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?

It is premium food. You’re right that the litter tray is much less disgusting now, but the same can’t be said for the food leftovers unfortunately.

Could you feed the cat as soon as you get up instead of just before you go to work? Ours do not permit us to delay their breakfast and they hoover it up in about a minute (we leave kibble down for the rest of the day).

Cat food is awful - I’m definitely having to take mine out more with the combination of heat and cat food.

Interesting question! I've just moved house and the council food waste people are VERY strong on not using compostable bags. Does anyone know if this is just because we have anaerobic digesters in Exeter, and everyone else has a different system? What are other people's local council rules?

"Q. Why can I use ‘any bag’ to line my caddy? Shouldn’t I be using ‘compostable’ bags?
All bags – including compostable bags – will be removed at the food waste processing plant before the food is sorted and taken to an energy from waste plant to be converted into electricity.
Compostable bags are also very stretchy and are more difficult to remove by machinery than other bags, meaning the removal process uses significantly more energy.
For this reason, the anaerobic digestion plant would prefer that you do not use compostable bags."

exeter.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/bin-collections/food-waste/food-waste-frequently-asked-questions/

My cat often has some leftover food which in hot weather flies like to lay their eggs in. I don't put the cat food in the council food waste caddy, I put it in one of the free compostable caddy liners supplied by the council, put a squirt of bleach on top which will kill any maggots that might hatch, and put it in my general waste wheelie bin.

I have 2 food waste caddies, one for veg peelings and tea bags which goes in my compost heap and the other for non-compostable food waste. I keep them both in my attached garage which has a door from the kitchen. I usually empty once a week because that's how often the food waste is collected, but really I should empty more frequently as they can smell in hot weather and the compost caddy liner has usually started to break down.

Quite.

When you read those instruction leaflets saying things like 'dn't put food down the toilet' I do wonder why they would have to write it, as - well, who would ?

Then - MN, as ever - comes up trumps - with someone seemingly suggesting it as if it were a normal thing to do

Fish or chicken skin, scraps of meat or dairy, bones, egg shells - same day

Peelings, pips & coffee grounds go in the compost.

We don't have a cat, and we waste very little so our waste food is going to be the tiniest rubbish collection ever.

Cat food reeks when it hangs around for too long. Maybe just take that out separately, put it directly into the outside bin and keep the food waste bin for other food waste.

Most days.

I'm I have a counter top one for my compost bin, veggie stuff, that gets emptied when full. Also one under the sink for the stuff the council takes: bones, kitchen roll, oil, etc. It goes into the green garden waste bin in a special bag required by the council, which is collected weekly.

Neither smells, though to be fair if I have seafood, the debris is bagged up and goes straight into the council bin.

Or put it in the freezer and the DH uses it to knock up a stir-fry for himself 😂😂😋
As posted on a recent thread.. absolute quality.

We’ve only recently starting using the bio bags in ours. Previously we just emptied it and washed it. But it is never too icky tbh.

At this time of year it needs emptying max every other day bc fruit flies. It’s not such an issue in the winter tho (our kitchen is north-facing and always cool).

No pet food tho – just veg peelings and banana skins really.

oh where is the laughing reaction!

We’re more like once a week too, maybe twice if it’s really hot. We don't throw away enough food to do it evry day which I guess is a good thing!

The supplied bin isn't too bad for smells cause of the lockable lid but opening it after a couple of days was a bit grim, especially with cat food in there. the council supplied bags were useless though, they start going off after a few days and I had one split just lifting it out which was disgusting

We switched to thicker ones (these ones: www.bio-future.co.uk/product-page/6l-compostable-bin-liners) and it’s been much better. They actually last the week. I think Vegware do similar but you need to bulk buy them