[GreenYes] Re: NPR Story on Proposed Boston 'indoor' Composting Facility

[Peter Spendelow <spendelow.peter@no.address>]

Hi Nancy,

Cooking oil should be kept out of compost.  It can be used direcly
into making biodiesel, but doesn't provide anything for compost.  To
make good compost, you need something that only partially decomposes
in a compost pile, so the compost will have good rich humic material.
Most plant tissue is good for this, as the lignins in the cell walls
which are bound to the cellulose of the cell walls take a very long
time to degrade, leaving a material that can help soil structure and
add good organic matter to the soil.  Cooking oil does not provide any
solid structure and may worsen soil structure, and when it decomposes,
it goes pretty much completely to carbon dioxide and water, leaving
nothing left as compost.  So - keep cooking oil out of of your home
composting pile, and try to get used cooking oil into an oil and
grease collection system that can convert the material to biodiesel.

Peter Spendelow

On Mar 26, 7:19 pm, "Nancy Poh" <greenbeingna...@no.address> wrote:
> This is good as it also helps get rid of food scraps.  I remember reading
> that cooking oil can also be recycled in the process of making compost.
>
> Nancyhttp://greenbeingnancy.blogspot.com