Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Unflip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Original poster

To not see the need for food waste bins?

186 replies

Notinmylifethyme · 27/02/2025 13:18

I mean the plastic bins councils supply where excess cooked food is dumped.

I live on a budget. I cook. Veg scraps go in a composter (I have a garden so obviously referring to my situation). I sometimes batch cook. I rework leftovers. I use my freezer. Basically, it doesn't really matter how much I cook, we only put on our plates what we are going to eat.

Am I so unusual? My council are about to spend a couple of million on food waste bins. I'm quite shocked by it.

OP posts:

Mercedes45 · 27/02/2025 13:26

Haveiwon · 27/02/2025 13:23

What About banana skins, orange peel, tea bags, watermelon rind, the cob from corn on the cob, onion/ garlic/ potato/ carrots skins etc. So much that can go in a food recycling bag and lots of people don’t have a garden! Given the council isnt rolling this out just for you, no, I don’t think they are being unreasonable

She obviously makes a delicious banana skin and orange peel soup. Eaten with the cob which has been carved into spoons. Teabags are great for cleaning both yourself and your house. How does everyone not know this already!!

MiddleAgedDread · 27/02/2025 13:26

I have a council "food waste" bin but very little that goes in it is actually food waste, it's veg peelings and apple cores and fish skin etc. I don't have a garden so can't compost and even those who do have a gardens, many people don't compost so it would go in the bin. And not everything is suitable for garden compost anyway (or at least not according to my mother who regularly tells me off for putting the wrong things in theirs!)

CanOfMangoTango · 27/02/2025 13:26

I've never had a food waste bin until we moved house but I think it's a great idea.

I don't have a compost bin & we couldn't put cooked food in that anyway?

Plate scraps, chicken bones, the bit of wet salad left in the box, last week's leftover rice and so on. It really works for us and stops the general waste bin getting smelly if only dry things go in.

We do have food waste sometimes from things we haven't used. I think that's normal tbh.

AnnaQuayInTheUk · 27/02/2025 13:26

You can't put raw or cooked meat into your compost.

We've moved from a LA where all food waste was recycled to one where none is collected. I'd much rather have a good waste collection, I hate throwing things like tea bags in the rubbish bin

justasking111 · 27/02/2025 13:25

My big bin doesn't smell anymore. No maggots. We've had them for ten years. Haven't had to replace yet.

Treeleaf11 · 27/02/2025 13:25

Not everyone has a composter. Most of my food bin waster is fruit/veg debris (can't think of right word) or chicken carcasses.

Haveiwon · 27/02/2025 13:23

TheFlis · 27/02/2025 13:23

Where would you put chicken bones?

GuiltyGiraffe · 27/02/2025 13:23

Isn't the answer obviously that not everyone is like you?

I would say the majority of people don't have composters and it's hard to avoid leftovers when you have picky kids, who leave things. Or sometimes leftovers just go off in the fridge before you can eat them.

JacquesHarlow · 27/02/2025 13:22

Internet poster scratches their head about why anyone would need something, just because she doesn't use it.

QwestSprout · 27/02/2025 13:22

The average person throws away 70kg of food a year.

But that aside, we soon fill our food bin with things like melon cores, fruit and vegetable scraps. I cook exact amounts so there aren't leftovers but we still put out a bag (about half the bin) full a week just from the aforementioned.

Unflip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Swipe left for the next trending thread