Do you compost food waste? Which bin? Rats?

[WeaverofWords]

I’m going to try composting. I have very little food waste but I like the idea of making compost for my plants. However, about a year ago I noticed a rat in the garden. My neighbours have chickens & they thought it arose from their feed. I’m guessing any composting bin will have to be sealed & secure.

Can you recommend one? Pref not expensive. Ideally I would take someone’s old one off their hands but I don’t have FB for Marketplace, etc.

Have you tried your local council? Ours had discounted ones which they delivered. Ours has lasted for ages. I tend not to compost much food now as we have a food waste collection. I did find egg shells took ages to break down and were very sharp!

Ooh no I hadn’t been aware of council schemes like this. Will look mine up. Thanks for this! I’ll reminded that about eggshells!

Definitely try your local council! I have 4 of the basic plastic ones that were all either free or only £10 when they've done offers. I make sure the little door is wedged with a heavy brick to stop any rats getting in and compost everything I can, particularly as garden waste collection is now charged where I live. You can put grass/plant cuttings, cardboard, paper, wool, cotton, silk etc as well as veg/fruit peelings. As PP said, eggs need a bit of a crush before you put them in and check that any teabags you put in are fully compostable first.

Don't put meat in the bins or anything citrus because these do attract vermin. They also suggest not putting hot food in for this reason either.

Buy some compost accelerator (Wilko is great for this) and give everything a good stir every couple of months, along with some water so that it rots down quickly and heats up. It's totally addictive once you start

Put plenty of cardboard in, the worms love this !

Most of my food waste, veg peelings etc, goes on the compost heap, and I also have bokashi composting bins, which pickles food waste. However, it is quite smelly and you definitely need a big enough garden to dig in the fermented waste every few months. I mix it in with the compost.

I also have a wormery, but it is much more effective in the summer, it slows right down during long wet winters.

I used to have a Green Cone too, but I recently had to dig it up as it was in the wrong place. You need to bury it quite deep, but it did work and was quite cheap.

I agree with PPs about checking with your council for any discount deals.

Don't put any cooked food in, otherwise everything else is fine. You need a ceratin amount of brown matter - cardboard is good.If you put grass cuttings in mix them up with some cardboard or you will get a slimey layer.
I don't put weeds in as the seeds will survive. They go in the green bin which the council collects. Our is somewhere that doesn't get the sun, which means it doesn't really get warm enough but we still get lots of compost out of it eventually.

I put all garden waste, fruit, veg, egg shells and cardboard on mine. No cooked food or any other food. Never had rat problem

My mil puts bread in hers and other stuff I’m sure and she gets rats

We did have a family of rats in ours so stopped adding any food to it. We do have a kerbside food-waste collection scheme though so it is still used. I did watch a few videos on the rat situation and part of the solution was to use chicken wire to prevent access underneath, limit food, turn it frequently to disrupt the nests and put down traps. I’m not sure if that’s helpful advice or not but there are plenty of videos on You Tube if you want to explore further. ( we now have a cat which might help too)

A rotating compost bin/tumbler might suit you. Completely enclosed and raised above the ground.

The only time I ever had rats was when I put a load of fermented wine solids in. But I've been composting for years otherwise and no rats.

Top tip is to chop everything up to an inch long, as you put it in the kitchen container that would collect it in, and for every bowl of kitchen waste put it the same amount of shredded paper or card.

Wow, thanks so much for all these tips! I'm really touched that you've all given me so much advice. THANK YOU!

I looked up council composting bins - £25 with % off if you buy a few. They also sell water butts. Was thinking of getting one of those, too. Arghhh wonder if I should just join Marketplace for this kind of thing. Or am I being tight?!

Try Freecycle first, it is where I got most of mine from.