AIBU not to use the food waste bin?

[MRex]

We put veg cuttings in the garden bin (onion skin, end of lettuce, any manky bits), any bits of bread or leftover cooked veg out for the birds. A few grains of rice or whatever left on the plate would just stick inside the food bin. We serve almost everything at the table rather than dishing out in advance so we take what we need and can store leftovers in the fridge or freezer and are good at using them all up eventually (slow cooker meat might end up in a wrap with salad, leftover omelette or pancake slices defrosted for DS snacks while out etc). We get chicken breast and sometimes steak so there's a tiny amount of fat, which most weeks would be the only thing I could think to put in the food bin and I'm not entertaining the foxes for the sake of ~10g of chicken fat that would probably be stuck to the bin or left behind as the binmen assume it's "empty".

I've seen various recycling messages making a big deal out of food waste and I just don't get it because I can't think of what could go in the food bin. It can't be about food at the dump because the smell of food on non-recyclable bits of packaging would still attract rats and whatever. All I can think is that some people have lots of excess food wastage, but then shouldn't they just be more careful about the food dates and how much they cook / how they serve?

Obviously IABU to judge, so enlighten me please, what do you put in your food waste bin? Why are we unreasonable (if we are) by not using ours for those bits of chicken fat?

Thank god for the waste disposal - one of the best things I ever spent money on

Maggots

Ugh

Everything goes to the chickens or compost

We use ours and have done for years. Our garden is small so no space for a compost bin. I just use it on autopilot when needed.
Same as everyone else really, fruit and veg peelings, fruit cores/stones, coffee grinds, odd bits of fish skin, meat bones, egg shells plus the odd bits of leftover rice etc but that is very rare!

I normally have one small biodegradable bag which is half full, stalks from grapes, grapefruit and other fruit skins, eggs shells. This week I am hugely ashamed as my bin has four enormous baking potatoes complete with sproutings that I found at the bottom of the fridge. No idea how long they have been there, hate food waste so very annoyed with myself.

Didn’t know about tea bags having plastic in!

Waste disposal unit is the game changer in our new kitchen, no facilities to compost, am good with leftovers anyway as hate wasted food, think about what we buy, local butcher will debone a whole chicken, easier to cook and no bones to dispose of.

Food waste rotting in landfill creates methane, which is even worse for the environment than CO2. It's really important to keep food waste separate for this reason. I'm sure you can imagine the council would not be collecting it separately to dispose of if it was not important. You can imagine how much extra it costs them, yet most areas have this service simply because of the savings in greenhouse gas emissions.

Anything that you cannot compost can go in a bokashi bin or wormery. Though I find the wretched bokashi bin goes wrong as often as it works properly.

Not all garden birds are herbivores. I've seen crows pecking a pigeon to death then eating bits. I don't see why they wouldn't eat chicken, they're scavengers.

Is it safe for dogs to be eating eggshells? 😱 I mean, my parents dog once ate a whole box of eggs and her fur was amazing, but surely there's a risk with them being so sharp?

Anyway, yes, it's a shame not to use your food waste bin if there's stuff your just chucking in other bins that could go in there. Maybe try finding out what your local council do with food waste - in my area it's used to produce energy, enough to power all the local schools apparently! I've only ever seen one size of the bin liners so I think you'll be safe buying whatever you see.

spam they crunch them. It's fine. They eat bones

We have a lot of food waste as we don't compost due to massive rat / mice problem in our area.

Some of our waste is normal veg, fruit, egg shells tea bag. But with three kids there is a lot of what they don't eat.

And unfortunately we do Waste food due to not eating it before it goes off,

Our council doesn't provide one. We do have some food waste. Mainly the kids. Left over sandwiches from lunch or dd's tea.

We have guinea pigs who are great at eating up peelings from veg and bits of fruit.

I just use sheets of newspaper to line my food bins. We have a small caddy in the kitchen, which we decant into a larger one which lives outside and is collected very week. It's no bother at all to rinse them out when they're empty. They don't get smelly or attract maggots.

I used to compost, but keeping the rats out was impossible, so we abandoned it when the council started collecting food waste. As others have said, we use it for fruit & veg peelings, citrus peel, apple cores, eggshells, teabags, mouldy bread, anything that's managed to dry out in the salad drawer.

The only food waste that goes in our bin (no separate collection) is the minging stuff that went out of date at least three years ago and is covered in mould but that my DM won't throw out, so I have to wait for her to go on holiday occasionally then have a clear out. Half eaten jars of pickled beetroot from the early 2000s, for example.

The thought of having the waste food in the caddy gives me the boak. So we got a waste disposal instead. What little food waste can’t go down there is bagged and put in the main bin.

The thought of having the waste food in the caddy gives me the boak. So we got a waste disposal instead.

I’ve just had a new kitchen and had one fitted. I tried to use the food waste caddy but no matter what anyone says, it stinks very quickly. For some bizarre reason our council forbade us from putting pet food in it. I’ve no idea why. Anyway, everything now goes down the plug hole.

Mine doesn't stink but we don't eat meat; I'm guessing meat might smell quite fast. We have a small one in the kitchen and a larger one that goes in the garden until collection day. Bag up the contents of the smaller one (biodegradable bag) at least every 3 days and stick in the larger one. It works well.

I’m so happy to have a caddy as I was once attacked by bin juice (truth is I dropped a bin bag down the stairs and it exploded, covering me in bin juice)
My young daughter, despite my best efforts, wastes food. I want X no I don’t I want Y..I’m hungry...I don’t like it...you know the score.
I put rotting fruit out for the wasps

Don't give animal fat as bird food - it ruins the waterproofing on bird feathers.

Looneytune253 our council is the same, but that last bit of the broccili that never got cooked is no different to the plants I dead headed, so damn right am I putting it in the garden waste - that we take to the tip ourselves, rather than pay for the collection!

I put peelings, cores, manky outside leaves from cabbages, banana skins etc. in the garden waste bin. Sometimes chop up old apples for the birds if they are past putting in a tart.

However, we no longer have a food waste caddy as the council suspended them, and are told to use the general waste. I previously used our caddy at the last house. When we moved it went in the garden bin, then the little bins and caddies were introduced. My caddy had a small hole in the bottom and it leaked, I used a plastic box while I waited for the replacement, it never arrived. I stopped using it.

It was also the most disgusting thing I have used, having to wash it was foul and the maggots....

Can British drains handle lots of food waste?
I grew up with garbage disposals. But modern American drains are very different from British old sewers.

I'm fed up of all the different coloured bin's we have 5 in all, don't use the food waste bin the thought of it sitting for 2 week's turns my stomach

We have five as well, including the food caddy. I don't have any bother making full use of them all, but our food caddy is emptied weekly so it doesn't get smelly.

I just wonder what's going to happen to all these plastic wheelie bins, millions of them all over the country, when they're discarded, as they surely will be.
And I'm lucky enough to have a back lane where the bins are kept. A lot of older terraces have them in the front garden, which isn't a good look.

I put veg peelings, off cuts from fruit, any out of date fruit or veg, egg shells and stale bread in the compostable bin. It first goes into the kitchen caddy which has a compostable liner and then into bin which is emptied by the council once a week. The same bin also takes garden waste.