Eggs are safe to eat for up to five weeks of purchasing them if you store them outside your refrigerator.
Many are safe to consume even after months of being stored in a cool and humid environment.
Most eggs are already three weeks old when you pick them up from the aisle. If you end up with many bad eggs that are unsafe to eat, there are several ways to dispose of or recycle them.
In this blog post, we will be discussing how to find out if your eggs have gone bad.
We will primarily shed light on the disposal process of bad eggs, including garbage disposal, trash disposal, and composting.
How to Find Out it’s Time to Dispose of Eggs
Eggs last around eight weeks after a chicken lays them.
As they become older, they lose their moisture. The egg yolk and white of a bad egg lie flat when you break the egg into a bowl or pan. However, this does not take away their taste or nutritional value.
To find out if it’s time for you to dispose of eggs, here’s what you should do:
Fill a bowl, pot or tub (depending on the number of eggs you have) with cold water. Then place the eggs in the water.
If the eggs are fresh, they will sink to the bottom.
If they are old but are still safe to consume, they will create a pocket of air where the membrane is starting to separate from the shell and stand on one end. This is the best time to boil them.
If they float, this is because the air pocket has become too big. The air allows the eggs actually to float. Eggs that float in cold water are too old and not safe to eat, so you need to dispose of them at once.
Test your eggs if you think they’re old. This is a very useful trick for people who have chickens because sometimes they lay in places other than the coop.
If you ever come across a nest of over a dozen eggs on your farm and wonder how old they are: test them or else stink up your place.
How to Dispose of Bad/Expired Raw Eggs
Here are three ways to dispose of eggs that have gone bad:
1. Garbage Disposal
The best way to dispose of expired and raw eggs is in your garbage disposal.
Crack your bad eggs and throw the contents down your garbage disposal. Remember not to throw the shells down the drain as they can clog and damage your pipes.
The FDA has particular rules for egg storage. They recommend using hard-boiled eggs within one week after cooking them and frozen eggs within one year.
You must discard any eggs that have developed an unusual color or smell, even if they haven’t reached their expiration date yet.
2. Trash Disposal
If you have a small number of eggs that have gone bad, it is safe to throw them in your green waste bin with the rest of your food waste.
However, suppose you work on a farm and have 500 bad eggs.
Throwing such a large amount of eggs in the trash does not seem feasible. In this case, use the garbage disposal method mentioned above.
3. Composting
The third way to dispose of eggs is to compost them.
Eggs are organic matter, so there is no harm in composting them. However, if you are flushing the contents down a garbage disposal, compost the shells at least!
There is some confusing information regarding the safety of composting eggs yourself, so the best way to compost is to use your local authority’s drop-off or put it in your pick-up bin.
If you have a compost pile in your garden, here what you should do:
Dig a 2-inch deep hole in the ground, bury the eggs, and put a board over the spot with a heavy weight on top. They’re not dangerous to compost this way; make sure they are out of the reach of animals.
Eggs are big and hot, so they break down and sterilize almost anything mixed with green waste such as coffee grounds or brown materials like sawdust and cardboard.
What Else Can I Do with Bad/Expired Eggs?
While all expired eggs might not be spoilt, it is best not to take them for the sake of your health.
Even though expired eggs might be nutritious, we suggest you get rid of them after conducting a check.
To check if an egg is still good to use, simply break it into a bowl or cup first. It should look and smell like an egg.
If you see any pink, green or unusual colored contents, throw the egg away immediately. These colors indicate a bacterial infection.
By conducting this test, you can discover bad eggs in your refrigerator and get rid of them before they spoil the rest of the ingredients.
Once you’ve tested your expired eggs and found that they’re not spoilt, use them as a fertilizer for your plants by adding them to your garden bed or compost pile.
Eggs contain high levels of calcium which is important for plants, especially fruits and vegetables. They will leach the calcium into the soil for root uptake, preventing such problems as blossom end rot.
If you are not afraid of using expired eggs on yourself, conduct a smell test first. Then, if they smell alright, you can mix them with yogurt or blend them with fruits to use on your hair or skin.
If the eggs do not have any odd smell or color, you can use them for cooking a meal for your pets, including your kittens or puppies. Eggs can be highly nutritious for them, just as they are for us.
After you have checked the expired eggs for smell and color, you can mix them with a small amount of milk to make a smooth blend.
Then, you can freeze the mixture in ice cube trays.
Make sure you lightly oil the ice tray, so the cube removal process is easier.
Eggs cubes contain egg proteins that make a great adhesive. You can use them to make paper patching bullets or even paint (egg tempera).
Just be sure to blend well to ensure a homogeneous mixture.
Use large size ice cube trays. Each hole in a large tray can hold one large egg, so you can use the exact amount for recipes while baking. Just let the cubes thaw naturally before mixing them into the recipe.
You can also cook your eggs and then freeze them as they freeze well. So scramble, bake, fry or cook your eggs however you like them and freeze them later.
Unfortunately, hard-boiled eggs don’t freeze well. The temperature makes them a little mushy, so avoid freezing them.
How to Dispose of Eggshells
As we mentioned before, you can put the contents of a bad egg down your sink or garbage disposal. However, you must never throw your eggshells down the drain.
Eggshells can attach themselves to the inside of the pipes. Eventually, they will stick together with other waste and form a clog.
Most garbage disposals do not have blades. This is because they are not able to crush the shells. Instead, they have impellers that are mostly blunt. The membrane can get wrapped around the impellers and damage them.
Since putting eggshells down the garbage disposal won’t do any good, you can compost them. Crush them and use them in your organic garden or as a slug and snail repellent.
How to Dispose of Egg Cartons
The majority of egg cartons sold in the U.S. are made of cardboard. You can recycle them just like other types of cardboard instead of throwing them in the trash.
You can also put egg cartons made of cardboard in your compost pile. They decompose very quickly and will produce a rich fertilizer for your plants.
Remember to break up your cardboard cartons first before adding them to your compost pile. Then, if your heap is dry, splash some water so the cardboard rots down quicker.
However, you cannot put in plastic or Styrofoam cartons with cardboard waste or in the compost. They are not compostable and will not break down. It would be best if you threw them in plastic waste bins.
To recycle your cartons, make sure they are clean and dry. If you place eggs in the carton after cracking them, you can no longer recycle the carton due to the food residue that will contaminate the process.
Final Words
We have equipped you with all the information you need to know about disposing of and recycling eggs, eggshells and egg cartons.
It is much easier to take care of bad raw eggs than hazardous substances with much detailed disposal and recycling processes governed by regulations.
If you liked this blog post, let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear how it helped you!
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