Nature and Gardening

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Home composting question: high quantities of egg shells per week (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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We have a household of two and I just started a 43 gallon capacity rotating composting bin. Our weekly egg consumption is high and there's an additional load of volunteering (baking) where I have to dispose of 2-3 dozen egg shells at a time.

What's the maximum number of shells I can expect to toss in the compost each week? Any ideas on how to dispose of the rest without going right to the trash? We only have recycling and yard debris pickup, no city compost options. Thanks in advance!

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I suspect it's going to take a lot more egg shells than that to have too many, but maybe someone else knows for a fact. Just make sure you throw them in a hot oven before you compost them. You want to hold them to at least 160F to kill salmonella. Some places recommend 250F for an hour. I generally have them around 350F for 30-40 minutes.

This accomplishes a few things:

It kills the salmonella
It makes them easier to break into small pieces
It allows them to break down and extract the minerals far more easily in the compost

With how many you're going to be composting, you may want to find a method to really grind them finely, towards a powder. I'd imagine that will allow you to compost more, without reaching some possible negative points like too much aeration to the soil. Though you might lose some benefits, like the pest deterrence, or maybe not since some people just sprinkle egg shell powder on top of the soil and leaves. If you're going to limit how many you compost, you might reserve some powdered egg shells for this purpose.

If you're worried about attracting animals to your compost, rinse the shells before baking.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Almost nothing in your household consumes as much energy as an oven. Ovens consume from around 1000 (when already heated up) to 5000 Watts leading to ginormous amounts of carbon emissions on your average electricity mix. From an environmental perspective it's completely crazy to bake your trash for 30 to 40 minutes (it's like running your electric kettle at full power for 30 minutes straight). I'd rather not compost eggshells at all rather than baking them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I have my oven on at least a few times a week to bake, often every day. And much of the year, it simply means my furnace will run less. OP is baking semi-commercially, they'll have plenty of preheating time to borrow.