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I have seen this related question - but it was about the almond peels and not their shells:

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How do I recycle these? My relatives advised me to burn it all up, as it drives away mosquitoes[citation needed]. Others said to just bury it into the soil and it will compost itself away, but I doubt if this will ever happen (as these are hard shells). Powdering these shells came to my mind, but I don't know what to do with the powder either (and if my mixer grinder can sustain those hard shells in the first place).

The thing is that I have nearly a kilogram of these almond shells, so I want them to the best use. Thank you for your suggestions!

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  • People smoke meat with nut shells. Lots of references to pecan and pistachio. Can't find anyone specifically using almond but it sounds worth a try.
    – Sobachatina
    Feb 21, 2018 at 4:47
  • I've removed a lot of comments about migration and cross posting. (For the record, closure as off topic would not have been a big deal - we can always reopen to migrate. And manually reposting would've been fine at that point too; the rule about cross posting is about trying to get answers in multiple places, not about preventing people from ever asking anywhere once they've picked the wrong site first.)
    – Cascabel
    Feb 21, 2018 at 15:15

3 Answers 3

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They compost slowly even by the standards of my undersized compost bins. But the big lumps can always go back in for another go. If you have access to a garden shredder, put them through that first. It's designed to handle wood, unlike your kitchen equipment. In the garden they can also be used as a mulch.

Burn them (for heat perhaps) if you've got the means to do it. You could always store them to burn with other stuff if you use something like a fire basket outside in summer. Even a barbecue when you've finished cooking.

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  • Composting would be 'more sustainable' than burning.
    – THelper
    Feb 21, 2018 at 15:23
  • @THelper when I answered this was on cooking.se, and I don't intend to edit just because of a migration. But if you burn for needed heat (e.g. in a log burner) it's debatable.
    – Chris H
    Feb 21, 2018 at 15:32
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Composting them works. I would spare your equipment the joy of grinding them up unless you want to ruin it faster. Time and exposure to moisture will break them down.

I'm not aware of any mosquito-repellency from burning them, but I suppose you could burn some and make the experiment.

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Nut shells are compostable. But said rate of decomposition is abysmally slow compared to other material, after all alot of shells are meant to protect from harm. Never the less if you wanna speed up composting, grind the shells into a powder. Ground nut shells are also a good fire starter or disposable fuel

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