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Original poster

Genuine question, if you don’t use a food waste bin

205 replies

BarbarAnna · 17/02/2020 20:45

Why not?

Accepting that some people may not have a garden or room

But if you live in a house with a driveway and a garden, and your council provides food waste collections, why wouldn’t you utilise this?

I am genuinely interested to know.

Not for the first time, my dim witted dog has eaten food which has been ripped out of a bin bag by presumably cats, rats, birds or foxes.

I just don’t get why you wouldn’t use the facility if it is there.

OP posts:
GeorgiaGirl52 · 18/02/2020 00:37

Food scraps help reduce dog food costs.

zasknbg · 18/02/2020 00:40

It’s utterly rank. A dog died after licking one of those food waste bins, think I saw that on here.

I am amazed that people have no food waste. I wouldn’t let my dog eat the food waste. Eg if you go to the supermarket and buy some strawberries and realise when you get home that they are mouldy. What, you’d feed you dog that shit??????? I don’t put that kind of thing in food waste. In warm ish weather, the mould from strawberries grows up like a white cloud meeting you the next time you open the food waste.

Do these dogs who ensure no food waste eat the egg shells and chicken bones. Tea bags? Onion skin? Pepper seeds?

FoamingAtTheUterus · 18/02/2020 00:45

Food waste ?? What's that 😂😂😂

DeRigueurMortis · 18/02/2020 00:45

To echo other posters, it's not a service where I live.

Regarding food waste, firstly I do my best to minimise it. I have boxes in my freezer where I dump left over "scraps" of vegetables and meat bones until they are full enough to make stock and soup.

Peelings go into the compost pile.

It's very rare that any "food" waste goes in my bin.

HalfSizeMe · 18/02/2020 00:47

My parrot eats the pepper seeds. She loves them. She'd be very happy if everyone on this thread fed them to her!

Other things we put in a compostible bag and take out to the outside food waste bin. I won't have a bin in the house because I've heard bad things about germs.

EthelMerman · 18/02/2020 00:56

We don’t have much food waste in our house and try to eat what we buy. However, the state of my mother’s kitchens has put me off composting and food waste bins for life. A nice lady at the council tried to talk me into having one and we had to stop the conversation when I got a bit bonkers. So thanks, but no.

Ifionlyknewthenwhatiknownow3 · 18/02/2020 01:01

I do use mine and love it however we're told we're not allowed to dispose of cooking oil in it. I must admit I find this tricky to manage at times as it's difficult to judge exactly how much oil to use say eg roasting spuds. There's nearly always a wee bit left in the roasting dish that I really don't want to wash down the sink even with plenty of hot water and fairy liquid. No food waste is allowed in the general bin. The solution IS to take it to the recycling centre but it's such a small amount, even if I were to save it up.

sofasocks · 18/02/2020 01:12

Where do you put them? Our council has said they will soon give out these bins but they sound gross

Icecreamdiva · 18/02/2020 07:52

I get round the waste oil thing by soaking it up with used (biodegradable) kitchen roll or stale bits of bread and putting those in the food waste.

DinosApple · 18/02/2020 08:04

Our council don't do a food waste bin.
We are not even allowed to put peelings into our garden waste bin.

We used to be able to put uncooked vegetables in it, but that changed at the same time as they introduced the £40/year charge and reduced collections to fortnightly Hmm.

We don't have a compost heap either due to rats being a problem. The people behind keep chickens.

Selfsettling3 · 18/02/2020 08:06

I have a tiny garden, my compost bin doesn’t seem to actually compost.

Council doesn’t do good waste collection. All our waste goes into wheelbins so there is no way animals can rip anything open.

SoupDragon · 18/02/2020 08:07

we're not allowed to dispose of cooking oil in it

I mix left over fat/oil with flour and out the resulting paste in. I think it's because it's liquid and won't stay confined within the bag.

You absolutely shouldn't be pouring it down the sink!

SoupDragon · 18/02/2020 08:10

and fact that when the bin men collect them they go in the same bin lorry with the rest of the rubbish

Are you sure the bin lorry doesn't have split compartments? I am 99% certain this is how ours works - food recycling in one side, other recycling in the other.

Turquoisetamborine · 18/02/2020 08:21

Our council don't offer a food waste service despite our council tax being high (1300 pa for lowest band).

I did have a composter but ended up with rats 😮

SimonJT · 18/02/2020 08:25

I live in a flat.

I have a waste disposal, but generally the only waste we have is onion skin, garlic skin, cassava peel, melon seeds etc. Annoyingly a lot of our food waste like onion skin can’t go in the waste disposal.

CadburyFlake · 18/02/2020 08:40

I don't get the difference between it ponging in a caddy or in the main bin. Maggots get in if the flies are determined enough regardless of the bin used. In the summer the food bin is changed daily. Stops main bin getting rank. Much easier to hose out the food bin than big wheelie.
It needs looking after but it's no big deal in the scheme of things.

There really are a bunch of slightly precious people here. I wonder how many of you are also "euwww yuk disgusting about cloth nappies and washable menstrual products!

CadburyFlake · 18/02/2020 08:44

I get the challenges for those living in flats though.

SimonJT · 18/02/2020 08:45

Food waste here goes down the waste disposal or straight into the communal outside bin. The only exception is when my son is in bed, then I wait until morning.

Leaving food festering in any indoor bin is disgusting.

99problemsandthecatis1 · 18/02/2020 08:46

Icecreamdiva egg shells compost really well (as do egg boxes). When we had a composter I out everything in it, fish bones included. I did put meat bones in but we rarely have meat on the bone.

Jarvisisgod · 18/02/2020 08:47

Ours doesn’t offer it and I’m glad. My sister has one and it’s disgusting

drspouse · 18/02/2020 08:47

No food waste bin, plenty of food waste (two DCs who we wouldn't/couldn't make finish their plates).
We have a hot compost bin but at this time of year it isn't hot enough for regular food waste.

SquirmOfEels · 18/02/2020 08:50

The council does not collect food waste separately, so no point in separating it

I compost what I can, and put everything else into general waste.

PineappleDanish · 18/02/2020 08:50

Or if you're my PILs, it's because the Council shouldn't DARE tell them what they should do with THEIR waste, they can put it where they want to, climate change is a myth anyway, who wants to faff around sorting recycling, it all goes to China anyway, pointless waste of time, all into the black bag, that's what we've always done and always will.

SoupDragon · 18/02/2020 08:51

Of course it's not nice. However, food waste doesn't degrade properly in landfill and has no place there. Sometimes you have to do "revolting" things because they are the better thing to do.

TBH, it's no wonder the planet is fucked. (I include myself here as there are bound to be things I could do better)

SushiGo · 18/02/2020 08:52

We do.

On our street with about 20 odd houses, only one other family puts theirs out. I assume they all think it's 'gross'.

Leaving food waste in your landfill bin, both uses up landfill waste faster and creates pockets of methane which are damaging to the environment. In our area if you use the caddy the food waste is burned to create energy.

If you give the slightest shit about the environment using the food waste bins is a no brainer.

Just give them a wash once a week to keep them clean and it won't be gross.