As a dedicated gardener, I’ve read many articles over the years about home omposting and the benefits
of adding crushed eggshells to the compost pile. Since shells are mostly calcium carbonate, it
is reasonable to assume that they add calcium to the soil and help to reduce soil acidity. This is indeed
what most of these gardening articles propose. Therefore, I’ve always saved the shells along
with other compostable kitchen wastes for my compost pile without really giving it much thought.
Recently, however, I had a call from an enterprising farmer who wanted to know just how effective
eggshells were when applied as an alternative to ground, agricultural limestone. A nearby company
processed raw eggs into egg products and produced several tons of eggshells each day which went
into the local landfill. “What a waste of valuable landfill space and a potentially good soil amendment!”
he thought. The company was more than grateful to have him truck them off. They may
even pay him to land apply this by-product. This was a good opportunity to really see how effective
eggshells may be when applied as a alternative to ground agricultural limestone.