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Bones in the compost

AlbeAlbe Posts: 123
in Tools and techniques
I still don't get it.
Why are we supposed not to throw bones or whatever other animal leftover, in the compost?
Of course they need much longer than other stuff... but so what? I'd say still better they end up helping my veg to grow rather that I pay an ugly polluting expensive monster truck to carry them away...

I'll keep adding them to the compost, been doing it now for the last 15yr
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Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 25,260
    Rats or foxes.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • AlbeAlbe Posts: 123
    Neeee
    Rats eat everything, and especially grains. And I'm counting on them visiting the garden regularly anyway.

    Maybe it's that we don't eat much meat and our "animal leftover" is very little, so rats foxes whatever have never really been a problem...
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Hmmm. How long have you got? The previous owners of my daughter's house put in bones. Some of them must have been in that bin for years without the slightest sign of rotting down.
  • B3B3 Posts: 25,260
    Archaeologists would confirm that bones take quite some time to turn into compost.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FireFire Posts: 17,116
    edited April 2021
    It's not exactly that you are 'not supposed' to put things in the compost - it's more of a guideline. To reduce chances of pests you are advised to avoid cooked food, meat, fats etc. It may also reduce flies and smells. Keep everything vegetative matter and it makes things simpler. It works for me. Everything rots down and smells pretty pleasant all the way through the process - and ends up to something like sweet smelling crumbly chocolate cake. I happily rummage with bear hands through the bins at any point in the process.

    Pet faeces and meat carry a higher risk of pathogens in the compost. Council composting is supposed to happen on a huge scale and at very high temperatures, much higher than most home composting bins, so they can kill of microbes and weed seeds etc.

  • Chris-P-BaconChris-P-Bacon Posts: 943
    I suppose you can chuck whatever you want into your own compost. I wouldn't add bones or meat products to mine. 
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,374
    Boil them clean then bake them and grind them into meal if you want to use them. The polluting truck comes past my house whether I recycle bones or not though so I don't see the advantage of the risks.
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,413
    I put everything into my compost, chicken/duck carcass, cooked food waste, fats and very rarely bits of meat. Now I run my bins hot, currently 65°c and rising after adding grass clippings, and they consume everything and I've yet to find any recognisable bones when I empty the bins. It's a case of what suits your system, I haven't used our garden/food waste wheelie bin in 2 years and haven't suffered any vermin. 
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,374
    Unless the rats are stealing all your bones :#
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,413
    We don t get the vermin, it's just too hot for them to bother with 
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