food waste

[mrgrower]

What are peoples thoughts.

I watched a video where someone instead of throwing away food scraps that rats are attracted to they take them to their allotment and bury them into a trench to rot down. I'm not talking about vegetable peelings etc but things like meat old left overs moldy cheese etc. We all have this type of waste that normally goes into the council's food / garden waste recycling bins which are then taken away and then I assume tipped and left to rot down as with normal compost.

I for one am happy to try this but what are the dangers if any to health apart from I suppose not burying it deep enough and attracting foxes and rats etc??

[Samurailord]

I personally would not be happy burying cooked food waste - no matter how deep - because it would be an open invite for foxes and rats.

Even the uncooked stuff I compost in my Dalek has attracted our local fox's attention, and we daren't use Blood Fish and Bone if we dont want our seedlings dug up again!

Andy

[mrgrower]

It was reckoned that as long as it is buried deep enough then fox's rats etc would not be attracted, but like you I am dubious about this claim so obviously if others have done this what has been their first hand experience?

MG

[Shadylane]

Who throws away meat? Sacrilige! Mouldy cheese? Chop it off. Eat. Obviously if it's riddled maybe don't do that...

[Madasafish]

I don't believe in digging (much).
I don't believe in wasting food.
I can't afford to waste expensive meat.

All carcases/bones etc are boiled for soup in our house.
Bones are wrapped in newspaper and sent to the council for recycling.

I am in no mood to dig 0.5meter deep holes to avoid the foxes digging them up.. for badgers that is not nearly deep enough...

Enough hassle with foxed digging holes in the lawn for worms and big holes in the veg garden to use as toilets - or is that the badgers? Stinks anyway.

[veggiechicken]

I have two dogs - ergo I have no food waste

[mrgrower]

LOL I try not to waste anything however the rest of the family don't see things the same way as me so you can guarantee the slop bin will get filled even though we do have two dogs and two chucks.

I'm just curious on others experiences because hey if it does end up in the slop bin instead of the mutts it's just another recycling idea that I saw..

BTW one of my dogs cannot eat bones due to age / teeth / tumor in her mouth but she certainly would try getting into a scrap with the other dog over them so we tend to throw a lot of bones away for peace

[veggiechicken]

OK, I'll be honest now I have some absolutely stripped-clean bones that I've taken from the dogs (not their bones though) and I put them in the compost bin. I wouldn't put meat in there.

[Two_Sheds]

instead of throwing away food scraps that rats are attracted to they take them to their allotment and bury them into a trench to rot down.... things like meat old left overs moldy cheese etc.

It shouldn't be buried (where it just sits, mouldering), but can be safely composted. I compost meat scraps, fat, oil, skin, bone etc. And dog poo.

"Thermophilic composting is the aerobic decomposition of organic matter that includes a hot stage dominated by heat producing bacteria. The hot stage may last days, weeks or months ...
Research has shown that human pathogens find the thermophilic environment hostile and that they will rapidly die off in such an environment.
Finished compost that has been subjected to adequate and well-managed thermophilic conditions typically contains “no detectable pathogens”

For info on composting, this can't be beaten for sheer inspiration & information

[Glutton4...]

What we and the Dog don't eat, the Chooks get. They will clean a bone better than the Dog would, were he allowed cooked bones, which he isn't. I have a customer who composts corpses that his Greyhound brings home. This is mainly rabbits, and I have composted dead birds. They actually help to speed up the composting process.

Personally, I would never compost Dog or Cat faeces, although some people do. If I were certain that the compost would never be used on edible crops, then I would do so.

Once my Chooks have cleaned a bone, it goes in food waste recycle bin. But, if I had a decent sized long-term compost stack, they would go in there.

[Alison]

I put the few bits and pieces I have (fish skin, fat etc) in a bokashi bin and use that under my beans but its pickled by then and doesn't attract foxes etc at all. By the way seem to remember reading that its actually illegal to take your kitchen waste to your plot.

[Two_Sheds]

I have a customer who composts corpses that his Greyhound brings home. This is mainly rabbits, and I have composted dead birds.

I compost guinea pigs (not often, thankfully), and mice (lots of them, caught eating our camping gear in the shed)

seem to remember reading that its actually illegal to take your kitchen waste to your plot.

That's an urban myth, surely?

It IS illegal to feed food waste to chickens (since the Foot & Mouth epidemic), but it isn't illegal to compost your kitchen scraps, even off site

[Alison]

Not sure TS but am pretty sure there was a long discussion about it on here in the past but as ever I can't find the thread via the search facility

[Two_Sheds]

I'd heard it too, and I tried to look up the law recently, and couldn't find anything to corroborate the belief

[mrgrower]

I have done a search on the web for a law that states you cannot compost food waste on an allotment however nothing came up If someone knows of a link to this that would be good to see.