Cooked food composting

Question

Recently I started composting at home.

As many sources told me not to put cooked food and several other things. Mainly to not attract animals. I don't put them on on my compost pile, but put put it in the bag for organic waste which goes to the recycling park (as I don't have chicken who I can give it to).

That made me think that maybe if everybody does this, the recycling park might get problems for discomposing the organic waste?

I was also wondering about the fact I'm not allowed to sort dog and other animal feces together with the organic waste, if all other organic things I shall not put on my compost pile are allowed, why animal feces aren't?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Cooked food may attract animals, but I find a few ways of composting them. If you have a composter or a vermipost bin, those will work too. Below is my own method though.

I tend to aggressively sheet mulch. While I am here in Indonesia I am known to prune the mango trees to get leaves to sheet mulch. These allow me to compost a fair bit of stuff in place.The leaves are definitely a green and they take a few weeks to decompose. The basic structure here is an alternating set of layers of "greens" and "browns" to help speed composting, but these are small and make use of surface area and ground contact rather than size and heat. In this way I incorporate smallish amounts of more risky foods (like cooked veggies) underneath the mulch, between the mulch and the soil. I find that if I do this, it decomposes fast and the sorts of animals attracted tend to be small decomposers like centipedes, ants, and earthworms. The 4 inch layer of leaves act as a bit of an odor damper and help avoid some of the more noxious pests (like cockroaches). Other approaches might include plastic composters, covered piles, vermipost, or the like.

As always pest management is very local so what works for me may not work for you. Trial and error is necessary sometimes.

Answer 2

You can place cooked food on your heap, it will eventually be turned into compost, but like you said it may attract vermin so you'll probably want to use a composter instead of a heap. Also large quantities of some ingredients (e.g. very oily food) may slow down the composting process.

Vermicomposting in a wormbin is similar to using a composter. Much of the cooked food can be thrown in, but you'll still have to be careful with some of the things. For example onions and citrus fruit should only be provided in small quantities as large amounts will raise the ph-level too much and the worms may die. Meat, fish and oily stuff can be processed, but often goes bad and stink before the worms have had a chance to process it. In bins without a lid meat and fish may also attract flies and maggots.

The easiest solution for cooked food probably is to preprocess it in a Bokashi bin. Micro-organisms in the bin will break down the things that are more difficult to compost (like meat and oils). After two weeks you can process the Bokashi bin contents further by throwing it on a compost heap, in a vermicompost bin, or simply by burying it in your garden.

As for the animal feces, they actually can be placed on a compost heap too but the reason why it is not recommended is that animal feces often contain pathogens that can be dangerous to people if they are not processed in the right manner. Feces from rabbits, hamsters and guinea pigs are rather harmless and can be placed on your heap safely. Feces from dogs and cats are more troublesome. Cat feces for example may contain the Toxoplasma gondii parasite that is dangerous for people with a weak immune system and for pregnant women.