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?

He is ours!!!!

yeah it's pretty disgusting but the bin men are quite good about leaving them upside down so the juices drain out before we bring them back in. The lid locks too.

Ed Miliband compostable food waste caddy - why? These have been around for a long time

Didn’t realise either.

Extra pleased we’ve not been using it now.

Or in my current council.

Line the food waste bin with newspaper - this will help to collect any juices that collect in the bottom. Unfortunately in this heat, the bin needs to be at least wiped down after every collection or else it becomes a haven for flies.

Which council? Boris brought in Net Zero, not Ed. Until yesterday his mandate was to reduce emissions from energy generation by 2030.

I use a kitchen waste caddy with compostable bags the tied up bags are then put outside in the larger food waste bin which the dustman empties . I’ve never had maggots in either bin .

Our council provides indoor caddies and bags for them. That means they go together - the bag is the right size to fit in the caddy and rest on the base, so no strain, with a wide enough mouth that you can fit it around the edges and hold it securely in place with the lid. I've never thought about it before, but these things must help.

Our outdoor bins are quite tall and narrow with good strong lids, which I suppose reduces the fox risk a bit. I think I'd have to buy it a lock of some sort of they got at it.

Sounds as if some councils had this way down their list of priorities and skimped on it.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

But will no one think of the poor bin collection people? Flies or no flies, the food bags still decompose and leave a pool of putrefied liquid in the bottom which they have to fish the bags out of. I don’t read paper versions of news papers.

This is what I do but I have maggots/flies.

They don't fish them out. They pick the bin up and tip the contents into another bin.

Do you have a Waitrose near you? Waitrose give out a free newspaper every week which is what I use to line the bin.

Ours have been going a few months. Outside gets emptied every week. So far so good. Lock it shut everytime I empty the inside one into it. No.flies or maggots or rodents. Wash it out when emptied.

Assuming you're not throwing away more food, the food would have been in the same state when the main bin was emptied under the old system.

The real answer is to stop wasting food.

I've had one for at least ten years. I've had an issue with maggots in the outside bin on one occasion. And it wasn't really an issue once they'd collected it days later! Just rinsed it out and carried on

I'm not sure I want to specify where I live, apart from saying it's a town in SE England. Food waste collection was introduced here only in April.

its not actually a government directive. The directive was that all councils must offer a separate food waste disposal facility.

We've had food waste bins for about 10 years and have never had maggots. I'd suggest you've got an issue with yours not being air tight and letting flies get in somehow.

We have had them for years, never had a problem with it

There's definitely something wrong with your bags - unless your food waste is all liquified acid drops or something. Mine are fine for a week

Er no. It’s excellent.
OP where have you suddenly appeared from?
Net zero and all that comes with it are essential.

This is a non issue. For the record I’m in a Labour area and am reasonably happy with the bin situation. We use about 4 or 5 food bags a week and transfer them to the outside bin. I wash the inside one each time and bleach the outside one once a week after collection.

contrast with dads bins in a Tory area…. No separate food bin. Household waste and food mixed in. He doesn’t have a lot of rubbish do his inside kitchen bin was reeking after a week (20% full) with at least a week to go before collection. Crap system.

I'm following this with interest, because I have the same problem. Never had an issue with maggots or flies in the kitchen, but now with the food caddies they're everywhere. I cannot seem to get on top of it. now my black bin outside is also full of them, and I have no idea how. I am cleaning the bins, sealing the lids and I still have them everywhere.