To not see the need for food waste bins?

[Notinmylifethyme]

I mean the plastic bins councils supply where excess cooked food is dumped.

I live on a budget. I cook. Veg scraps go in a composter (I have a garden so obviously referring to my situation). I sometimes batch cook. I rework leftovers. I use my freezer. Basically, it doesn't really matter how much I cook, we only put on our plates what we are going to eat.

Am I so unusual? My council are about to spend a couple of million on food waste bins. I'm quite shocked by it.

I had to get rid of my compost bin and wormery because it was attracting the rats near to the house. My neighbour will not deal with them 😑

I would love a food waste bin but my council have no plans for them anytime soon

I would really like plastic bag recycling to be a thing more locally there is talk of one at Tesco but I've not seen it since covid

I don’t waste food. Scraps and peelings go to make stock, feed my chickens, make compost or feed worms in the wormery. But I still have some bits that need to go in the council green bin. Most people have fewer options than I do.

Around here, badly disposed of food attracts rats and foxes.

Our council food waste goes here, so it’s used for energy and then agricultural fertilisers. Garden waste goes to a big composting site and is then sold on for domestic and commercial use. It means the council can generate income and avoid penalties for not meeting their recycling targets. If you’re home composting that’s great but not everyone can do that, and reducing the amount of food that’s decaying in landfill is good for everyone.

I don't use mine any more after seeing the bin men throw the contents in with the black bin rubbish. Lots of complaints to the council by locals about it, they say they won't do it again but my home office is at the front of the house and I watch them do it every time.

We throw very little edible food away but still fill the food waste caddy every couple of days. If you cook more from scratch you actually create more food waste - potato peelings and the ends of vegetables etc…if I make oven chips, fish fingers and frozen peas (no judgement, a cracking meal!) there would be probably nothing to put in the food waste bin, but fresh fish with lemon on the side, mashed potatoes and carrots would create a fair bit. We do have a compost bin but don’t use our home food scraps in it, the council use a special treatment which allows them to then distribute the compost to the public.

How do you stop the rats eating the compost?
The ones in my garden loved potato peelings so I had to get rid of my compost bin.

@inkintotheswamp
''How do you stop the rats eating the compost?
The ones in my garden loved potato peelings so I had to get rid of my compost bin.''

I have two cats and resident foxes :)...

This.

That took me at least ten seconds to click that your cats weren't eating the potato skins 😂😂

You do know food waste is used to make compost don't you? They make money from this?

We have recycling and waste collected weekly but black bag waste 3 weekly. Where would you like me to put all the tea bags and fruit and veg peelings or left over foods we have?

As pp said there is lots of food that is inedible like egg shells , bones , coffee ground. You can also put cut flowers in them.

It's not just your council that are doing it though, it's been rolled out by the government and all households and businesses have to get better at recycling.
So there will be no more mixed 'dry' recycling, you won't be able yo put anything in your paper bin except paper and thin unlamanated card.
Cans , plastic and glass bottles will all go in one bin for now but that may change in 2028/9 .

My council's had food waste bins for at least ten years, I think they're excellent. People throw away tons of food which instead can be used for energy etc.
Many people don't have a garden or simply don't want to make compost of their own and so they produce quite a lot of waste especially from vegetables.
I have a compost heap so all veg peelings, tea bags, go on there, but examples of the things I put in the food caddy are egg shells( can attract rats to compost bins), fat from bacon or steak, chicken skin, all the bones and debris after boiling up a roast chicken carcass for stock( you admit you put bones in the bin, well now put them in your caddy), bits of uneaten food left on grandchild's plate etc.

Everything you put in your composter goes in my food waste bin. Also things like bones and bacon rinds.

Also, in our area at least, the council has a big composting facility where all the brown bin food waste goes. So all those fish skins, chicken carcasses, veg peelings, scraps from plates, the stuff your toddler wanted and then threw on the floor, all of it gets processed. Heat is generated, and the non smelly end product is used as an agricultural compost locally. I think it's great (apart from I hate washing out the bin 🤢)

We don't throw away much cooked food, but not everyone eats every last scrap of their plate so, yes, I will scrape plates into the food bin. Plus meat/fish bones and trimmings and egg shells. And not everyone has space to compost. I very much like having a separate food waste bin!

Our council gave them out years ago. No one used them and they no longer collect them.

Many councils are already on separated recycling and have been for years.

I have a very large garden and make my own compost so every single scrap of fruit and vegetable peelings goes on that. I also meal plan and cook from scratch to avoid other food waste, and often have leftovers for lunch. But we still (family of 3 /4) fill half to one caddy liner every week with other food scraps. I really like the system - the general bins stay cleaner and emptier for a start.

Where I live, the food and garden waste go in the same bin and are recycled for biofuels. As PPs state, some food waste collections are composted instead, and the councils have access to industrial composters so they can compost more than you can in a normal garden composter. It's also cheaper to have separate waste collections if all the smelly, rotten, rat-attracting waste is collected separately - this means you don't have to collect the normal rubbish as frequently because there's less of it, and it doesn't smell. And you don't have to pay the higher fees to put it in landfill.

Veg scraps go in a composter (I have a garden so obviously referring to my situation)

Where do you propose people who don't have gardens with a composter put their vegetable scraps?
It really annoys me when people with houses and gardens seem to have so little imagination/understanding that people who live in flats have completely different needs regarding waste disposal.

Just because other people have to use waste bins doesn't mean they aren't also living on a budget, batch cook, use up leftovers and only put the food on the plate they are going to eat.
I find it quite objectionable actually, the way you have implied that you are so superior because you don't have to use a food waste bin and others do, so those that do use one are somehow being wasteful.

Really? How odd. Everyone puts them out here. It's the only bin that gets collected every week. The others alternate.

Our general waste is removed every 2 weeks and you wouldn't want old food in a wheelie bin for 2 weeks.

I put a lot of food out tbh. Partly dog food that the dogs have left - one has a lot of digestive issues and leaves his food half eaten and there's only so long you can leave it ( wet food). Also old flowers and some wrapping can go in. But I also have an autistic daughter whose food needs mean I do buy food that sometimes isn't eaten. I'm glad my council has a system fo it.

@eirefortriplecrown doesn't your council give you liners for your food caddy so you don't have to wash it out( unless it leaks)?
My council provides a small kitchen caddy and free biodegradable liners, the full liners then go into a larger outside caddy which is collected every week, it works well.

Surely if your dry bones go into the bin, then that’s straight to landfill?
The food waste is composted. The 70kg of food waste sounds a lot, but it’s only really 3 suitcases filled with fruit skin, meat bones, eggs etc.
And surely that stuff is better in community compost than landfill?

Yes our food waste and recycling is collected weekly, everything else is fortnightly. The general waste bin is quite small too so it really encourages to recycle as much as you can.

It actually shows you how much single use plastic there is. That's 90% of the general waste for us which is incredible really, both how much it is possible to recycle and a bit depressing that there's this huge amount of non recyclable stuff too.