* Fertiliser: Did you know that the eggshells are rich in calcium and, therefore, can provide nourishment to your plants? Instead of throwing it away, save the shell, and use it to ward off pests, too. It is great for your home garden. * First aid: Yes, you read that right.
Using Eggshells
So, instead of holding onto potentially harmful waste, err on the safe side and throw away empty cartons and cracked shells immediately. Or, better yet, toss the shells in a compost bin or use them in your garden. The nutrients in eggshells make them an inexpensive fertilizer for plants.
The management of large amounts of eggshell waste annually produced in the world is problematic as generally this material is only disposed at landfills with odor production and microbial growth.
Garden fertilizer
Eggshells are rich in calcium. Breaking up your cracked eggshells and mixing them in with the soil in your garden will help boost this essential soil mineral.
Even clean and uncracked eggs can contain Salmonella bacteria, which can cause foodborne illness, so it's best to avoid keeping cracked eggshells in the carton. Though egg producers have safeguards in place, safe handling must continue once the eggs have left the store and entered your home.
Salmonella can get on the shells of eggs. This can happen when birds lay the eggs and when eggs touch bird droppings (poop) after being laid. Touching eggs from the grocery store is not a major cause of illness because those eggs are washed before they reach stores. Salmonella can get inside eggs too.
If eggs crack, break them into a clean container, cover it tightly, keep refrigerated and use within two days. Be sure to cook eggs thoroughly, with both the white and yolk firm, to a temperature high enough to destroy bacteria that might be present in the egg yolk or white.
As it happens, eggshells can provide all the calcium carbonate the soil needs, which helps to lower the soil's pH level and make it more alkaline as opposed to acidic. This is incredibly beneficial for plant growth because many plants prefer to grow in soil that has low acidity.
In Halifax, Canada, administrative assistant Rosie Smith does it because it's more convenient for composting. "The carton and shells are all compostable, so it's just easier to leave the shells in there than it is to save the shells separately," says Smith.
Eggs and eggshells
It might seem strange to feed them eggs, but cooked eggs are a highly nutritious and wholesome meal for many wild birds. They also love crushed eggshells, so you could even cook and crush up your boiled egg leftovers to feed to the garden birds!
Eggshells contain very few nutrients – mostly calcium. Most soil in North America has plenty of calcium. Unless your soil has a calcium deficiency adding more will not help grow plants. They also have a fair amount of sodium which is toxic to plants at even low levels.
Egg Shells
Eggshells seem harmless, but they can create granular waste that sticks to other waste to clog drains or require a thorough garbage disposal cleaning.
Use in Compost
If saving spent eggshells for use as a soil amendment isn't on your agenda, there are a couple of good reasons why you might want to compost them instead of throwing them in the trash. The first, as discussed above, is to keep them from going to waste in landfills.
Keeping salmonella away is priority number one, but to really excel in the kitchen, you want to avoid eggshells in your cooking. Cracking eggs separately from your food makes it a whole lot easier to keep these little shell bits from ending up in your mouth.
Slugs can't fly but they know how to find shortcuts. Egg shells: The sharp edges of eggshells help as a deterrent, but only when they are clean and dry. When peeling an egg, try to remove the inner membrane and rinse if needed. Be aware that rain quickly makes the eggshells lose their effectiveness.
Plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in particular will benefit from shell fertilizer, Savio said. The extra calcium will help prevent blossom-end rot. Broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, spinach and amaranth are also calcium-packed and could use extra from eggshells.
If you split your eggshells into small fragments, it can take roughly one year for them to break down into the soil. Thrown in almost whole, and you could be looking at several years before they decompose. This slows down the whole composting process, depriving your garden of that sweet, nutritious, earthy goodness.
As with any egg, since it's been thoroughly heated, anything potentially harmful should have been been killed. One caveat though— since the shell has cracked, pathogens might now target that opening in the shell.
Information. Bacteria can enter eggs through cracks in the shell. Never purchase cracked eggs. However, if eggs crack on the way home from the store, break them into a clean container, cover tightly, keep refrigerated, and use within two days.
If eggs crack during hard boiling, they are still safe to consume." So, you should consider boiled eggs that crack during cooking safe to eat.
Sometimes an egg gets coated in calcium. It looks very white and powdery on the surface of the shell. Sometimes the egg can look a pinkish colour. Calcium coated eggs are usually caused by the egg staying in the shell gland for too long.
There was a significant correlation between egg shell translucency and egg shell penetration by Salmonella Infantis and E coli. Both strains of bacteria were able to penetrate the translucent egg shells even at very low doses.
Dirty eggs may have harmful Salmonella bacteria on the shell. Cracked eggs allow Salmonella to enter and grow inside the egg. However even eggs with clean, uncracked shells can pose a risk if handled incorrectly.
Because it takes several months for eggshells to break down and be absorbed by a plant's roots, it is recommended that they be tilled into the soil in fall. More shells can be mixed into your soil in the spring.