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Yet another stupid question
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Posted by eyesofthewolf 8b (My Page) on Mon, Jan 18, 10 at 19:58
| I know not to compost animal fat or byproducts but say I fry some catfish and have about a pint of left over olive oil or canola oil. Many years ago I would just put it in a lamp and have light with leftover oils,( maybe a bit of a smell):o) But can you dump them in the compost? They are purely derived from plants or maybe this slows down the microbacteria? Thanks for the replys in advance. :o)Deanna |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| from what i've read small amounts is not a problem. it would probably be safer in a hot pile. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| Can I offer a stupid answer from a position of total ignoraance? Bearing in mind I have never fried a catfish, nor yet even seen one, here's a thought. Maybe you could use less oil in the first place? If you have a pint left over I assume you are deep frying. Could you shallow fry? The 3 Rs start with REDUCE. It would also be better for your health. Second thought is that if you do use that much oil maybe you could filter it for REUSE. Only as a last resort comes RECYCLE in which case I don't think a pint of oil would hurt a compost heap if it was an infrequent addition. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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- Posted by pt03 3 Southern Manitoba (My Page) on
Tue, Jan 19, 10 at 7:00
| I've never used cooking oil in a pile but I wouldn't hesitate to throw a pint in a cubic yard sized pile. Might slow it up a bit depending on temperatures. I've had hot compost clean residual diesel fuel out of the multi tumblers. Lloyd |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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Once again there is no stupid question except the one that is not asked. Asking questions is how we learn.
O;ive and Cannola oils are fats, even though the are derived from vegetables. In small quantities fats are not very disruptive of the composting process and can be added in those small quantities and not very often. What makes a small quantity depends, a pint of oil in a 50 gallon compost bin is quite a lot while that same quantity in a 4 x 4 x 4 bin is not very much. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| Deep frying not the same as deep frying, in terms of results. Because of the temperature of the oil and the relative fastness of the process, less oil is absorbed in deep frying than in pan frying. The oil used to fry fish can be used promptly to fry more fish, but you wouldn't want to use it for anything else, even if carefully filtered. Heated oil goes rancid very quickly, so saving it for several days is not an option. I'd never use left over frying oil in the compost pile. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| I'd be likelier to add it to the pets' food. Olive oil is just too good to feed to microbes. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| Thanks for taking the time to post, I don`t fry very often maybe once every 3 or 4 months and most likley have a cup left over, I can`t give it to pets as they are already to fat. I just hated throwing it away. I guess I will treat it like the food pyramid on the bread wrappers lol. Thanks folks :o) Deanna |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| It's not an OG solution -- but I put used cooking oils into newspapers, which are then used to start the fireplace. In the summer it goes in the trash. I don't want the little creatures in my compost pile to gag on that oil. [ all together now: OOOOOH] |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| If it does no good to the compost piles - why do it? We pour all used cooking oil in glass jars w/tight fitting lids, stored in the freezer until full, then dispose on trash day. Doesn't make a mess this way, or clog the drains and makes good use of left-over pickle + sauce jars. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| I have trench composted cooking oil for years. I mean like a half gallon out of the fryer at one time. The worms love it and I don't remember any critter problems, smell problems or dig ups. Of course I do have room to do that out here. As far as fats in the compost, kimmsr has a good solution. Curt :<) |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| Hi Deanna..I agree with kimmsr and Curt.. I have trench composted as much as six gallons of used oil at the time with only good results. I also frequently add a pint or a little more to my compost and have noticed no harmful results. I hate to see anything go to the land fill that could somehow be used. Good luck..Bill |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| I wouldn't say it does 'nothing' for the compost...it's all carbon, no nitrogen, so it's a brown. Just if you have way too much it can coat things and shut out the oxygen, slowing down the decomposition or potentially making things anaerobic. One other way to keep it out of the landfill is give it to someone making biodiesel or fry diesel. Where I live you can put it on Freecycle and have plenty of takers. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| I'm gonna piggy-back another question that may seem silly to some. What is FREECYCLE, and how does one find/use it? thanks |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| It's a Yahoo Group based thing for giving away things you don't want to keep them out of the trash. There are >2000 groups all over the country. www.freecycle.org |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| I would not hesitate to compost any oil that I have used for cooking. If I can eat it, so can my compost pile. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| "If it bleeds, we can kill it." - Schwarzenegger, *Predator* >> "If it was ever alive, you can compost it." - Compost wacko |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| For cooking, I use EVOO or organic canola - these are the healthiest vegetable oils. There is no way I am going to use cups at a time (except for making salad dressing) - they are much too expensive. When pan-frying I just dump the leftover oil on the compost or even in the woods. Or sop it up with used napkins or paper towels, or even brown paper shopping bags, and put in the compost bucket. I don't see any problem with composting cooking oils on a reasonable scale - obviously you wouldn't put a gallon of oil in a small compost bin. It doesn't go down the drain - even small amounts are terrible for drains and septic - and it doesn't go into the waste stream either. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| Sorry, archdiver, i don't think throwing glass jars in trash instead of recycling them is good for soil on our planet. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| Ok small amounts soaked up with paper or cardboard seems like a winner to me, I have composted avacado, the spoiled part which has alot of natural oils and it seems to decompose very nicely. Thanks for all the imput and ideas, now I need to go feed the worms. :o) Deanna |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| I can't imagine any feasible amount of vegetable oil that I wouldn't compost in my 4x4x4 piles. If you're worried about composting your household waste, you need a bigger pile. |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| Hmmmmmm...... If you wanted the back acre tilled, could you spray it with fishy oil and have all the stray dogs, raccoon, opossums and skunks dig it up for you? Just a thought... If you have ground-nesting yellow jackets and some skunks, you can pour some cheap (dollar store) syrup around and into the nests (do it about dusk) to attract the skunks. They like sweets, but they like to dig up yellow jackets even more. "Yummy! Sweet, spicy and a bit crunchy, all at once!" Sue |
RE: Yet another stupid question
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| annpat; I just looked up composting oils at Cornell. They said high fat content foods can be composted with added sugar to speed the composting up. They did dog food and cafeteria scraps from a school Seems like dogs and kids now days eat a high fat diet. Well any way the sugar (high carbon) was a great add to the mix. So do you add extra carbon to the mix for oils? Or just dump it in? Curt~ :-) |
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