Those familiar with basic home composting techniques know that egg shells, coffee grounds, vegetables, fruits, grains, leaves and grass clippings are all compostable. But we are also told to avoid putting meat, dairy, fats and bones into our home composting bins. Particularly at this time of year many of us are left with exactly these types of remains from the holiday feast…and lots of them! So how do we recycle food scraps that are animal, rather than plant-based?

Why recycle food waste?

Before we get into the discussion of how to recycle food waste, it might be best to start with why we would want to do this in the first place. After all, food waste is biodegradable, so what’s the problem with just putting it in the garbage and letting it decompose at the landfill?

Many of you may be familiar with recent concerns over methane emissions and their contributions to global warming. Methane gas is a by-product of organic decomposition in an oxygen-free environment…i.e. the landfill…and its effect on global warming as a greenhouse gas is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, which is most commonly referred to in GHG discussions. Food waste makes up about 30% of household garbage. Worldwide methane emissions from garbage are estimated at 70 million metric tons annually. By diverting organic waste from the landfill we can significantly decrease, if not eliminate, landfill methane emissions.

How to recycle food waste

So now that we’ve determined that recycling food waste is important, how do we do it? The advice to exclude meat, bones, fat and dairy from your home composting bin stems from the liklihood that it will draw pests, not that these materials cannot be composted. For this reason most people opt to use a commercial composting facility to recycle their food waste.

If you opt for recycling food scraps at home, there are a couple of considerations to take into account.

To limit the pest factor you should use a composter that is fully enclosed with a locking lid. Most pests such as raccoons and rats will be thwarted in their efforts to steal your scraps. A larger animal such as a bear, however, could probably unseat the bin from it’s ground pins and make a mess of your compost pile. If you live in an area where bears are common you will need a much sturdier built-in enclosure, or go the commercial composting route.

Vermicomposting, or composting with worms, may be another option. Vermicomposting is clean, despite what you might think. The worms consume the food scraps leaving nothing to decay and create odors. » Read more: How to Recycle Food Waste