Do people dislike having a food waste bin collected separately

[WillowTit]

do you dislike your food waste bin?
my colleagues dont like it
all sorts of complaints

the bin lorry will smell is one example

We've had it for years, maybe 15 years. I'd actually forgotten it wasn't always like this until people started skriking on the socials.

The main problem is too many bins. We now have 16 bins on our street and the end neighbours moved out so we've 16 bins for 2 people and it's absolutely insane and a huge mess. The council flatly refuses to consider any other options than leaving 16 separate dirty boxes on the pavements (no back doors). We have tried to get them to see reason but you know how the council is. An implacable wall of stupidity and poorly written webforms.

A decaying pot of food attracting flies or vermin, definitely a problem.

we had the food collection here before they stopped it because it was spreading foot and mouth.

yes more than 20 years ago vegetable peelings could be added to the garden waste as long as no meat was involved.
but there was some issue

We also have guinea pigs and are a mostly vegetarian household. Our main sources of food waste are coffee grounds and probably eggshells. Not enough for me to faff around with a bin on the counter (hate stuff on my counter anyway) or to be runnign outside. And coffee grounds are damp, which means stuff puddles at the bottom of the caddy.

We eat relatively little processed food but don't have a vast amount of waste. Leftovers aren't really a thing - I cook as much as we need or the leftovers are factored into other meals.

This is what bothers me. I have absolutely no space for another bin and as it is, both bins are fairly close to the radiator in the kitchen. The kitchen is tiny.

It also gets very windy where I live, on a hill. My X3 current bins are next to the garage. Don't know where I could safely add a fourth.

No news about when it'll happen yet though here.

Are there any penalties for not using it?

I wasn't keen on the idea at first but have been very happy with it. The outside caddies lock shut with the handle and are pretty sturdy so we've had no issues with seagulls. Our usual rubbish bin in the kitchen is so clean and never smells because no food goes into it. The kitchen food waste caddy isn't a problem if we empty it often enough. And I had to walk alongside the usual dustbin lorry last week and noticed there was no smell at all. It all feels like a much cleaner way to handle rubbish.

We’ve had a separate food/garden waste bin for years and it’s much better. Previously we had one general waste bin for all waste. That bin was replaced by something half the size but we gained paper and plastic recycling bins, plus the food waste bin. Mowing the lawns once almost fills it so we’d be screwed without it really.

I pop a biodegradable bag in the food caddy in the kitchen and empty it into the outside bin every night. Caddy then goes in the dishwasher. Outside bin gets emptied more frequently during the summer months.

I thought I produced very little food waste but manage to fill the kitchen caddy with teabags and peelings each week. I’m dismayed about how long it is taking me to remember to use it!

@SlenderRations you don't have to stop using your worksurface hole thingy, just change what is in the cupboard underneath. Instead of a larger main bin, have a smaller caddy that sits, lined with a biodegradable liner, on little ralls just below the opening, then have a smaller non-recycleables bin underneath that. Look on kitchen design websites for innovative ideas for waste organisation- you don't have to be buying a whole new kitchen to get something that works.

Same. We used to have easily opened ones that foxes got in to but the new ones lock. The food waste goes outside each day, it’s better.

We're getting one apparently, but we don't have much food waste (only peelings, teabags and coffee grounds), so I'd quite like to have a compost bin (perhaps with worms to process it). Dh is going to look in to it.

I’d love to know how you all manage the practicalities of it all. Im certainly NOT having a box of waste food on my work surface, in my fridge or outside my back door. How do you do it?

We’ve had food bin collections for years. I’ve never got close enough to the lorry to smell it. What a stupid argument.

Yes, hate it. Actually gave up with it as the foxes chewed it to pieces. Try to put vegetable matter in the compost/garden bin but we generally have very little food waste (we’re gannets).

Mine is in my utility room. I use a caddy liner. Just put leftovers, tea bags and peelings straight into it. Empty when full into the food bin outside. Not that difficult really.

But the same substances mixed in with the nonrecyclables would be just as an attraction to flies and vermin and that is collected less frequently. Separating out the aspect that is attractive to flies and vermin and dealing with it more frequently is a reduction in the problem.

Yes they broke mine too chucking it back on the pavement

We use a worktop caddy, with a liner, which we empty into the outside caddy as required. The outside one is well enough sealed not to smell, and we keep it at a bit of distance from the house, by the front gate. It's really not an issue. My elderly mother managed one in a London borough until she died at 86, and didn't find it too onerous, either.

We have a mini bin with a motiom-sensitive automatic opening lid on the window sill which is emptied at least every other day so the food has no time to rot. The streetside collection bin is fox-proof with a big lever-lock handle that you need opposable thumbs to operate.

We’ve had it for years, I can’t remember when it started but it must be about 15 years. Why do people have a problem with it?

Small caddy in the utility room, main caddy outside next to the other bins. Collected weekly. Both caddies provided by the council when the scheme started. Although have noticed they don’t provide the small ones anymore

Had them since we moved to this area, almost 20 years.
Everyone is used to them, feels weird when we go on holiday and they don’t collect food waste.
You have to keep the kitchen caddy clean but it doesn’t smell if emptied often enough, and there’s no food in the main bin so that smells less so only needs emptying once a week.

We have to pay for it separately here so I’ve never used the council service, but I put all food waste except meat, fish and eggs into my own compost bin. I have a Joseph & Joseph worktop caddy which you can buy charcoal filters for. Now that I’m used to it it feels like I’m doing something wrong to put food waste in the normal bin when the caddy is being washed.

If I used the council one I would keep it outside the back door as the handle keeps the lid locked. (I have one of the council bins left over from previous house owner and I made nettle tea in it once. That stinks to high heaven but I couldn’t smell it at all with the lid locked).

Apparently soon here we will have to separate our recycling. We haven’t had to separate it for decades so that will be much more of a faff to me than the food waste because I’ll have to find room indoors for big bins rather than worktop caddies

My elderly DM who is in her 90s manages to separate her food waste into a small caddy. If she can manage most people should be able to

You don’t have a waste bin problem you have a fox problem.
Maybe you should spend some time teaching the fox to deposit its waste in a more suitable place.
😉😁😁.