To put the mussel shells in the food waste recycling?

[thatorchidmoment]

Currently eating moules mariniere, and I was just pondering the clear-up. Do the shells go in normal bins or food recycling bags?

I appreciate this is quite a middle-class dilemma. Please help!

[NuffSaidSam]

We always put ours in the food recycling. It never occurred to me not to tbh. I don't know if that's right though!

[EveOnline2016]

It belongs in normal waste.

[Weedsnseeds1]

They're inorganic so won't compost, so normal waste I would say.

[BernardsarenotalwaysSaints]

Keep them! If you have a garden that is prone to slugs you can crush them up & put them on the soil to deter them

[Jaimx86]

Always put them in a food bag, tie it, and put in the regular waste bin.

[backtowork2015]

But egg shells go in the food waste, why not shellfish shells?

[TheSpottedZebra]

Food waste! Bones would go there too, no?

And surely they're organic, in the chemical sense (not the ethics/farming sense, although perhaps they're that too).

[eurochick]

How are they inorganic?!?

[LIZS]

We always do. They must be degradable.

[dementedpixie]

I would put them in food waste

[thatorchidmoment]

I was thinking vaguely along the lines of eggshells going in compost/food waste, so perhaps shellfish shells should too, but then remembered that plenty of beaches have sand that is composed partly of pulverised shells, which clearly stick around practically for ever, so now I'm confused! I thought I might get a clear answer from the collective wisdom here.

DH has put his in the food waste, so maybe I should go with normal bin for mine, and keep everyone happy?

[Boundaries]

Food waste!

Of course they are organic! Otherwise how the bloody hell would the mussel make them?

[SomewhatIdiosyncratic]

I compost at home, and think they'd be too tough to break down. Egg shells are tough enough for a domestic setting, but I still put them in compost for the texture as I have a heavy clay soil.

[Boundaries]

Oops, posted too soon...They are made of the same stuff as eggshells - calcium carbonate.

[GreenTureen]

Food waste! Bones would go there too, no?

Our food waste specifically states no carcasses OR meat bones. It's the only thing excluded, presumably because they take time to degrade? I would imagine a mussel shell takes longer than egg shell to break down so I wouldn't automatically assume they're OK.

[CockacidalManiac]

I seem to remember that archaeologists dig a lot of them up; that would imply they don't degrade in soil very fast.

[thatorchidmoment]

Bernards I wish I had the time and inclination to store, crush and scatter mussel shells to deter slugs, but currently pregnant with #4 and pretty floored with first trimester exhaustion. Hence DH haunting the reduced corner in Tesco and buying interesting things for tea (boil-in-the-bag mussels for starters and Katsu chicken curry for main, followed by a hot cross bun for pudding, anyone?).

[TheSpottedZebra]

Huh. Our green waste specifically states ALL kitchen waste apart of packaging and the like. (Apart from liquid oil.) But yes to bones, egg shells... So I guess we're all different!

NB I've said before, but I am so grateful for my bin and recycling collections. I get weekly collections of all, and I am so lucky to do so.

[ftmsoon]

I'd put them in our food caddy, but it specifically says bones are OK.

[StillRabbit]

As our food waste specifically says to put bones and meat carcasses in, I also put mussel shells in....

I wouldn't put them in home composting....

[thatorchidmoment]

I checked my local council website for their list of acceptable stuff, and eggshells and bones are on it. Nothing about shells on that, or the unacceptable list.

This is taking up too much of my thinking capacity tonight!

[Cherrysoup]

The list of what to go in the compost bone specifically includes mussel shells. You did right to put them in there.

[Cherrysoup]

Our council's list, I mean, not some generic worldwide list!

[CommunionHelp]

We just crush them and put on the garden. But if you don't want to do that then, yes, fine in the compost technically, but I'd give them a quick smack with a big rock just to help them on their way.

[Weedsnseeds1]

The damp proof course on our houses here is made of oyster shells, so they have survived 300 years without degrading. Yes, calcium carbonate would be organic as contains carbon. My previous comment was incorrect.