Recycling food waste and the awful kitchen caddy

[howcouldlifebeasier]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to know if it was just me that isn't recycling all my food waste? I've tried but just can't stand that awful kitchen caddy. Has anyone found anything better? Or, if you could have your dream kitchen caddy what would it look like and do?

[Asleeponasunbeam]

Ours is a little tin bucket with well fitting lid, with a plastic bucket inside. It's fine. I also use cereal boxes or similar if I'm preparing lots of veg or something - cardboard goes in out green wheelie bin too.

[NickNacks]

I gave up. It stank, took up too much room and I hated emptying it.

[ihaveadirtydog]

We use the compostable plastic bags inside our caddy which makes things slightly better.
Something will always slip between the bag and the addy though and decompose disgustingly.

[IHeartKingThistle]

We fitted a waste disposal when we did the kitchen. It's fab. I know that's not very helpful! I hated that caddy too.

[FinallyGotAnIPhone]

The thing is though, I can't really not use it, as my "everything else" bin is only emptied once a fortnight and it only fits 2 black bin bags in.

It annoys me so much as 1) the food caddy is rank and 2) the outside green bin full of mouldy rotting food and flies. It's so unhygienic. Oh and that's on top of the nappies in the other bin that is only emptied once a fortnight.

[FoxSticks]

I don't bother with the caddy, I get a new green caddy bin out each morning, cheap food in during the day and tie up and put in the outside caddy at the end of the day. Because it's only in use for about 10 hours it doesn't get manky.

[Bunbaker]

We don't even have a food waste caddy where we live, so any food waste goes in the household waste bin.

[FoxSticks]

Caddy bag that should read

[Madmog]

Do it, but hate the smell of recycling and even worse finding maggots wriggling around in the summer. Just moved house and no recycling bins are here, so am just putting out a recycling plastic bag once a week. DH reckons we'll attract rats, but am still doing my bit until the Council can reply to my email asked for recycling bins.

[JustAShopGirl]

buy a small caddy and small biodegradable bags and put them out in the food waste bin when they are about half full so I can twist them shut. Is not a problem for us - we only really have tea bags, coffe grounds, chicken/pork chop bones, fruit peel and potato peelings.

[StrawberryCheese]

We keep our plastic council issued caddy in the cupboard under the sink and get compostable bags from Lidl --which I think smell of toffee- to put inside.

[JuniperTisane]

Waste disposal here too. Our food waste bin is untouched and unopened since new.

[flamingtoaster]

Indoors we wrap scrap food in newspaper as it is generated and put it into a compostable bag inside an ice cream tub which has a tight fitting lid. No smell or leakage until we take the bag outside to put in the outside box for collection.

[wowfudge]

We have a plastic caddy with compostable liners inside plus a large wheelie bin outside - the council supplies it all. I just empty the caddy more frequently in summer. It never smells though. We have had an issue with tiny little flies in the past, but we upped how often we emptied it. We have more than enough bags supplied.

Our black bin (general unrecyclable waste) is revolting, although I bag everything in it, compared with the green bin (garden and food waste) because we have a dog to clear up after and I put the packaging from meat and fish, etc in it. Yuck.

Doesn't food put through a waste disposal just end up in the wastewater? That can't be very good, although I can see the appeal of just chucking it all away.

[idontlikealdi]

I'm afraid I gave up. The caddy provided was tiny and I don't have a big enough kitchen to get something bigger. I tend to put food waste straight into a bad and then straight into the outside bin.

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

I use compostable bags to line ours - it's wasteful but the alternatives are too grim. We get weekly collections so it's not too bad. Anything that can be put in our garden compost bin (potato peelings, orange peel, teabags etc) is put in there (contained in paper bags scrounged from co-workers' lunchtime sandwiches) , so only the bare minimum goes in food waste.

[iseenodust]

Loathe the kitchen caddy. It has retired to the utility room where DH sometimes uses it. Luckily we have a dog who loves scraps and a compost heap so there isn't much waste.

[4littleones]

Our council provides us with the compost able bags to line the caddy. I don't find it much of a problem at all. We empty it before it gets smelly. and the outside food bin locks so doesn't attract animals

[stargirl1701]

Pop some drops of tea tree oil on a cotton wool ball and Sellotape to the lid. It works for cloth nappies!

[RelocatorRelocator]

I also line it with compostable bags and empty it most days. It's absolutely fine doing it like that. Swill out with boiling water every couple of weeks or if something very rarely spills.

[Vivacia]

Small caddy, compostable bags and a sheet of kitchen paper at the bottom. I think the trick is to have such a small caddy that it needs to be regularly emptied and cleaned.

[Etihad]

Aldi have some nice caddies in at the moment. They look like enamel buckets and have a filter in the lid, only had mine a couple of days but it doesn't seem to smell as much as the one the council gave us.

[RuddyDuck]

We have a green plastic caddy with lid which sits in our under sink cupbard. We empty it every night into the green wheeliebin. Works well for us.

[echt]

We use the Aldi caddy, and when it's full tip it into the worm/compost bin.

[misscph1973]

I grew up with composting, so I don't find it disgusting at all, in fact I feel bad when it's not possible to compost! In the summer I empty the kitchen caddy daily. I don't understand why some of you have maggots? We just have lots of earth worms in the garden compost. I guess it's because you recycle left overs? We don't have that in my area, unfortunately, only composting.

I am sorry to hear that so many of you don't like composting. Perhaps it will help you if you visualise the landfill heaps versus composted soil that can be used in the garden?