So, you’ve started composting—kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and wilted lettuce are all going into your bin. Great! But then the questions begin…

• What about meat scraps?
• Can I compost animal manure?
• What if my weeds went to seed?
• Is it okay to compost dog poop or even human waste?

Welcome to advanced composting. This is where composting goes beyond banana peels and coffee grounds, into territory that requires a little more care—but offers a lot more potential. Done right, hot composting can transform nearly all organic waste into safe, nutrient-rich compost that helps your garden thrive and keeps your homestead clean and sustainable.

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What Is Hot Composting—and Why It Matters

Hot composting is the process of intentionally raising and maintaining high temperatures in your compost pile (130–160°F) to kill off weed seeds, pathogens, parasites, and unwanted bacteria. Unlike cold composting, which breaks materials down slowly over time, hot composting accelerates decomposition and ensures safety when working with more “risky” materials like:

• Some animal manures
• Meat, dairy, and shellfish
• Diseased plants
• Pet waste
• Weeds that have gone to seed

While everything that was once alive can be composted, not everything can be composted safely without heat.

But what about the rest of the kitchen scraps? What about the meat scraps? The barnyard manure? The dog poop? The lobster carcass from last night? Can you compost all that? The answer is Yes and No. This would fall under…

Advanced Hot Composting

Can all those things be composted? The answer is Yes. All things that were once alive can be composted. BUT (here is the big but) you have to do a few things to compost them SAFELY. So this post is about how and why some things need special treatment.

Vegetative Material (Plants)

We talked about composting your grass clippings, leaves, and vegetable kitchen scraps in Composting What is that? Easy Peasy Stuff. But there are some plants you may not want to compost.

1) Weed seeds – if your weeds or grass has gone to seed and you compost them in the regular compost pile, it may not kill the seeds. Then when you put the compost into your garden you are putting weed seeds in there too. More time weeding. No fun!

Some Solutions
a) Make a very hot compost pile (we will discuss this later) and let it compost for 3 months or more.
b) Burn the dried weeds and grass that has seeds. (ash is good for the garden too)
c) Put the finished compost in the garden then solarize the garden for at least 8 weeks. This should kill most of the seeds.

2) Diseased Plants –

Best to just burn* those suckers. You don’t want to take the chance of it living through anything.
If you have diseased plants in your garden it is best to go ahead and solarize your garden too.

Barn Yard Manure

Chicken, duck, cow, goat, sheep, or horse manure can all go straight into the garden right? Wrong.

First, it will burn your plants. Especially the chicken and duck manure. They have high levels of Ammonia. They can, however, go straight into the composter with your vegetable scraps and grass clippings. Even though it doesn’t look like it, this is a green (high nitrogen), to go with your brown (hay and fallen leaves). This makes for a great combination to heat up your compost.

Pigs, Dog, Cat, and Exotic are a different story. They digest food differently and are more likely to have parasites and pathogens that will harm people. These need a hot, long compost time. (see instructions at the end of the post)

Healthy Dead Animals, Fish or Shellfish Carcass

OK, I know that sounds funny, healthy dead animals. What I mean is not diseased. These too need hot composting. But you will not want to add them to your backyard compost pile. Your neighbors will NOT appreciate it. When I first started composting, I thought everything could go right in the composter. After a wonderful meal of lobster, I put the carcasses into the compost bin… Then the smell started… Next came the flies… Then the smell got worse. OH, WHAT A MESS! I won’t make that mistake again. Can they be composted? Yes, But in a very hot compost pile (a long long way from the house – And a long way from your neighbor’s house).

Janet Patten tells about composting farm animals which have died, in this article. I found it was quite interesting. For smaller animals, remains of butchered chickens, etc. You can just dig a hole 2 feet deep. Put in 6 inches of animals or animal parts. Then cover with 18 inches of soil. After 6 months to a year it will be composted and ready to dig up and use as a soil amendment or plant right on top of.

Human Waste (yes, your poop)

It does have the ick factor but it too CAN be composted. But because of both the pathogens and parasites, it can carry, it too needs a hot compost and a long rest period. This is indeed advanced composting.

Any organic matter can be composted. But, some things contain things that can harm or kill us. Tapeworms, roundworms, salmonella, e-Coli, listeria for example. These can be killed off with a long hot compost.

A Long Hot Compost

This is truly advanced composting for the serious homesteader. I say homesteader because this probably shouldn’t be undertaken in a suburban or urban environment. A little space between the pile and you and your neighbors is a good thing when taking on advanced composting. This type of composting takes special care and patients. You have to prepare a compost* that has a large mass 3 feet square minimum and a good nitrogen carbon mix (20-30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen you will be adding a lot of sawdust, leaves, or straw.) It has to reach 160° and stay at that temperature for 3 to 7 days. Use a Compost Thermometer* to check it every day. Then it has to be turned, outside to inside, and allowed to come back to that high temperature. Do this several more times until ALL the material has reached that temperature. Then it must be left to sit. A few weeks for vegetative matter and barnyard manure. One full year for dog, cat, or human manure. This ensures all the pathogens are dead. Intense but worth the wait for your safety.

I have read of some people who use worms to decompose this material. Earthworms are incredible composters. Also, there are composting toilets* that make the job a little easier.

What do you do with all this compost?

Once you have your finished compost whether from the hot or cold pile, what do you do with it? You put it in your garden! Around your house plants. Around your trees. Compost is a wonderful fertilizer. It has low levels of the major nutrients that your plants need, but more importantly, it has trace minerals a lot of fertilizers leave out. Not only that it provides humus. Humus gives your garden holding ability. It holds onto moisture. It leaves air holes so your plants can breathe. It holds on to nutrients so they don’t just wash right away from your plants. And it gives worms and good bacteria and other things your plants need a place to live, which live in a symbiotic relationship with your plant. In other words, they scratch each other’s backs, so to speak. Compost is a really good thing. So let’s all go make lots of it!