Use the needles as mulch, or leave them where they fall! People pay big bucks for "pine straw".

They compost nicely, but a bit slowly, by themselves if you keep them moist. Mixing them with grass clippings is one way to speed up the needles and keep the grass from going stinky.

Lots of advantages and the only disadvantage is they are very slow to decompose as mentioned already. No problem when used as mulch. In the compost bin you want to add lots of nitrogen (greens) to speed them up or you can find your pile sitting dormant for a year.

Dave.