Every composting guide agrees on one thing and then immediately contradicts itself: meat and dairy. Your city says put them in the green bin. Your gardening neighbor says never, under any circumstances. They are both right, because "can you put meat and dairy in compost" has two different answers depending on which compost you mean.
Home backyard pile: skip them
For a typical backyard pile or bin, the guidance is consistent across university extensions: no meat, no fish, no dairy, no bones, no oily or greasy foods. Penn State's composting FAQ lists meats, fish, oily foods, and milk products as do-not-add, and Cornell's gardening guide says the same, adding bread to the list and directing all of it to a municipal facility instead.
The reasons are practical, not moral:
- Pests. Meat and dairy are a dinner bell for rats, raccoons, flies, and every neighborhood animal with a nose. A pile that smells like food waste will get dug up.
- Odor. Animal products break down slowly and go rancid before they decompose, producing the exact smells that get composting banned by HOAs.
- Pathogens. Backyard piles rarely sustain the temperatures needed to kill pathogens reliably. Cat and dog waste is excluded for the same reason.
- Speed. A steak bone will still be a steak bone long after your leaves and coffee grounds have become compost. It throws off the whole batch.
My rule for the home pile: if it came from an animal, it goes in the trash or the city's bin, not my pile. The one exception is eggshells, rinsed and crushed. They are mostly mineral, break down fine, and add calcium.
Curbside and municipal composting: yes, all of it
Now the other answer. Cities with curbside organics collection actively want your meat and dairy. Portland's program, for example, accepts meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese, dairy, bones, and bread, raw or cooked, plus plate scrapings and spoiled food. The difference is industrial scale: municipal facilities run large, managed, consistently hot piles or anaerobic digesters that sustain pathogen-killing temperatures, control odors, and are designed around pest management. Your backyard bin does none of that.
Even the city programs draw lines: Portland excludes liquids, grease, and cooking oil from the bin (those go in the trash in a sealed container). "All food" does not mean "everything from the kitchen."
The middle options that actually work at home
What if you have no curbside program and hate throwing food away? You have two honest options:
- Bokashi. A fermentation method, not composting in the usual sense. You layer food scraps, including meat and dairy, with bokashi bran in a sealed bucket. The anaerobic fermentation pickles the waste without the odor and pest problems, and the pre-compost then gets buried in soil or added to a regular pile to finish. It handles exactly the foods a backyard pile cannot.
- A genuinely hot, managed pile. Technically, a pile that sustains 130 to 160°F, gets turned on schedule, and is built in a pest-proof enclosed bin can process small amounts of meat and dairy. I do not recommend it for most people, because "most people" will not maintain the temperature or the bin, and one raccoon incident ends the experiment.
Worm bins are not on this list. Vermicomposting and meat do not mix; the worms will not touch it and the bin will go anaerobic.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't you put meat in home compost?
It attracts rats, raccoons, and flies, goes rancid and smells before it decomposes, breaks down very slowly, and can harbor pathogens because backyard piles rarely stay hot enough to kill them. University extension guides uniformly exclude it from home piles.
What about bones?
Same answer, worse. Bones take far longer to break down than any other kitchen scrap and attract pests the whole time. Municipal programs accept them; home piles should not.
Are eggshells okay in compost?
Yes. Rinse them, crush them, and toss them in. They are mostly calcium carbonate, break down without odor issues, and add useful minerals to finished compost.
What should I do with meat scraps instead?
Use curbside organics collection if your city offers it, ferment them with bokashi and bury the result, or put them in the trash. Do not bury raw meat directly in the garden; you will just be feeding the local wildlife.
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