Boring/stupid question about food waste

[RudolphTheReindeer]

We're due to get food waste bins this year. At the moment it all just a goes into our black bin.

I'm just wondering how these work for people? Do you store them inside/outside? Do they attract rats outside? How do you manage it all? I also have a dc with ARFID so I'm worried about smells?

We keep the food caddy next to our kitchen bin, it means we are in the habit of scraping food or putting kitchen paper in there before the main bin.

We use the free green compostable bags from the library or community centre and empty it every night into our green waste wheelie bin. If there's anything particularly smelly, we bag it and put it out immediately.

Never had an odour problem, but I'd recommend placing it out of direct sunlight as it can cause the contents to sweat.

Both inside and out the food bins lock so pests aren't an issue and that helps with the smell too. The one inside we empty frequently depending what's in it.

I'm in Wales and have three recycling bins as well as main wheelie bin, so very used to managing waste across multiple bins!

We have a sort of out house thing just outside the kitchen door where we store ours. My SIL has a bin divider in her kitchen and puts all her recycling into that before taking out for bin day, but like this: https://www.lakeland.co.uk/24735/simplehuman-divided-recycle-kitchen-waste-pedal-bin-silver-46l?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20891625552&gbraid=0AAAAADtoD6PmNRo2UoQtliK4JS1RVCFlk&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkfzR_9rikQMVzaJQBh0Nqhu4EAQYASABEgJ5cPD_BwE but with another divider.

No pests, no smells. Frequent emptying of inside bin to outside bin. Initially DH was a bit aghast but now likes knowing the main black bin does not have any smelly food in it.

We have a bin cupboard , the small caddy goes in there , along with the blue ( recycling ) and black ( other ) bin
The food waste goes into bags , which are supplied by the council and fit into the kitchen caddy nicely
TBH , I empty those to the outside caddy most days
Food waste gets collected every week
It’s a pain to begin with , but you get used to it really quickly and then find it strange when people just bung everything into the black sack
( I'm looking at you MIL )

Food caddy indoors, double lined with compostable bin liners, emptied as required. I dont notice a smell generally, except when lifting the lid. Washed once a week.

Outside food bin has a flip-over handle that locks the bin. Collected weekly. Other neighbours have garden waste bins and put their food waste in there.

It makes your kitchen and general waste bin soooo much nicer, not having food in it.

Like others, we have a food caddy which we keep under the kitchen sink. That was a compostable food waste bag in and we put all food waste in there. When it’s full or something smelly, we take the bag out, tie it up and put it in the food bin outside.

It works great for me. I have a smaller food waste caddy for indoors lined with a compostible lining, at the moment we have one that sits/clips inside our main bin, but used to have a countertop one (with an airtight lid). It's small so fills quickly and is taken out to the bigger outdoor food waste bin and liner changed maybe every other day. I can't say I've ever noticed any bad smells, for the indoor one there's no reason it would smell any worse being in a separate caddy compared to in the bigger bin, if anything because it's seperate it prevents smells spreading/manky bin juice leakage and we change it more frequently than the main bin so less risk of smells. And the outdoor one is as sealed/airtight as the black bin, I probably wouldn't care to give it a big huff in the height of summer but then again I'm not in the habit of going around smelling my regular bin so I can't imagine it smells of roses either 😂. I never bother with this but the outdoor food waste bin is small enough to bring inside and give a good wash/bleach if you wanted to, unlike the big black wheelie bin so again if anything more hygienic, my food's always tied up in the liners anyway so there isn't any seepage into the bin itself so no real need IMO but something you could do if you are worried about smells.

People locally do sometimes complain of foxes getting into the food waste outdoor bins which is messy if it happens but I've never had a problem, keep it somewhere out of reach and/or put a brick or weight on top to discourage this?

Thanks for the advice. We have two inside bins atm (recycling and normal) but they're in cupboards so no room for an extra bin, so that's another thing to figure out. I might have a look online to see if we can get something to go inside one of the cupboards that's split into two bins. Or make room under the sink for a separate caddy.

You have saved me writing my post because I do exactly the same as you, even down to keeping the caddy under the kitchen sink!

Our bins are by the side of our front door. We store peelings in a little tub, which get emptied every day or so in compositor.

We have very little waste, mostly dried cat food scraps and I put those out morning and night.

You do realise that you already have food waste in your outside and inside bins? It’s no different other than it’s separated out. These collections have been happening around many many parts of the uk for years. Now everyone council has to do it due to the simpler recycling regs that come into force 2026. The best thing is don’t produce food waste in the first place.

We have to put a weight on our outside bin to foil foxes, but otherwise fine.

We have two caddies - a small one that we put under the sink, and a large one for outside. You need to make sure you keep the lid on and keep it locked.

We hardly have any food waste (like three weeks in a row with not food waste) so don't need to transfer to the outside caddy during the week.

We put out our big caddy out on the morning of the collection to stop foxes getting to it overnight. Our council picks up food waste weekly, whereas fortnightly for the other bins.

If you do have to fill your outside food bin between collections, you need to think of a fox-free place to store it.

Small caddy that the council gave us lives indoors next to the kitchen bin. The council used to give us compostible liners but now we have to buy our own. Once it's full/if something smelly is in it it gets double bagged and put in the outdoor food/garden waste wheel bin. The outdoor bin is collected every 2 weeks.

We have a small caddy for the kitchen, we buy the bags at Waitrose, we found them the best so far.
Depending what we cook, it gets emptied every 2-3 days unless we have fish, that goes out immediately.

The bin from the council is suppose to be vermin-safe, it's not. We put it in our wheelie bin and put it out in the morning of bin day to ensure we don't have to clear up the driveway all the time.

You don't need to use the compostable green bags. A bread bag, paper or plastic, is also acceptable. Carrier bags, if you ever have them, also work.

We are not allowed to use plastic bags. Paper bags would disintegrate too quickly in the indoor caddy. We use green compostible liners as directed to by our council

I don’t want the bin that goes out for collection to live inside the house (it gets peed on by dogs etc and is actually massive to accommodate indoors) so we have a ceramic compost caddy we bought years ago from Lakeland on the worktop in the kitchen which we line with a compostable bag and empty to the outdoor food waste bin regularly.

We keep it inside now as the local animals figured out they could knock them over and the lock handle falls open. Caught a badger on camera one night - little buggers. The food goes into the compostable green liners. Never had an issue with smell.

This is what our council says:

"Any plastic bags such as bread bags are ideal for lining your caddy. You can still use newspaper or compostable liners but please do not include black bin bags and remember to remove any plastic food packaging."

OP, your council should give you a leaflet/brochure that explains what you need to do.

We keep our waste in the green compostable bags in the freezer, and only put it into the food waste bin when we put out the bins. Our bin is very clean, untroubled by foxes, and never becomes smelly!

We aren’t allowed to do this - we have to use compostable bags

Thanks everyone.