to think food waste should be uplifted weekly to prevent fly infestations?

[brooksmantila]

I live in Scotland and in a residential area with lots of terraced housing. In late winter 2022 our local council changed our food waste collection from weekly to every 2 or 3 weeks. They gave us all large brown bins that were to be used for food waste and garden waste.

Last summer we had the worst issues I have ever seen with fruit flies and house flies in the 10 years I have lived here. I bought and set up traps and hovered as many of them up as I could. I am pretty fastidious about cleaning the kitchen, drains and so on always have been but became even more so. It was a constant battle and I knew the fruit flies were coming in from outside because I could see them flying in the bathroom window when I was in the shower and because when you put food waste in the outside bin lots of them are in the outside bin, the neighbours as well. Everyone in the local area is having the same issue.

Looking into it the reduced uplift of food waste is allowing a full breeding cycle for fruit files which are then coming into our homes, if the council uplifted the food waste more often then we would not be having these issues. The council has also now stopped taking garden waste and now you need to pay extra. Fair enough but what I want is my food waste taken away on a weekly basis to prevent the constant problems with fruit flies and flies.

It makes me feel ill to see them try and land on the food I am preparing and the fruit flies are so small they can get everywhere. Perhaps it is just me but I feel sickened by them. I have vinegar traps in hot spots, I hoover them up with my dust buster and I have citronella oil everywhere. I wash out my food bins inside and out every time they are emptied and do my sinks / drains every night after dinner.

Not every neighbour bothers as much even though I was in one neighbours house where they must have had 100 fruit flies in the kitchen alone (shudder) so perhaps they don't see it or it doesn't bother them. Local forums are saying the same thing flies everywhere so it is a wide spread issue.

I don't think it will change until councils start taking the food waste away weekly again and by not doing so they are creating a public health issue and infestations.

Let me know if you agree by voting

YANBU - Yes food waste needs to be collected weekly
YABU - Once or Twice a month food waste collection is fine.

Also any tips on deterring them would be great!

@nonmerci99 Ah I see so they think I am just throwing waste into the black bin, perhaps I should have made that clearer then but yes you are correct here we have a separate system just for organic waste to be composted it is these organic waste only bins that are the cause of the fly issues.

@nonmerci99 - I understand a food waste bin. It being collected more regularly just means more emissions created by collecting services. Op has a garden and could compost her own compost on site, creating no emissions. But apparently this isn’t possible as can’t compost as flies and smell, which many people have then questioned how and what she is composting as it’s a relatively easy process that’s shouldn’t be effecting her neighbours. You can get lidded compost bins if needed for smaller spaces

No it doesn't because the same vehicle that is collecting the bi-weekly refuse or recycling also collects the food waste. One lorry for everything going round once a week.

As for compost I have two compost heaps, but also pay £80 extra for garden waste. Just not enough room for everything.

@brooksmantila I am in Guildford Borough.

@KnittedCardi thank you for that info!

@Caspianberg I'm looking into composting but my garden is very small, I can see lots of people seem to have issues with flies in their compost as well, and the solutions are just add more brown material or start a new heap. How much of my already tiny garden do I need to give over to compost? Do I need to take down my shrubs which the birds love or dig up the wild flowers for the bees and butterflies?

I don't drive, I don't have kids, I haven't flown in over 13 years, I don't buy endless stuff or fast fashion, I don't eat meat. I do my bit for the environment. All I want is to not have these flies in my home every summer. Even if I composted the lot and it stopped flies in my bin I know my neighbours would not do this and the issue would persist but if the council picked the food waste up weekly then the issue would be solved.

Ours is fortnightly and in the Winter goes to every 4 weeks!

I'm in North Lanarkshire and we have had fortnightly food waste collections for a while. The other bins are 3 weekly. We only really get maggots when it's really hot but do tend to get them every year in summer. I double bag the food waste from the indoor caddy but the bags are a bit rubbish. There's no point in me having a compost heap as I have no bits in the garden to fertilise.

@brooksmantila - look at smaller beehive compost bins. Ideally you want 3 as then it’s one closed off composting, one ready to use fresh compost and one in use adding to.

we have 3, each is 1mx1m but that’s because we have a massive garden so a huge amount of garden waste also. You can have much smaller or less ie 2 small in a small garden as you obviously have less garden waste

We have a problem with foxes knocking the bins over. It's a nightmare. Food often all up the street.

I have no room for compost bins as I already have 4 wheelie bins to contend with in my small back garden

Exactly!

The problem with the fruit flies is systemic, not individual, which you repeatedly fail to grasp.

I live in Southwark (a borough of London) probably one of the warmest areas of the country and food waste is collected weekly which I think is OK. If my food waste bin has just been emptied and then I cook something that involves food waste (say a chicken carcass or left over meat/fish in any form) and I know it won't be collected for another week then I freeze it in a compostible caddy liner in the bottom corner of my freezer until next bin day.