Is your Ed Miliband compostable food waste caddy a health hazard?

[AndyBurkhamstocks]

On the government directive our local council has taken away our landfill bins and replaced them with 1 tiny landfill bin and a compost food waste caddy which is removed on a weekly basis for burning.

I have put a (compostable) bag of food waste in the council food waste bin and bloody hell, it’s a sea of maggots and live flies. I feel sorry for the bin people who have to collect this stuff on Thursday. I have already drained out the liquid before a previous collection and I wash and dry the caddy after each collection but f me, the only way to stop the food waste from putrefying in this heat is to keep it in the fridge .

Am I the only one f ing this up? How do you stop the liquefaction of your food waste and a potential cholera outbreak?

I used to have one too @MyDarlingRose (which like yours was already in the house when we bought it). Also, like you, I really liked it. However it broke a few years ago and when I looked into replacing it I realised that it was better not to.

try putting the outside caddy somewhere out of the sun, it’s unusually hot at the moment. Will be better normally. Also I put a small piece of kitchen roll at the bottom of the new bag when I put it in the small caddy and make sure things are not too wet when they go in there.

The food collections are pretty good so was surprised when they didnt take it last week but thought its a one off or maybe on strike or too hot !

However they did not take today again so im annoyed as its completely full and so heavy.

I think they have been arpind here today as i saw some neighbours caddy's on the floor open.

Someone prob thought it's too heavy and left it again !

So ive phoned then up not long ago and requested someone come back as its not my fault its heavy now.

They said it maybe collected before next week ! but hopefully in a day or two, well i know they wont come on a Saturday so just have to see.

If there was a problem they should at least put a sticker on to say so as they do with the recyling but there wasnt a problem last week.

Where does the food waste go? Down the drain? 😱

So it does go down the drain. WTF?

Well, Biffa came to empty my bin and left me the rancid swimming pool at the bottom of the caddy so it is currently cleaned out and is air drying on the yellow thatch that is pretending it’s a lawn.

I’m confused as to why you’re shocked… where do you think your toilet flushes to?

Quite frankly the descriptions on this thread of the caddies are making the entire experience with one sound horrific. I wonder what the US does seeing as everyone there seems to have one?

god help your drains!!
these things should be banned
Your argument about flushing toilets is irrelevant, sewers and treatment works are designed to cope with toilet waste, not food waste.

Our council introduced them under a Conservative / Lib Dem coalition government, so nothing to do with Ed Miliband/ Labour, nor is it a recent development.

Initially we had to use compostable bags which, as you say, leaked within the week if liquid food was placed inside and then stuck to the bottom of the bin. After a year or two, the council changed the rules to allow plastic bags to be used, which get removed during the composting process. This helped a lot and we no longer get leaks or maggots.

Why would these get maggots in hot weather any more that when you put food waste in your general bin. We have had food waste caddies for years and i have never had maggots in them.

We don't really produce a lot of food waste though and ours are mainly full of tea bags and orange peel.

Ours are collected weekly. Usually the only problem is transferring bag safely from kitchen (bag-sized) caddy to larger outside food container without the useless compostable bag splitting - usually have to double bag. Now and for rest of hot weather we have fruit flies to contend with. If I don't change to new bag and transfer the first bag down to larger food container outside halfway through the week, the small caddy gets eggs and little maggots on the outside of it in my kitchen. I have fruit fly traps near it but there are still some. The foxes in parts of my London suburb can open the larger"locked" food boxes awaiting collection though happily not yet in my road as they get fed by lots of locals.

Our general waste is collected fortnightly and food waste weekly, surely more risk of maggots if no separate food collection

Sorry @redrivershore6 - didn't mean to quote you!

Ours arrived today. Not being collected until 18 August so I have hidden it in the garage until nearer the time.
Have to say the outside one doesn't look very robust!

I fnd if you pull the handle forward first then back up the side locks clip into place better making it more secure so doesn't let flies in etc.

Looks lockable with that handle? That would be good.

All our bins are green and I find other colours unnatural

That is it locked!

You won the bin lottery so!

Ours isn't composted, it goes to be anaerobically digested, which is why we are asked not to use compostable bags (because they disintegrate and can't be removed easily)

Some councils compost the waste though. You can compost cooked food, but it's not recommended for home composting because it attracts rats.

I've only been using mine a couple of months, the little kitchen caddy is in the utility room next to the pedal bin, the larger caddy that is emptied each week is outside the utility room and in the shade.

So far, I've had no problems with either foxes, rats or maggots. I put a bit of disinfectant on a piece of folded kitchen towel in the bottom of the little caddy and don't let the bag get to full, learned my lesson when it burst - yuk!

What has been a big thumbs up has been my outside household bin is really now too big as I only put out a pedal bin liner of rubbish every fortnight and I've now cancelled my bin cleaner which saves me £38 a year.

Had one 15 years ago, Lib Dem area. Complete nightmare as we live in a city with a lot of foxes. Was impossible to keep them out of it. It’s one small brown bin with a flip top lid that we’re supposed to keep indoors during week until it is collected. The last straw was my dh bringing it back into the kitchen after bin day with the lid down to find a fox had shat in it. I chucked it away. Not used one since, still in the same area. Have noticed hardly any neighbours still use them.

Forgot to add ours are emptied into the same bin lorry that takes the general waste, apparently they don’t have a way to deal with the food waste yet they just wanted to get people used to using them, so until they do I’m not having one!

I’m sorry. But the caddy full of fox shot is very funny even though the stuff stinks.