Unlike their shells, composting eggs of any sort is very similar to other kinds of animal waste. The smells, as they decompose, tend to attract mice, rats, raccoons, and other pests. This will damage your composting and invite animals to your yard that you may not want. That said, the answer to the question of “can you compost eggs” is yes, you can. You want to do so carefully.
For example, the EPA recommends against it.
Eggs have a lot of nutrients. Remember, they were built to feed a chick who needs many of the same nutrients as your plants. Composting eggs can have many benefits if you do it carefully.
How to Compost Eggs
The recommendations for how to compost eggs are very similar to other animal products. If you’re going to compost them, you want to add them to the middle of your pile. Break up any whole eggs. This will keep the smell down. Add a fair amount of brown material with them. Your goal is to cover the smell while they decompose. Once they have decomposed, there is no real problem with the eggs in your compost.
You want to turn your compost periodically. Keep eggs (and other animal products) in the middle of the pile, even after you have turned them. This covers up the smell and will hopefully keep the pests out.
It’s also a good idea not to add more than a few eggs at any one time. This makes managing the smell easier.
Remember that animal products usually aren’t an issue for hot compost systems and Bokashi systems. With these, you can usually compost eggs, meat, dairy, or other animal products because pests aren’t a concern.
Can You Compost Boiled Eggs
There are no differences between composting raw and boiled eggs for our purposes. You can add them with the shells; this will help. You also probably want to cut them up so that they are smaller and decompose faster. Beyond that, the guidance is the same.
Can You Compost Cooked Eggs
Yes, boiled eggs are cooked, but usually, you cook those in water. However, when you get to fried eggs, scrambled eggs, and other types, you usually cook these in some sort of oil. Oil will slow down the decomposition, increasing the chances of rotting and attracting pests. For these reasons, we’d avoid composting cooked eggs.
Can I Compost Eggs?
Can you compost eggs? Technically, yes, for raw eggs and boiled eggs. Not so much for cooked eggs. That said, you may not want to. Once you have pests, your compost pile isn’t going to compost well, and you now have rats, mice, and other unpleasant animals in your yard that will be hard to get rid of.
Egg cartons are no problem, provided that they are cardboard. Therefore, while you can compost them, you may not want to.