Please talk to me about food waste recycling!

[Bee2828]

Not really an aibu so I apologise. Posting here for traffic.

I live in an area which does not yet recycle food waste but there has been talks of it happening in the future.

I would like to know more. I get the jist obviously.

But how does it work?

How often is it collected?

How do you keep it hygienic??

Paranoid of smells, flies etc. Particularly in the summer months..

We have a small food bin in the kitchen and then I put the large food waste bin outside the back door. We get given these small biodegradable food bags which fit in the small bin which has a lockable lid. The local council provides all of this. Ours gets picked up every week. We also have separate bags/tubs for glass, cardboard, paper, cardboard and tins/cans/plastics which can be recycled. Then every 3 weeks we are allowed to put out 2 grey bags of items which cannot be recycled.

We have a lined caddy in the kitchen (biodegradable liners). Once it's full the bag is tied and put into the outside bin. I tend to double bag as the bags are a bit crap. Food/garden waste bin is collected every 2 weeks. We have had smell/maggot issues in the outside bin a couple of times during the summer months. Double bagging helps with this too.

Ours we have a kitchen caddy lined with a compostable bag. Every 2/3 days bag is removed into the collection caddy which is kept outside. Collected weekly. Don't really notice smells or flies.

Our main problem is stopping the foxes getting into the outside caddy. It 'locks' by changing the handle position but they have worked out how to open it and we end up with the contents spread over the front lawn.

We have food recycling in our area. 2 bins, a small worktop one and a larger one kept outside. We use compostable bags in the worktop one ( sell them in supermarkets etc) and then when full tie them up and put them in outside one. The council collect it weekly. In the summer I always keep the outside one locked (via locking mechanism on handle) as flies got in one year and we had maggots!

FthisS - Do the council provide all your food bags for the bins, we have to buy our own.

Our council does not provide liners so I buy mine from Amazon/eBay in bulk. Our council kitchen food caddy was quite big so I bought a small Addis one that matched our other kitchen plastics and it sits on the side in the kitchen. The outside one is washed weekly in the summer after collection, I don't bother washing it much in the winter

ours now goes on compost, but previously used the small bin in the house and tipped into the big one. Use a Lakeland caddy now as it doesn't need liners, the inner just gets washed or goes in the dishwasher. ('biodegradable' bags don't degrade on home compose heaps)

but with no kids in the house we don't have much food waste. We only put on plates what we will eat.

We have a small caddy to keep in the kitchen and a bigger one to empty it into which is collected once a week.
I give them both a quick rinse every week and that's all they seem to need.

I've only seen maggots in it once at that was a late collection so after 8 days instead of 7.

The general waste is so much cleaner now so that's a good thing especially as that only goes once a fortnight.

I put a brick on top for added fox/rat proofing.

Ours is weekly. We have to buy the liners, which I got from Amazon. They gave us an indoor and outdoor food bin. I compost the veg waste anyway, but put non compostable waste in the recycling bin. We got maggots a couple of times last year when it was really hot but not many so it wasn’t as traumatic as I thought! Like a pp, foxes can open our locked bin. So I put the food bin inside one of the other big wheelie bins until it’s time to be taken.

If there's anything likely to go stinky/mouldy before collection, I put it in a bag in the freezer and then just take it out on collection day.

Our council provides bags too. We are more prone to maggots as ours is only collected every 2 weeks. Our other bins are on a 3 week cycle

Small caddy indoors, bigger bin with locking handle outside. We use liners from the supermarket and it is collected weekly. I find that the indoor one only smells after 5 days or so in summer and not in winter really. It is rarely full though, not much gets put in it tbh. Have never had maggots even when there was a bag tied up in the outside one for 3 weeks in summer due to us being away so it didn’t get put out. It’s so much easier and cleaner with the general waste now, we’ve had this system for at least 15 years and no issues at all.

Our outside food bin locks with the handle.

I have a food bin inside with a compostable liner which gets taken to outside bin when full.

It's collected weekly and I think it's fab. I can't believe some councils aren't doing it yet.

Like others, we have a small kitchen caddy and a larger one outside. The council provided both caddies originally, but our kitchen one broke eventually so we bought a nice neat one on Amazon. This comes apart and fits in the dishwasher so it's always clean.

We are lucky - our council has told us we can use any plastic bags for the food waste, so doesn't have to be those stretchy compostable ones (they must shred the plastic off in some way). So I just re-use the red food bags supplied with my online Tesco shop, or bread bags etc.

There are no "smells", and the only time the foxes broke into the outdoor caddy is when DD2 forgot to lock the lid. Fewer smells in the general rubbish too, as there's no food contaminating it.

Small caddy inside and bigger bin outside. We buy our own, and sometimes use the co-op recyclable carrier bags.
Have had maggots in the outside bin a couple of times because our lid was cracked.
I discovered maggots in our internal bin the day I went into labour with my 2nd child; (we used to keep the bin under the sink and I’d obviously been a bit distracted and not checked it for a few days). Emptying out our under sink cupboard, washing out the bin and hoovering up maggots in between contractions is not an experience I ever ever want to repeat..!! 🤢

Thanks all. Really interesting actually. It’s something I would like to do but get like I said get paranoid over the smells etc. Thanks for the info!! 😄

Wheelie bins, all food waste can go in green one. Green bin is collected fortnightly most of the year, monthly Dec-Feb when there's less garden waste. Bins reasonably safe from wildlife. We do get flies, but not a big issue. Flies and smell might be more of an issue if your bins have to be very close to your door, I imagine. The council suggest that if there is a problem in the summer, put food waste (esp. meat) in the bin due to be collected next - the general waste is collected the other week, so that means nothing has to be in the bin longer than a week.

I had a problem with waste cat food - I now put cat food scraps in a box in the freezer until bin day - no smells

The only time my kitchen caddy smells is if I leave it in the house too long (because I take ages to fill it up!)

Other than that, it is fantastic. No food waste in the kitchen bin to go off, the outside bin is collected weekly, it all gets turned into energy.

I can't think of a single bad thing about it tbh. A nearby authority is implementing it soon and the residents there are absolutely losing their minds, it's pathetic.