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

[BarbarAnna]

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.

I love ours! Our dog does get some leftovers but we still use the food bin a lot for peelings, chicken carcasses, gone-off fruit, and leftovers that aren't suitable for reheating or giving to the dog. We have an inside one that we chuck in the dishwasher when it needs it and the outside one just gets cleaned out with washing up liquid and hot water every so often.

no collection here (or does it go in the garden waste?) but have a compost bin in the garden. Probably with lots of maggots because, that's how it works. Not being a fussy princess type, I can cope. We don't put in actual edible food, only peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds, stuff like that.

waste disposals are a poor use of electricity and fresh water. MN screams its pretty little head of at that (a lot of diva strops thrown when I last posted it) but it is a fact.

our council also does not recycle tetra paks. So I don't buy anything in a tetra pak. It's not hard really.

@Runnerduck34 I thought that too, but it doesn’t decompose. Food rots in landfill, and produces greenhouse gas. That was the game changer for me.

No bio recycling where I am (bin collection doesn't collect any recycling, I have to haul it all over town to various community recycling bins but there isn't any bio ones). Not too bothered though, the general waste goes to a waste-to-energy plant instead of a landfill so it's not sitting around rotting, it's providing electricity and heating.

We have had food bins for years - small one that sits in the utility room, bigger one outside that gets collected weekly.

Council supply compostible bags and if you need a new bin you can just pick one up from the tip.

I used to but it only took the local foxes 2 weeks to work out how to open the "fox-proof" bins and strew everything in them across the front garden. No one on our street uses them any more.

My general waste bin is a large sturdy wheelie bin, that foxes can't get into. So I don't see the need to have an extra bin sitting in my kitchen full of rotting stuff.

So I don't see the need to have an extra bin sitting in my kitchen full of rotting stuff.

You don't see the need to reduce the methane produced by unnecessary landfill? Food waste in landfill is a problem.

I can't be bothered. What doesn't get thrown out for the birds goes in the ordinary bin.

I recycle newspapers and tins, though.

I have a waste disposal unit so 99% of food goes down that. It even grinds small chicken carcasses.
If there is anything larger like lamb bones etc I tend to throw them into the wood behind for the local fox to strip, then collect them back up over the summer and bin the bone.

Bread and leftover cake goes on the bird table.

You only get maggots when you leave food lying around or leave the lid open. Clear the plates asap and it wont happen.

Oo @Rainallnight thank you I think our mini wheely bin one might soon have an accident!

So I don't see the need to have an extra bin sitting in my kitchen full of rotting stuff

But how is it different to having it in your normal kitchen bin?

I find it less hassle actually. It’s smaller and I empty it into the big food waste bin outside every day. The big kitchen bin doesn’t need emptied every day so food in there would be in the kitchen longer.

Drives me crazy when I see ripped bin bags around with food waste / paper and tins - all of which is recycled here. We don't waste much food here but there are always coffee grounds, tea bags, fruit and veg peelings etc which go into the food waste bin. Co-op green bags at 5p each are compostable and we get through one or occasionally two per week. As long as you don't overfill the indoor bin then no mould or horrid stuff but I do clean/dishwash when I empty it.

I can't be bothered

Which says it all really doesn't it.

We use one but I think we are one of the only families in our street to do so (free council service)

I'm amazed at how much food waste we create - having assumed we were a fairly low waste household - but we eat a lot of fruit & veg; and don't have room for a compost bin in the back garden. Never had maggots - easier to clean a small, food waste bin which is emptied once a week than a huge rubbish bin emptied twice a week: yes, the outside bin sometimes gets a little smelly in the summer, but a good wash and sunlight every week and it's soon fine. I do bemoan the inside bin's ugliness though, so thanks to the poster upthread who posted lovely links to more modern looking ones: will be investing :-)

IMO, if you're in an area which provides food waste bins and you are putting your food waste into your normal rubbish, they should refuse to collect your bins until you sort your waste appropriately. Not being bothered isn't an excuse.

We've had maggots (double bagging helps) and foxes getting into it but I would find it weird putting food into the regular bin now!

IMO, if you're in an area which provides food waste bins and you are putting your food waste into your normal rubbish, they should refuse to collect your bins until you sort your waste appropriately. Not being bothered isn't an excuse.

Fortunately you aren't in charge. I don't want an unsightly collection of various containers in my yard. The black bin and the green bin are enough.

I don't want an unsightly collection of various containers in my yard.

Yes, far better to have an ugly, dead planet. Which is where we are heading because of many attitudes like that to the various problems.

I don't want an unsightly collection of various containers in my yard. The black bin and the green bin are enough.

Unless your council do what ours did, give you another 2 bins and cut all the collections so you don’t really have any option anyway

Yes, far better to have an ugly, dead planet. Which is where we are heading because of many attitudes like that to the various problems.

You do know how ridiculous you sound? As if my food waste could save the planet.

Go and have a word with people who fly on holiday or drive gas guzzling cars.

My previous home I was really diligent with food waste recycling until the great maggot infestation.
Came home one very warm, wet afternoon to my entire front garden moving. It took hours of boiling water and some help from the local crows to get it under control. The local council there only collected brown bins every fortnight and only between April and October so food rotted in the summer months between collections.
I tried to use compostable paper bags but they refused to take the bin on the grounds of contamination.

The area where I live now is a different council and they have no recycling for food waste but can recycle everything else.

I didn't in our last home as there was no outside space and in the summer the whole house stank and was full of flies.

Plus, our council issue food bags degrade really quickly in the heat and you'd be left with a bag of slurry the bin men won't take. Also, they won't take any waste not in the official containers .

We've moved since and have a garden, so the scrap bin lives out there but it it starts getting revolting and maggot again in the summer I won't bother.

You only get maggots when you leave food lying around or leave the lid open. Clear the plates asap and it wont happen

Bollocks. We have a chicken farm about a mile away and in the summer there are flies everywhere. The cat's food is full of flies eggs if it's out for more than an hour or two, the brown bin of food crap doesn't stand a chance.