Aibu to ask a stupid question re food recycling

[Okeycokey1]

Silly question really but...

Just went to empty food caddy to take out the main bin... picked it up and the bottom was crawling with ants which gave me a bit of a jump and hurled it into the sink which was full of water with bleach (don’t ask).

I’m actually not 100% sure what happens when food waste bit am assuming that now the food has sat in bleached water it’s not ideal to go in the food waste bin.

Is this right or would you still put it in with the food waste?

To be honest, I'm glad you asked because I don't even know what they do with recycled food waste!

I'd just put that in the regular bin as it's come into contact with bleach. Most food waste is sent to anaerobic digesters, which are kind of like really big compost bins, where it rots down at a high temperature, and the resulting product is turned into fertiliser. I don't think a small quantity of bleach would be a big deal, but I'd still err on the side of caution and put it in the regular bin.

We sometimes get maggots in our kitchen caddy in the summer, and it's really gross.

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy me neither - I assumed compost then suddenly imagined poor animals eating the food waste or something

@MotherWol yeah I’ve had maggots before - it does freak me out a bit! Usually don’t have a sink full of bleach though lol.

It depends completely on which council area you are in, you need to check your local website.

In our area the food is burned to create energy so it would be fine.

It gets composted (at high temperatures so it doesn't take forever like the heap at the bottom of the garden). The compost is then used/sold (our council let's you have two bags (or something like that) for free each year! You sign up online and then they deliver them.