# Is composting BS? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 22, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723 "2008-09-22T19:12:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/21 "2008-09-23T20:31:56Z")
I don’t know anything about municipal composting, but I do know that compost is the best fertilizer ever. Plus it’s organic. So I presume they’re going to use the compost for fertilizer, not just let it sit in the ground. That will be a big help to organic farmers. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/22 "2008-09-23T21:02:17Z")
If you indiscriminately collect all “kitchen scraps” for composting at a dump, it’s an absolute win-win situation for seagulls, rats and other scavengers. You’d somehow have to prevent any meat or meat byproducts from ending up in the mix (use of such material in home compost heaps is discouraged for the same reasons, which include spreading of carnivore/omnivore-borne disease). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/23 "2008-09-24T00:32:49Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The Seattle waste plant separates and turns it into compost. > > I had a tour of the plant when I was in high school. I’m know that some plants do it. But of the several dozen wastewater treatment plants that I have worked with here in the Northeast, none of them do. At a conference, I heard of one plant that did produce fertilizer from its sludge, but ran into problems because the FDA prohibited any commercial growers from selling fruits or vegetables using the fertilizer for the reasons I outlined above. They were working on an exemption to encourage its use. Nevertheless, I don’t think that it’s a very good idea unless you thoroughly test the sludge/compost for pollutants. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/24 "2008-09-24T00:47:02Z")
Ahah. Well ignorance fought. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/25 "2008-09-24T12:38:39Z")
There appear to be some misconceptions about compost here although they don’t affect the thread premise. ``` Composting is not just "rotting" nor piling once living things randomly. Rather it is a reaction resulting from a balanced mix of "greens and browns" - nitrogenous and carbonaceous material, or protein and carbohydrate if you prefer. The reaction produces heat that acts to sterilise seeds, ameliorates pathogens and reduces physical size approximately by one third. The resulting product has a neutral pH. The primary benefit however is the creation of humus in short order, something mother nature takes awhile to do. Municipalities who get into composting need to get the balances close and ensure an aerobic process, lest they end up with odor complaints or carrots remaining intact. Anaerobic landfills in no way could ever compost. "Milorganite" or its ilk have problems being considered Organic ( the definition relating to sale of foodstuffs, not chemistry ) because of the things cited by Robby. Compost isn't a fertiliser per se though it facilitates plant health. It can't compare to the synthetics developed via Haber or for that matter one's own urea. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Winkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/41988e/32.png) [@Winkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winkie)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/26 "2008-09-24T22:39:51Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > So … have we communicated? I work for Oakleaf Waste Management … Probably not - I’m far away from you in Indiana, but I think we have responded to some common threads. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/27 "2008-09-25T11:09:15Z")
> [@Winkie](#): > > Probably not - I’m far away from you in Indiana, but I think we have responded to some common threads. LOL we are one of the top 3 waste management companies, and I have dealt with vendors as car away as Alaska, Puerto Rico, Canada and Guam … we have clients in all 50 states, canada and the american protectorates=) [our clients include all Walmarts, Sears, Kmarts, Home Depots, Rite Aid, many restaraunt chains …] Granted I specifically work on WMI’s account specifically but I used to be in the compliance department where I dealt with whatever vendor we needed to exchange paperwork with =) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/28 "2008-09-25T11:33:11Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If you indiscriminately collect all “kitchen scraps” for composting at a dump, it’s an absolute win-win situation for seagulls, rats and other scavengers. You’d somehow have to prevent any meat or meat byproducts from ending up in the mix (use of such material in home compost heaps is discouraged for the same reasons, which include spreading of carnivore/omnivore-borne disease). I thought meat scraps were only a problem in small home sized composting bins, but that they’re okay in large scale ones, no? (I’m not certain - that’s an actual question, not a rhetorical one.) ---
**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/29 "2008-09-25T11:50:46Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I thought meat scraps were only a problem in small home sized composting bins, but that they’re okay in large scale ones, no? (I’m not certain - that’s an actual question, not a rhetorical one.) ``` In a compost pile or windrow of sufficient mass and composition, the entire carcass of large animals is quickly consumed- my rather larger than average size constructions (yet still not commercial) render whistlepigs and squirrels "gone" in about three days, though bones take longer. Composting is likely to become more prevalent for livestock farmers in certain areas; rendering dead beef has become unprofitable for companies that once took the animals off the farmer's hands due to expense involved separating possible BSE containing components from what could be used for chicken or other animal feed. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Winkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/41988e/32.png) [@Winkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winkie)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/30 "2008-09-26T00:57:35Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > LOL we are one of the top 3 waste management companies, and I have dealt with vendors as car away as Alaska, Puerto Rico, Canada and Guam … we have clients in all 50 states, canada and the american protectorates=) > > [our clients include all Walmarts, Sears, Kmarts, Home Depots, Rite Aid, many restaraunt chains …] > > Granted I specifically work on WMI’s account specifically but I used to be in the compliance department where I dealt with whatever vendor we needed to exchange paperwork with =) I’m quite familiar with WM 😉 but I’m a government girl who seldom talks with vendors these days. Check your PMs. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723/31 "2008-09-26T02:25:53Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > Is this really true over any kind of human timescale? There are all manners of stories - urban legends - that in the depths of landfills lie decades-old newspapers as readable as they day they were printed, hotdogs as appetizing as the day they were cooked, animal scat as smelly as the day it was shat, etc. > > Did too: The bit about newspapers is not urban legend. I can’t speak for the rest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-composting-bs/464723.md?page=1)