To not see the need for food waste bins?

We have virtually no food waste in our house. Orange and banana skins mostly. Potato peel gets turned into crispy skins in the air fryer. I even use orange peel on my radiators to fragrance the house! Left overs get frozen or taken to work the next day. A lot of my fruit and veg comes from tins (lentils, tomatoes etc) or frozen (mango, cherries) so there's not waste, or at least none in my house. We barely use our food bin!

On the issue of how it's paid for: central government provided funding last year to local authorities across the UK to roll out a food waste collection by 2026, so even in councils with budget/bankruptcy problems, this can still be funded. The food waste then goes to facilities which use giant industrial-scale composters to generate energy and fertiliser, like this: https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/vale-of-white-horse-district-council/recycling-rubbish-and-waste/what-happens-to-your-waste-new/what-happens-to-your-food-waste/

This means a) more renewable energy being generated, and b) reducing the waste that goes into landfill, so people in your area who don't have gardens and compost bins can still dispose of their food waste in an eco-friendly way.

This.

In my food waste bin are:
Uneaten cat food (fussy cat)
Chicken bones
Fat from stewing steak
Grisly bits from liver

I'm not buying pre prepared food just so I don't have a food waste bin.

‘
’ we’ve had this for years and it was also the case many years ago when food waste was collected for kids. ‘

That’s a bit hard! Even Oliver Twist had proper porridge, though not enough of it.

I did say I was referring to my situation. and using your situation to extrapolate that food waste bins are pointless 🤔
I have a house with a garden and choose not to compost. I used to but it ended up being a faff and as others have said, it slows down over winter and I found I was throwing out food scraps anyway. So, I really appreciate the council food waste bins, especially as ours will also take waste cooking oil.

Certain things don't compost well or aren't great for compost. Avocado stones and skins don't seem to compost. Meat fat or gristle. Cheese rinds. Too many egg shells. Walnuts.

Also our huge composter is currently full.

I don't use mine that much. We have a garburator and any food/meat leftovers I feed to the fox.
We are not allowed any food stuff in our bins. If the bin men find any they will leave the bin.

Gardens are small in my borough although most people have one. But there would be a massive rat problem if everyone composted.

@Notinmylifethyme we’ve had this for years and it was also the case many years ago when food waste was collected for kids. You can’t compost cooked stuff of course. Ideally you only cook ‘just enough’ but that isn’t always the case. Ours is collected, put in an anaerobic digester and used for fertiliser, I think it’s a great idea.

So your chicken bones go to landfill? It's better to put in council food waste really isn't it where it will get used for bio energy or industrial compost?

My food waste bin is for gardening waste too so it’s very useful.

We have very little food waste, all the peelings, tea bags and things go in the compost, bones in the fire if it's on and most leftovers get used next day. We have the food bins and I actually use ours to keep bits for the compost until they get added to the heap. Very few people around here seem to use them, hardly any get put out for collection and I have seen the bin men just chuck the content in with the main rubbish, not sure they are always organised to collect them properly.

I think it's more aspirational in a way, we shouldn't waste this stuff, and at least people are learning to recycle food waste, but it wouldn't be top of my to do list for an apparently bankrupt council.

Ok but it's not just cooked food is it it's everything- veg peelings, eggshells for example, I even put biodegradable straws in ours

OP. Because it's not all about you and your situation

There was a thread on here ages ago by someone who said that people who ate and cooked "properly" generated no food waste. There were then a zillion posts of people saying but what about egg shells/ orange peel/ potato peelings/ bones/ banana skins. But OP never came back.

I’m stunned there are still places without a food waste bin! My council does
food waste
mixed tin and hard plastic
glass
cardboard
paper
batteries
All with their own receptacles. It’s a bit of a pain and I don’t really have space (small terraced cottage) but I make it work. These are all collected weekly (though obviously I don’t put all of them out every week as they aren’t full, but I could if I wanted).
Anything else is black bags collected 3 weekly (max of 3 per house). If you want to recycle soft plastics there are bins at most of the supermarkets.
The only bit that really pisses me off is that you have to pay for garden waste to be collected and it’s the same price up to 8 of the provided bags per fortnight. I have a small garden and make maybe 1 every month, tops. It’s really not fair.

Like you we try not to waste food but there is always stuff that ends up in the food bin. A few slices of bread past its best, chicken bones, fish skin, egg shells, leftovers boxed up in the fridge that got forgotten, out of date herbs and spices...

We do have a composter which takes uncooked fruit and veg peel etc but it gets too full in the winter when it's too cold to mulch down properly so for several months of the year fruit and veg peel goes in the food waste.

For those who suffered rats in their dalek composers, the "hot box" ones are much better for this reason and also more efficient at composting.

I fill a bag each week, so about half the bin size

potato peelings, banana skins, coffee grounds
coffee grounds
food scrapes from plates
bones
anything that’s has gone off

my Black bin I fill in about 12/15 weeks

fill my recycling bin every two weeks

We had a composter, we got rats. No more composter. I would love a food bin.

Do you want a medal OP?

I'm on a budget, large family get a veg box every week which reduces plastic packaging but means more food waste of the skins/rinds etc.

Not a chance we could have a garden compost bin, too many rats, mice and ASBO neighbours who don't believe in using any bins and thus the whole street is decorated in their waste nightly by foxes and vermin.

You do you

Mmmm….not so sure about the chicken bones in the compost, boiled or not.

We had a proper compost bin , in which we put only the RHS approved stuff : peelings, cooked veg scraps ( no meat or fish or other high protein waste) carefully layered with grass trimmings and shredded paper. The rat family who set up home next to it were VERY grateful.

It was better in the compost bin in France, we only had a snake. ( probably not venomous🐍)

Sending food waste to landfill costs money, whereas selling it for use in an incinerator makes money. As such, your council is showing great fiscal responsibility. 👏

I have one of those. All was good until a rat decided to make its home underneath it!