Scintillating thread alert! If you have a food waste caddy in your kitchen, do you take the waste out every day?

[BarbaraVineFan]

I find that, especially in this heat, I am needing to take the food waste out daily- but I’m getting through a lot of plastic bags. (Obviously they are the biodegradable kind, but still!) Is this something that everyone does? Am I a disgusting slob for wanting to keep the food waste bag in the bin until it fills up a bit?

Weekly, the night before it gets collected. It lives in the cupboard under the sink. Never smells.

Mine doesn’t live in a cupboard as I have very limited space, but I do find that it smells :( I think it might be the leftovers from the cat’s food which I scrape in there that are making it stinky.

Usually every other day, but I just scrape it into my outside compost bin so no plastic involved. Yes the smell probably is the cat food!

I empty mine as often as necessary. Sometimes a couple times a day. I don’t want my kitchen to get smelly.

I use bio degradable bags from Aldi or B&M Bargains.

If I run out of bags I use several layers of newspaper spread around the sides of the caddy & double layered in the base.

If I suspect wet or dribbles I take the complete full caddy to outside bin & tip it out.

I am never troubled by maggots in the external bin, I wash that bin regularly but if I did get maggots, I would kill them with fly spray.

That’s my routine. Works a treat.

How do other people with cats manage?! It is a horrible smell even after 24 hours :(

I empty it when it's full. Can be after a couple of days or twice in one day. I double bag the contents

Every couple of days. Don’t use bags though. Just wash it in between.

We have a compost bin and realised those bags do not break down as easily as you imagine.

We have a bin which takes one bag in the kitchen, when it’s full, usually at least daily, the bag goes out to the council provided green bin. Indoor bin never smells but we do get tiny flies. I think the bag sometimes makes the bin sticky so I drown it in boiling water and fairy quite often in this weather.

Give the cats less food? Ours very rarely leave any, the bowls are licked clean.

We don't have a food waste collection yet so ours is just fruit and veg scraps for composting, I take it out most days especially in hot weather, it is tiny so it fills up quickly.

I keep the food waste bags in the fridge. Put them in the outside food waste bin when full.

Yeah, every day. Especially in the heat! But we cook most things from scratch which means a fair amount of fruit and veg waste, and nobody wants to smell old onion peel and garlic scrapings. If we’ve had a day without much cooking, we might stretch it to two days. You do get through a lot of bags, it’s true.

Could you give your cat less food so there are no leftovers? I give mine half a pouch and stick it in the fridge for later.

@BarbaraVineFan
Could you put cat leftovers down the toilet?
Make it wet enough if it’s dry kibble to help it along
If a toilet can take poo & vomit, it can take wet cat food.

Some people keep a bag or tub in the freezer and put all the scrapings in there. They don't go off or smell, and you can put the frozen block in your outside food waste bin on bin day.

However that depends on how you feel about keeping the old cat food scrapings in the freezer.

to add we have one of the dustbin types of cat so we don't really have cat food leftovers.

I think we need cat tax.

Wow, thanks for quick replies everyone!

Our Council requires that we use bags. And I can’t feed the cat less as I feed him in the morning before I go to work- he is still eating when I leave!

ideas about putting the waste in the fridge/freezer are intriguing, but I find the idea a bit disgusting, especially since I don’t have a very big freezer.

Also weekly here. No smells.

No, when it is full.

Our food waste stays in the kitchen caddy all week, in the cupboard under the sink. It's much cooler in there than outside. If I've got something I'm worried is going to go off and smell (eg. food left on plates after dinner) they get added to my (clearly marked!) food waste bag in the freezer and that gets put out when it is reasonably full. I never throw out more than one food bag per week. All waste raw veg and fruit goes on the compost.

Don’t flush leftover food including cat food down the toilet FGS!

From United Utilities

I don't have one.. everything gets scraped into the bins outside the back door straight away.
The other kitchen bin is for dry waste only..
Even bottles/ tins etc get put into the recycling bin outside the back door straight away.. its only 3 steps from the kitchen.

I have a dog in a cat’s body - hoovers up all food in seconds so there is never any waste.

A more helpful tip: premium food if the budget allows? Despite the no leftover’s situation, the smell of our cat’s turds were absolutely horrific when we first got her. We switched to premium food on a recommendation, which looks much nicer than a lot of what we eat and isn’t smelly (pre- or post-digestion).

I love your title 😂👏

No, only when it's full so about two or three times a week.
It contains egg shells, ends of cucumber and Coffee grinds.

Always use double green bags and lined with a couple of pages of the DM TV guide 😶‍🌫️