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 this for ages. Inside caddy used to be in a cupboard, now we have a new kitchen we use the smallest bin in the special bin cupboard for food waste. Lined - Who Gives A Crap biodegradable food bin liners are taller than any other I’ve found, which we need. It does have a lid but the smell is okay if emptied after three days max - the bin liners can start to break down after that anyway. As someone else said, teabags left on the side to cool and dry a little.

Main caddy lives outside the kitchen door, never had an animal get into it (we have at least one very bold fox out there).

But we do have a good size kitchen and the house is detached - so easy to have one side that’s just bins (wheelie, four boxes, two bags, food caddy).

My dad composts and gets portion sizes right (unlike me) so creates very little food waste for the bin. He keeps it in a small sealable box in the fridge before putting it outside.

The only bad thing we’ve had happen was when we went away in the height of summer and didn’t impress on the catsitters they MUST put the food waste bin out for collection. There were maggots when we got home 🤢

The under-sink caddy doesn’t smell if you empty it twice a week into the outside caddy. Fish remains an obvious exception - straight outside for those. Our outside caddy was run over recently so I had to get the council to replace it. The new one is way more robust; I’d be surprised if a fox could get into it. Not that we had that issue before anyway.

People get very worked up about this sort of thing, and I do think it comes down to inability to deal with change. When food waste bins were introduced to my DF’s area, the street was up in arms. He had a note through his door telling him not to put the new bin out under any circumstances as ‘the street’ was boycotting the scheme. He used it anyway, but someone returned it to his house and posted another angry note. He gave up.

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Mmm BIN freezer

Do some people just have no disgust reflex?

It comes down to finding it vile and minging

We’ve had the food waste system for years here. I’ve never used it because it grosses me out. We have kerbside recycling boxes/bags for thin plastic, thick plastic, tins, cans, bottles, glass, and cardboard. Our wheelie bin only gets collected every three weeks and is only ever half full for a household of five adults so I really can’t bring myself to care about food waste.

For those saying it smells, surely it would smell in your normal bin instead. The caddies have a lid. What is the difference?

What on earth is wrong with securely wrapped scraps going in the freezer? If anyone prefers the smell of meat or fish attracting bluebottles, which can apparently smell anything dead from a mile away! - they’re welcome.

@FlatWhiteExtraHot why does having food waste in your main bin which doesn’t get collected for 3 weeks not gross you out more?

The only problem is that the bin men throw the outside food bin back over the wall, which causes cracked lids / a broken locking mechanism which then attracts vermin and flies

It probably depends on the people 🙄

I really like it, I have a worktop caddy & put the full bags out a couple of times a week into the council recycling box which lives outside. Loads better than having food waste rotting in the bin for a fortnight. The idea that it's more trouble to put eggshells and teabags in the food waste bin than the main bin is a bit ridiculous really...

i really don’t understand this argument. How is having a box of specifically food waste any more disgusting than having a bin with food waste mixed in with other things?

our kitchen bin is emptied every couple of days so if it had food waste in it that would be the same as having a food waste caddy in the kitchen and emptying it every couple of days. Our wheelie bin is in the back garden so having food waste in that would be the same as having food waste in a different bin in the back garden.

I dunno why not stick old tampons in there too? They're securely wrapped!

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I find the idea of leaving your kitchen bin for a couple of days disgusting too.

It can just go outside each day. Surely that’s better than the regular bin inside for a a few days / week.

What do you do with your food waste now?

I throw it in the communal bin mixed in with the rest of the landfill. It does not rot and stink like pure rotting food waste does (as evidenced by the now-removed hellbins the council briefly tried for communal food waste).

@Mightneedencouraged how do you cope with rubbish in general? You seem over traumatised by it!

By being normal about it. Food waste caddies are disgusting.

We have been able to put all kitchen waste, including cooked & uncooked meat, bones etc, into our green bin (collected fortnightly) for years and years.

We are moving to green bin being garden waste only and kitchen waste being collected separately.

So it might be slightly more inconvenient for us, but we will be able to keep the outdoor caddy by the back door whereas the green bin is difficult to get to the back garden - so maybe not.

They really aren’t!

Councils could probably talk more about what happens to the food waste. We have a limited collection in my area & apparently we have an anaerobic digester. This was news to me when I found out (previously only had heard of these via The Archers) and I suspect most other residents aren’t aware unless they follow local politics very closely. Yet the digester produces biogas, so it’s going to be a really useful local asset if the current fuel crisis gets worse.

Despite this & the current changes in the recycling laws, I’ve heard nothing from either my council or ward councillors about how the change in the law will affect our rubbish collections.

We don't have it where I live (Birmingham, no no idea when it will be introduced anyway) but we stayed for a week in a place that did abd after the initial trickiness of sorting things in an unfamiliar environment it was fine. It was an incredibly hot week and nothing smelled other than a whiff from the outside caddy but nothing different to a regular bin. I was amazed at how little 'black bin bag' waste we had.

We’ve had them for years and the great thing is, no stinky black bins any more (because almost everything food-y goes in the food collection, unless it’s compostable and that still goes in the compost bin (doesn’t have to if you don’t garden of course). The food bin doesn’t smell either.

It feels so normal to me that when I visit relatives without food bins, I don’t like the smell of their kitchen bins @WillowTit

It’s not a new thing really - when I was little there was food collection for the pigs apparently!

This. How do people actually manage? 4 separate bins technically - 1 for plastic and 1 for cardboard.

I don't use my food caddy, just put it all in the main bin, because everything is a mess enough as it is with all the recycling too.

Genuine question, how on earth do people keep it neat so it's not taking over your kitchen? I've wondered this for ages!

We used to have garden/food waste mixed, I like our new small food waste bins as it means you don't have to lug the big green bin out even when there's no garden waste. Although the small bins do not seem to be very resistant to the wind ...

Perplexed by all this stuff about smells. It's going to start to smell eventually wherever you put it! Much better to have the most smelly stuff in its own container that's easy to empty regularly than stick it in with everything else.