growth is very far from definite, there is no prohibition involved.
This is not the same as washing one’s hands above a garden, because in that case there is a definite act of watering the garden (and thereby causing the grass or flowers to grow), and this is forbidden even when unintended.
Best wishes.
