How do you organise your bins in the kitchen?

[StarlingTheConqueror]

Our Council is changing the way they do the bins. From April, we will have an every 2 weeks collection for our Green bin and weekly collection of the recycling.
The problem here is the number of bins.
We will have:
One bag for paper/cardboard.
One bag for plastic
One box fir glass
A small bin for food waste.
Thats 5 different type of ‘bins’

On the top of it, we’ve always composted (yes garden waste but also all our kitchen peeling, eggshell, tea etc….)

So if you have such a complicated system re bins, how have you organised your kitchen?
Atm we have a bigger bin for general waste, one compost and one small bin for general recycling (mix of plastic, paper, cardboard - small stuff. The bigger stuff goes directly in the garage). All integrated in a drawer. But that’s not going to work anymore with the new changes from the Council.

We have

Food waste on top of the worktop - emptied every 2 days.
Drawer with two bins - general rubbish and recycling (incl glass)
Box under the sink for small paper
Box on top of worktop for soft plastic which is then emptied every 2-3 days into a larger bag in the garage and brought to Tesco every couple of week.

The general waste one is often just 1/3 full by the time I move it to the bin outside.

I think I would bring glass directly outside, I find glass is the lowest number of items in the recycling compared to hard plastic and tin.

Depends how much space you have. If you have the room, get another bin with 2 more drawers so you can separate out the recycling.
If not, can you get a divider to use in your current drawer?

We have very little space (small kitchen) available.

We’re going to replace the bigger bin with 2 smaller ones in the drawer.
So that’s 4 bins available.
But we’d need another two really.
And I wanted to avoid the compost & food bins being being on the worktop again.

Im probably hoping for an answer that doesn’t exist 🫣😢
The recycling system is becoming just too complicated.

I have a food waste caddy from Joseph Joseph that hangs on the inside of the cupboard door under my sink. We also have a three-compartment bin (general waste, mixed plastics and cans, paper), and we put the glass in the cupboard under the stairs because there's not so much of that so the bin doesn't need to be as close to hand in the kitchen. We're not composting at the moment but if we did I think we'd just collect it in a bowl on the counter and then put it straight into the compost bin after cooking.

Not being able to have a mixed plastic/can/paper is what trips us…

Sounds like I’ll have to accept we’ll have a food bin on the worktop again. I was so happy to have managed to get rid of it!

We used to have to separate recycling. Rubbish collection was:

• black plastic crate (provided) for paper & card.
• carrier bag for tins.
• carrier bag for glass.
• see through plastic bag (provided) for hard plastics.
• green wheelie bin (provided) for garden & food waste.
• black bin bag (provided) for general waste.

[This pre-dates the plastic bag charge].

Such a faff, and as you say a lot harder as you have to collect and store everything separately.

A 4 bin drawer, 2 big and 2 small.
1 big is general waste
The other big is recycling
1 small is also recycling
The other small is compost.

Box in the utility cupboard for glass.

Joseph Joseph Totem max with recycling on the top and general rubbish on the bottom. Food bin under the sink. That’s all we’re required.

I'm not in UK, we've had 5 bins now for the last 15 years, so I have good practice! Under the sink we have 2 Ikea bins for stuff that could smell a bit, so food waste and one for plastic which is mixed with metal. Then a corner of the kitchen has large blue Ikea bags, one for paper, one for non recyclable stuff and another for glass, These blue bags are easy to wash too. The collections for food are 3x week but for the rest only once a week, so we empty them into larger wheelie bins outside which are divided in the same way. We also have a 6th bin outside for garden waste. We get a bloody huge fine if the rubbish is not correctly separated.

Food waste that can be composted, goes into a tub that one of us puts into compositor when it's full.

General waste in a main bin in kitchen and anything for recycling gets taken out front door (bins at side) either as we feel like it or when we're going out, roughly 4x a day. I feed cats around 10pm, so always clear put whatever is around then.

Our bins are one bin for household waste. A small food caddy and a recycling bag for cardboard and paper, One bin which takes both plastic, metal and glass

I cant stand it, I dont use the food caddy at all, not sure where its gone.

The main kitchen bin is in a cupboard and we have two small buckets under a shelf where all the recycling goes.

The paper and card seems to pile up everywhere before 'someone' takes it out to the bag, which inevitably gets soaking wet. We have no where inside to store it.

They alternate fortnightly at the moment. We frequently do down the tip to get rid of basic household waste or card that is too much for the bag.

My view on this is that unless you have a huge kitchen, there just isn’t space to have all these containers indoors.

So, separate containers outside. Inside, one big plastic box in a cupboard that takes all the recycling. When it’s full, take the whole box outside and do the sorting there.

We take recycling rubbish straight to the wheely bins outside. Kitchen bin (1) is only for stuff that isn’t currently recycled here.

We have:

Brown bin (garden waste)
Black bin (non recyclable waste)
Green bin (recyclables: paper, tins, plastics)
Box: glass
caddy bin: food wasye

We have the kitchen bin for non recyclable waste) in the kitchen.

Kitchen caddy next to the sink

The recycling box: paper, card, pladtic, tins in the utility and when full sort it into glass box and recyclables.

All dealt with and taken to the bog bins when full.

https://www.diy-kitchens.com/kitchen-units/base/pull-out-waste-units/600mm-highline-pull-out-bin-unit-fdb6-2x32-2x8gfh

I have this pull out bin unit, small back two are for food waste and cardboard/paper, front larger two for general waste and all other recycling. We don't have to separate glass/plastic/tin, so that can all go in together.

When we had seperate recycling bags it was a pain. We kept them in the garage. Our council changed over to one unified recycling bin. I am sceptical, but it is easier. When we had the bags they blew about.

We don’t have any waste bins in the kitchen, they’re all outside.

How does that work when you've got a teabag dripping and needs putting in the bin or scraping things off the chopping board, or unwrapped a drippy fish or chicken package?

in the kitchen

Food bin on countertop
bin for plastics/cans
bin for general waste

in the study - paper bin

Well we aren’t in the UK, we are in a French city and it’s very simple.

we have four bins in the kitchen: General recycling, household waste / general waste and glass, and a small one for food.

In our apartment block bin cupboard there is one big bin for all dry recycling - metals, plastics, paper, cardboard etc. It get sorted at the depot and is emptied three times a week. Normal black bin is emptied every two days. The communal areas are cleaned daily and the cleaners put the correct bins out.

Glass and compost, there are bins at the end of our street so we deposit them whenever.

Food waste bin under my sink.
Household waste bin in utility room off kitchen.
And this 3 stacker bin for recycling ♻️

This is not my actual kitchen but we have almost exactly this under sink pull out draw with 2 large bins. All paper, glass and recyclable plastic goes in one which is what our council requires and all actual rubbish goes in the right. Food waste goes in a caddy that hooks over a cupboard and then goes in a small bin outside. We have 4 bins for rubbish collection on the drive, recycling, rubbish, garden waste, food waste.

Thank you all. Interesting to see how we all have organised things.

@CheshireCat1 do you mean like kitchen bins that lives outside? Or the Council type of bins they collect?

@dudsville weve just had a recycling collection right in the middle of the storm. We’ve lost one box that had glass in it. The glass ended up spread all over the road.
There was rubbish on the street everywhere. Paper, cardboard and yes a few of the bags flying around too.
With one more bag and another small plastic box, I am not sure how it will hold.

@HeddaGarbled space is a big issue. Our kitchen is small. No utility room. All the recycling bags live in the garage. We couldn’t leave them outside. Theyd be blown away.
On the other side, theres no way I can go to the garage every time somethimg goes in the bin. I have mobility issues and there are 2 steps getting there. So unfortunately that’s a No. I do have the feeling that the whole organisation was thought by someone who has space at home to put the (perfectly good) examples of bins that stacks/separate etc….

Kitchen bins that are outside in a covered container. It’s just a couple of steps from the kitchen door and it’s out of sight, I don’t like waste in the kitchen and it’s easier when the waste is collected. My DH has always been organised with waste years before it became a thing.

I put stuff out to bins regularly. Compostables I just pop in a bowl and then chuck it in before I do dishes. I have a dog so always walking in and out. Glass goes in a bag for life in utility as have to drive to bottle bank. Plastics and tins have a bin as we seem to get through loads of milk cartons and tinned tomatoes etc. I have a wood stove so cardboard/ paper unless it’s glossy / plasticised will just get made into briquettes. So I rip it up and put in a bin in the barn.