To not see the need for food waste bins?

As pp said there is lots of food that is inedible like egg shells , bones , coffee ground. You can also put cut flowers in them.

It's not just your council that are doing it though, it's been rolled out by the government and all households and businesses have to get better at recycling.
So there will be no more mixed 'dry' recycling, you won't be able yo put anything in your paper bin except paper and thin unlamanated card.
Cans , plastic and glass bottles will all go in one bin for now but that may change in 2028/9 .

You do know food waste is used to make compost don't you? They make money from this?

We have recycling and waste collected weekly but black bag waste 3 weekly. Where would you like me to put all the tea bags and fruit and veg peelings or left over foods we have?

That took me at least ten seconds to click that your cats weren't eating the potato skins 😂😂

This.

@inkintotheswamp
''How do you stop the rats eating the compost?
The ones in my garden loved potato peelings so I had to get rid of my compost bin.''

I have two cats and resident foxes :)...

How do you stop the rats eating the compost?
The ones in my garden loved potato peelings so I had to get rid of my compost bin.

We throw very little edible food away but still fill the food waste caddy every couple of days. If you cook more from scratch you actually create more food waste - potato peelings and the ends of vegetables etc…if I make oven chips, fish fingers and frozen peas (no judgement, a cracking meal!) there would be probably nothing to put in the food waste bin, but fresh fish with lemon on the side, mashed potatoes and carrots would create a fair bit. We do have a compost bin but don’t use our home food scraps in it, the council use a special treatment which allows them to then distribute the compost to the public.

I don't use mine any more after seeing the bin men throw the contents in with the black bin rubbish. Lots of complaints to the council by locals about it, they say they won't do it again but my home office is at the front of the house and I watch them do it every time.

Our council food waste goes here, so it’s used for energy and then agricultural fertilisers. Garden waste goes to a big composting site and is then sold on for domestic and commercial use. It means the council can generate income and avoid penalties for not meeting their recycling targets. If you’re home composting that’s great but not everyone can do that, and reducing the amount of food that’s decaying in landfill is good for everyone.

I don’t waste food. Scraps and peelings go to make stock, feed my chickens, make compost or feed worms in the wormery. But I still have some bits that need to go in the council green bin. Most people have fewer options than I do.

Around here, badly disposed of food attracts rats and foxes.

I had to get rid of my compost bin and wormery because it was attracting the rats near to the house. My neighbour will not deal with them 😑

I would love a food waste bin but my council have no plans for them anytime soon

I would really like plastic bag recycling to be a thing more locally there is talk of one at Tesco but I've not seen it since covid

I'm just shocked that a council so recently announced as bankrupt would not spend their / our money better.

It's far cheaper for a council to have food waste bins, make compost, and sell the compost or use it on their parks etc. than it is for them to dispose of that waste through the general waste stream. Landfill, quite rightly, costs.

boil the bones, they they go dry into the bin

Well now you can put them in your food waste bin,

Ta da! You have a use for it!

22% of the English live in flats, a compost bin is of little use to them.

So you do create food waste (in the technical terms of what is supposed to go in the caddy), you’re just not putting it where it is supposed to go. I love that our black bin has no food waste in it. Much cleaner.

We don't have a food waste collection but I wish we did as only so much and not everything can go into compost in the garden.

How can anyone not know that people throw away food?

Do you live off grid expect for access to Mumsnet yet never come across a thread entitled "It's 00.10, will if die if I eat a slice of bread that was best before yesterday"

Not everyone has a garden though.

It’s surprising what goes into the food bin that isn’t actually food. I’m talking about teabags, eggshells, fruit and veg peelings, fish and chicken skin. There’s only the two of us but the scraps soon mount up. You’re not cheating your council if you choose not to use your bin but compost instead.

Sweetcorn on the cob.
pineapples
banana skins

We are a family of 5. don’t have a compost bin (small garden). We don’t chuck out good food but these are the kind of things that seem to fill up our bin.

can you really not imagine that some people live differently to you!!!

I don't really understand your question / point. You even say you're only talking about your own situation, which is different to lots of people.

Everyone has food waste, even if they genuinely eat everything they buy - peelings, onion skins, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds, banana skins, apple cores, peach stones. That's just off the top of my head, there's loads more.

The aim is for that not to go to landfill, so it needs to be seperated out. People live in flats with no garden, or don't do 'gardening' that needs a supply of compost, or are worried about rats being attracted to food scraps in a composer. There's 101 reasons for people to want or need their food waste to be collected kerbside.

i have garden compost but can't put meat / cooked food in because it would attract rats. the council food bins are very useful to stop the general bin smelling, as well as making people more aware of what they throw out.

As a vegetarian I don't use one.

Any vegetable/fruit peels and left over tea leaves go into my garden 'Dalek' compost bin.