Can You Compost Meat?

Gardens - We all know that the composting process is not only a valuable eco-friendly tool, it not only produces nutrient-rich soil additives for the home gardener, but also significantly reduces the amount of monthly household waste. 

However, what many people don't know is which pieces of trash can be added to a compost pile — including meat scraps.

Can You Compost Meat? 

A little explanation about composting, composting is a natural process of decomposition of organic waste in a controlled environment that makes small organisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) turn waste into fertile and beautiful soil. The next question is what are the conditions that must be met so that the organic material is worthy of being used as fertilizer.

When people talk about organic waste, people usually think of grass clippings and sliced ​​fruit and/or vegetables, but what about meat? Meat is organic, right? So, one might ask, "Can you compost leftover meat?"

How to Make Compost Meat

If we assume that meat can be composted based on the fact that meat is organic matter, then the easy answer is “yes, we can compost from meat scraps”. 

However, the reality is not that simple. Some areas, with good reason, prohibit using meat as composting material because of the possible spread of pests from rats, raccoons, and neighboring dogs, as these animals infiltrate the compost heap and wreak havoc, as well as spread disease.

Composting meat can encourage the growth of pests, but also can breed pathogens, this can happen if the composting process that we do is not generating enough heat needed to kill it. Like E coli bacteria, which can survive for two years. 

Even so, until now there has been no research that proves that these bacteria have signs of these bacteria living in the leftover meat you are trying to compost! But it is possible that the compost produced can contaminate the growing table food.

Apart from potential pests, meat in a compost heap also smells bad, especially if it's not mixed and the pile doesn't "cook" to a sufficient temperature, although cooked meat waste will spoil more quickly than raw meat. 

That being said, compost made from meat contains more nitrogen than other materials, tending to facilitate decomposition of the pile.

So, if you decide to compost meat scraps, make sure the compost is turned over frequently and place the composted meat in the back of the pile. Also, meat is only used in a very small percentage of the overall composition of the compost.

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