Whenever I throw out all my fruit/ veggie scraps I feel a bit guilty since it could actually be doing something positive instead of filling up my garbage can. Can anyone suggest some books/ websites that would be good for a beginner?

Any good tips?

For a beginner? Just take the veggie waste & start putting it in a pile in a shady corner of your garden, where you don't mind things being a little messy. You could get a compost bin or some chicken wire to make things tidier. But even if you just dump everything in one place (including garden waste like leaves and chipped branches), it'll eventually rot - rot happens! :) About 2 years and you'll get nice rich compost even if you do NOTHING to your compost heap. If you water it and turn it you'll get compost a lot faster (6 months or less). But I'm generally too lazy to do all that.

have a covered and bottomed bin (to keep varmints out....yuck!)

Then layer stuff you put in.....leaves, branch pieces (brown waste)
grass and similar items (green waste

Always use a shovel or something to lift the top layer of whatever is in the bin and put the produce waste in the bin and make sure they are then covered by either brown or green waste (faster, less stinky composting)

A simple to make bin would be a plastic garbage can with holes drilled on the sides and top for air circulation.

Occasionally dump the contents and re layer them for faster compost.

also through dirt in occasionally and if a neighbor has pet rabbits.....ooooohh baby that is the ultimate.....putting rabbit droppings in.

LOL

Thanks for the info. It doesn't sound as hard as I thought it would be.

Is there anything I should *not* throw in there? Like, if I throw in an apple core, should I take out the seeds first?

Avoid anything with meat or dairy, or diseased plant material (ie if your tomatoes get "wilt" don't put those in the compost 'cause it could spread the disease to your next batch of tomato plants). Meat & dairy attract rodents, from what I understand. Seeds are fine, altho it's possible they'll sprout when you use the compost - but if you run a "hot" compost I think that is supposed to make the seeds sterile. (meaning that you do the compost the non-lazy way :) ) I remember digging cow manure into my garden one fall, and in the spring I got tons of weeds - more so than usual. I always used composted manure after that, and had no excess weed trouble.

Welcome to the world of composting! Our motto? "Let it ROT!" :)