New food bins

[Toomanyuglyplasticbins]

Will you be using the new food caddies & bins? Sick to death of my kitchen & garden resembling the local recycling centre. I do recycle most stuff & have regular trips to the tip; but even then one local authority varies from the next one in their recycling policies, so it all seems a bit.futile

@GasPanic an immediate benefit for me is that it's collected weekly where our main bin is fortnightly. It's much nicer for the main bin in the kitchen not to have food waste in for a fortnight. Then I am also happy for less volume of waste to be going to landfill, and for the food waste to be producing a useful end product plus potentially generating electricity.

Where are you? I’m in Somerset and we had them in our old house too so since 2007.

We don't have food bins (yet). It would probably take me a year to fill a caddy with waste food. It's just me, I almost never peel veg (use frozen) and there's never anything left on my plate after a meal. I'm very careful with perishables, and almost nothing is ever thrown out. Tea bags, banana and orange peel - that's about it (and I'm not sure about the teabags, as most of these contain plastic these days).

But no food waste should never have gone to landfill in the system we had before, because it all should have gone in the garden waste bin. And everyone was adept at dealing with the bi-weekly garden waste collection in terms of waste food spoilage. At least where I live.

Where I am it offers little to no benefit to the householder and extra cost on the service provider, so it is a lose-lose scenario.

Good grief, how did you manage to have maggots in week one? We've had a bin for 15 years and I've never seen a maggot. Just use the food waste bags, tie them up tightly, and keep the lid of the bin tightly closed at all times.

Not new. Had one for more than a decade.

You will cope.

Been using them for nearly 20 years in our council. I absolutly wouldn't put food scraps in the bin now. Saves a huge amount of space in my black bin. As a family of 4 we produce half a bin bag of rubbish every 3 weeks. Our council pretty much recycles everything - about a year ago started doing soft plastics as well!

That sounds very annoying, not enough space to put the recycling. We have one large wheelie bin for all recycling so cardboard is just folded up in there and it keeps it all tidy.

@GasPanic Ok, so for your council area, you already had a working food waste collection so it was unnecessary for it to be replaced with a different food waste collection service. I think your council's approach of combining compostable garden waste with food waste that can't be composted must be quite unusual though.

Yes. It can only be a good thing surely,
Ours is mainly veg peelings, tea and coffee remnants. I did have some chicken that had turned but I put it in the freezer with a big black mark on and added it to the bin the night before. Tbh it has made me more mindful of food wastage.
Our black bin has hardly anything. Most stuff goes in mixed recyclable and I have a separate bag by the bin for the return to supermarket stuff (crisp packets and stuff)

I do use the outside food bin. I use something different inside - a china thing with a lid that can go in the dishwasher. I’m not up for hand washing more fucking stuff. I have enough to do.

im surprised everyone enjoys these so much. I find that the food waste liners are so biodegradable that wetness can seep through an undamaged bag. You have to make sure they are changed lets say every 3 days and be careful how and where you carry the bag, lest it pisses itself over your floor.

so yes I do use the stuff, but carefully

Why can't food waste be composted ?

Back where I used to live the council would give you a free composter to put food waste in in the back garden.

My guess is all the food waste and garden waste goes into a giant chopper and is mashed up. No real difference between food and garden waste, fruit leave etc. Maybe meat. But there is hardly a ton of that in food waste and it will still compost.

6 weeks is been and my food bin hasn’t been collected once. My sisters normal bins are overflowing and she’s had to do several tip runs with domestic waste as her normal waste and glass/cans haven’t been collected in SEVEN weeks. Our authority has lost the plot entirely. Is bonkers.

I don’t have one in the kitchen after the maggot incident (DM put something in it the day before we went away ) put scraps in a bowl as I’m cooking and then scrape the plates into to it and put it out after the meal.

We had them where we used to live for 8 years - have now been in new area for over 4 years where they don't have them, but we still separate kitchen scraps out into a nice looking, dishwasher friendly caddy lined with a food waste bag rather than putting directly in bin. Habit i suppose, but I do think it helps with reduced bin pong!!

Just moved to Stirling council where food waste and garden waste go together in a brown bin, collected fortnightly. Need a permit if you’re going to use it for garden waste. It is composted apparently. No problem at all ! When I think back to the old days where literally everything went into a metal dustbin that the poor bin men had to hoick onto their backs things have improved dramatically!

Still not had ours delivered..... apparently the council will give one lot of liners. Anything else we have to provide ourselves. Curious what disabled people do regarding the bins. I'm going to struggle with ours

It’s been a thing here for years but I don’t use it (I don’t even have one) I tried it but would fill it up in two days and had to put it the rest of the days food waste in the black bin so was worthless for a big family.

We got them a couple of years ago. I have no problem with it. I have not got room for garden compost so now peelings, bones and teabags go in the small caddy on the windowsill behind the sink and it gets emptied into the big one outside when full. We have foxes but none have got in yet. If they did I'd just put a brick on it. Food waste is collected every week so it stops the big bins from stinking in the summer as they are every two weeks.

The fuss some people made when they were rolled out! Letters to the local paper and customers baning on about it at work. Ranging from "I never ever have waste," "the dog eats it all", and "I already compost at home." 🙄 honestly it was such a load of fuss about nothing. If you genuinely dont have any waste that goes in it then you just dont use it do you? But I should imagine everyone has something to put in.

Some councils provide an assisted bin service

I couldn’t imagine putting food waste in the main bin we have had the caddy for so long. We use a special bag, no maggots. Our main wheelie bin is never full.

My part of West Yorkshire doesn’t have them, food waste goes in with general waste. I would happily use a food caddy if it was taken away each week!

@Sahara123 thank you I will check with ours

They take recycling every week and main bins are 3 weekly (which can be a struggle with a family of 5 and multiple pets, but it’s mostly okay).

It doesn't bother me that much. I just think if they were going to spend money changing the way it works they could have done it a lot better.

I also think it is possible that they might start charging for garden waste now like many other councils do. Which may well lead to me being one of the most popular people on the street as I have to have a garden waste bin.

I am more annoyed about the cardboard issue, as most people seem to generate a large amount of cardboard whcih ends up wet and soggy and blowing about in winter which is not an optimal solution. So they have reduced both the amount of cardboard they will take, plus not provided a boxed/easily collectable solution that prevents littering.

What does everyone else do with cardboard ?