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Fri, Feb 3, 12 at 13:45
| Ok I'm a newbie to composting. I know vegetable remains can be composted. But can you put moldy vegetables, moldy bread/other food on a compost pile. I'm getting ready to clean out my fridge and trying to see what can and cannot go on a compost pile. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Mold is good, that's much of what composting is. For some, bread is debatable. For most, animal products are to be avoided. That's refrigerator composting 101. Boy are you opening up the proverbial can of worms with this question, and inevitably someone is going to tell you to search the forums, so it might as well be me. |
Here is a link that might be useful: start here
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- Posted by nico_girl3 none (My Page) on Fri, Feb 3, 12 at 15:38
| I'll try the bread, if it doesn't compost then the birds will probably eat it, heck they may just eat it anyways. Thanks for your info. |
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| Putting food like bread, vegetables, meat, and oily stuff outside in your compost pile might very well invite squirrels, rabbits, rats, mice, possums, and other uninvited guests. |
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- Posted by nancyjane_gardener USDA 8ish No CA (My Page) on Fri, Feb 3, 12 at 21:49
| I usually put my moldy stuff into the "green bag", junk that needs to go into the compost, but has to be buried.That bag goes into the freezer until composting time. My other green bag is meat scraps and stuff you DON'T want in the compost. Some goes out to the critters, and the rest of that goes into the green bag that goes into our neighbor's trash (shhhhhhhh, they don't know!) or to the dump if it's dump season! (only about every 3-4 months) We recycle, reuse, compost just about everything and only need to go to the dump about 3x per year. |
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| billme, can of worms, that is a good one on the compost forum.LOL Compost leaves,sawdust,garden residues,weeds,grass clippings,nut shells,coffee & tea wastes,manures. |
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| Perhaps this tutorial on composting might be of some help. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Online Composting tutorial
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| "....and the rest of that goes into the green bag that goes into our neighbor's trash (shhhhhhhh, they don't know!)" Mum's the word; I won't tell your neighbors. NancyJane_Gardener is so right that you can bury some items deep inside the compost pile. Stu Campbell, author of "Let It Rot!" writes: "Chicken bones or fish bones...are ground up fine and placed deep in the pile together with the other garbage. I am sure that if kitchen wastes were just thrown on top of the heap without being covered with a thick layer of hay, our dog would smell it and be far more interested." Stu Campbell doesn't have any rats in his neighborhood, but he does have to contend with racoons, so burying some stuff in the heap must be useful against racoons too. |
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| I am very much in the camp that believes all organic matter can and should be composted, including animal matter and human waste, but it is important to have a system that accommodates the use to which the end product is put and the environment where the composting takes place. There are many examples of the use of human waste products in food production, but there are inherent risks involved, and not a small amount of squeamishness, that make many people think twice about adopting the practice. Adding animal products or fats to compost can create unintended or unwanted results, but in general it is a more effective way of redistributing organic material and nutrients back into the ecosystem than, for instance, landfills. Composting might best be described as a form of digestion, and as such any addition that some life form is able to consume and utilize could arguably be beneficial to include; it is primarily a matter of individual circumstance what is appropriate or not. |
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- Posted by nancyjane_gardener USDA 8ish No CA (My Page) on Wed, Feb 8, 12 at 21:45
| Zoysa and Bill, Yes I do compost chicken bones and stuff from time to time, BUT We are 2 people and don't really produce enough stuff to make a compost system big enough to compost "everything compostable" We have our bullet tumbler (that cost us $5 7-8 years ago and has been VERY good to us!), and one plastic composter (on ground)for branches or things I don't want in the regular composter (such as morning glory or nasturtiums that will take over the garden)That stuff goes out to a pile in the field never to be sen again (until the morning glory from hell finds us!) All from the tumbler after getting a couple of weeks getting tumbled and leaves incorporated, get dumped into another commercial bin to finish or adorn a resting bed. I guess this could be added to the "I hate tumblers" thread! I think we do pretty well for what we have! Nancy |
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| Many people, when they actually look, are quite surprised at the amount of waste 1 or 2 people can generate. We are so used to the "out of sight, out of mind" thing that most people really have no idea how much waste they do produce. |
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