Compost - Cooked food, Raw food, Takeaways anything edible?

[charliecat]

This is what my council is saying can be put in the brown, compostable bin.
I reckon its going straight to landfill then if that the case.
Can compost be made out of leaves, grass and any sort of food?

no dairy AFAIK or raw meat

sounds like they are getting you to make a rat trap

I thought compost was just made out of vegetation (cooked or raw), didn't think you could use meat etc.

Yes, all foodstuff is compost. It rots down.

I may be wrong then

i have a wormery composter and that can take cooked food - "anything which has lived" can be composted.

You do not usually compost cooked stuff in your garden because it can attract rats etc.

things to compost

I agree with Shazronnie - anything that has lived or has come from something that his lives (eg wool, paper) can be composted. The thing aobut meat and coked stuff is to avoid rats in yuor garden. Not so much of an isue at thec ouncil run compost heaps - I've seen features on them, and the heats that they get to would cook a rat! Plus the stuff from brown bins goes through shredders, to make it all activate even faster.

We're not supposed to put cooked stuff in our brown bins though - I suppose every area has its own protocols.

ComeOveeer - that link was interesting. I'm surprised that it said to avoid newspapaer - I thought a proportion of shredded newspaper was good for the compst heap to "balance" it.

heres what the council have to say about it Ive posted that on another thread by accident...cant find it but I did!

Damn, I've been throwing barbecue ash on mine thinking it's OK. That link says not

I thoguh ash was OK!

Ths link Guide to Composting includes wood ash and newspapers!

Wood ash is fine, just not coke or coal ash. Not sure why they say not to use newspaper though.

we have a compost heap at the bottom of the garden. We only veg & fruit & leaves on it - no bread or meat because of rats.

if you have your own compost bin you wouldn't put those things in - partly because it attracts rats, and partly because your compost bin is unlikely to get hot enough to deal with that sort of thing.

However, if you are collecting compostible stuff from a whole are you are composting on an industrial scale - in which case jsut about anything of organic origin (including wood ash) should be fine.

They were just introducing this system in the Outer Hebrides when we were there for aholiday a month or so ago.

I have a special compost bin called a bokashi. You are allowed to put cooked things in it and meat. You mix them with a special microorganisam enhanced bran which pickles them. There is a whole thread on this on the gardening section and I'll do a link when can work out how.

Its really great and although mine is on individual scale think that councils are beginning to use them.

You can buy them from company called Wiggly Wigglers.