Compost Awareness Week: Can I compost meat and dairy?

As we are never more than 6 few feet away from a rat (or 8, 10, 12 or 20 depending which particular website you believe), its a good idea not to encourage them to get any closer, especially as they carry the rather unpleasant Weil’s disease. For most compost systems its best to keep meat, fat, bread and cooked food out of the bin altogether, and as an extra precaution wear gloves when you handle compost. You can create or buy compost bins that are said to be rat-resistant or rat-proof (such as a tumbler bin. You can also use a food digester like the Green Cone or the much larger Swedish bin The Green Johanna (www.cat.org.uk/shopping or www.greencone.com) though you have to put two parts food waste to every one part garden waste. This isn’t a very good ratio if you live alone and have a large garden. Another popular method of treating meat is Bokashi, and you can find plenty of advice all over the internet about that. Visit www.recyclenow.com/home_composting for general advice about compost.

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