BOISE, Idaho — You can now put meat, dairy and grain products along with any other food into your compost bin. The City of Boise is expanding its compost program to make it easier to utilize.
"If it's food, if you can eat it, we can compost it," says Lisa Knapp, the Compost Program Lead for the City of Boise.
After years of operating, the program received expanded permits to be able to process essentially all foods into compost.
"Now that we've got over five years of data, we know for sure that we can handle these kinds of products. Bringing in meat and dairy actually will bring in more nutrients, which will help our compost to start cooking faster and hotter, and it will actually make a better compost," says Knapp.
The change is meant to make the process easier so that more food ends up as compost.
"So rather than having to sort out your vegetative food scraps from your meat and dairy and put your bones in your trash, anything that you were using cooking, or that came off of a plate, so leftovers or those things you forgot at the back of your fridge, we all do that sometimes, all of that can go straight into your compost cart," says Knapp.
She tells me that on a smaller scale — like a DIY version in your backyard — meat and dairy will make compost smell very strong and attract mice and rats. Those issues are solved when working on the compost program's large scale.
"Fortunately, with the kind of composting that we do at the industrial scale, we reach temperatures so quickly that are so hot that the meat and dairy are cooked off within a couple of days," says Knapp.
As we've previously reported, if you live in a condo or apartment building, you can sign up to participate in the city's compost program at one of two food scrap drop-off locations around town.
"Composting your food scraps is something that we can do as individuals to help us reach our climate goals," added Knapp.
You can find more information about the City of Boise's compost program here.
