To expect the bin men to take away my rubbish?

[MummyDoIt]

My local council encourages us to recycle and we have a brown bin for garden and food waste. Unfortunately, last summer the food waste caused maggots in the bin, despite wrapping the waste in many layers of newspaper. To avoid this again this year, I've just started using compostable bin bags for my food waste. They are especially designed for food waste in those little compost caddies you can get. Today the bin men have left my brown bin unemptied with a note stuck on it to say it hasn't been emptied because it contains plastic. Aaagghhh! I can't win. If I recycle my waste bagged, they won't take it. If I don't bag it, we'll be maggot-infested again. And I'm now stuck with a full bin for a fortnight till the next collection.

YABU - stop wasting food or get a waste disposal unit.

yabu, get a composter, we arent allowed to put food waste in the garden bin anyway but you cant put any bags in at all.

YANBU, you found a perfectly good compromise and you PAY these people to take the rubbish away. It's a pity we don't pay them directly like we do milkman because then you could deduct a week.

25p a week from your council tax goes towards having your rubbish collected from your door and taken away. im sure if you send them a 1st class stamp they will gladly return your 25p, or you could just follow their rules and accept a bloody good service for 25p. by us they work bank holidays, they start at 7am and only earn £6 an hour.

Wait a minute - she is following the rules, the bag isn't plastic. I'd call the council and ask what their policy on compostable bags is.

Nametaken - so you eat chicken carcasses and bones, do you? Hope I never get invited to tea at your house .

ilovetochat - I have a composting bin in my garden and all my fruit/veg/teabags, etc go in there. This is just for cooked waste, like said chicken carcasses. We generate very little of this.

No - I have a waste disposal unit - best thing I ever bought. I'm in love with it. Those Yanks invent some great things.

forgot to add you can put chicken carcasses and bones down the waste disposal unit, although not pork, lamb or beef bones.

Nametaken, is it one of those 'in the sink' ones? My mum has one but I'm always a bit worried about the amount of water it uses (I have water meter). I do prefer the idea of composting as at least it gets turned into something useful. Our council actively encourages it and made a big deal of it when they changed their service provider to one who would collect food waste as well as garden waste. Unfortunately, the local papers are always full of people complaining about the maggot problem in hot weather, particularly with the fortnightly collection. I thought these composting bags solved the problem. My sister lives in an area where the bags are provided free so obviously they are perfectly suitable.

Willowthewispa - I've emailed the council (nowhere there on a Saturday) and asked if they're aware of these bags and what their policy is. Other councils dish them out for free so they clearly can't do any harm to the compost.

hmm...we are not allowed to put foodstuff into the brown bin, not even vegetable peelings....despite the fact that it is for garden rubbish as well as cardboard....and I thought the reason you shouldn't is not just maggots but also rats...

however, I would complain, fi you indeed are allowed to put food waste in, and mention that your bags are those decomposing (???)ones...
and also make a note on the bin next time, maybe with the packaging attached which explains what it is...

We are actively encouraged to put food waste in our brown bins but, yes, it does cause maggots. I don't have a gripe with the individual bin man who must have glanced in and assumed it was plastic. I am annoyed with the company who must be, or should be, aware of these bags and should instruct their staff to accept them. I could stick a note on the bin next time but will probably just make sure the bag is hidden under garden waste. I've put them in several times before and they obviously haven't seen them as the rubbish has been collected.

Our brown bin is for garden and food waste but gets emptied once a week. I sometimes wonder if there are any maggots in there when the weather is hot, but don't look too closely. Not sure why it would be a problem if there were though? It's like a wheely bin, with a lid, so presumably maggots couldn't get out?

You'd know if it had maggots! We have the same sort, wheely bin with lid. It was fine one day when I put waste in. Two days later, I opened the lid and the lid was crawling with them. All around the top of the bin was crawling. They were dropping off the lid as I opened it. It was absolutely vile. All I could do was wait for them to empty it and then wash it out with the hose. I really don't want to repeat the experience!

Oh God - I see why you wouldn't want them again then - I assumed they would stay in amongst the food!! I think the suggestion of putting a note on the bin saying that any bags are compostible is a good one. We buy compostible dog poo bags and my DH often slings them in the brown bin. I always take them out and put them in the green bin because I'm sure our binmen would be difficult if they thought there was plastic in the brown bin. Might try the note idea myself.

We also use a company that cleans bins after the bin men have been. That's quite a good thing to do as otherwise the brown bin gets really smelly.

We aren't allowed to use those bags in our green bins, presumably because it's hard to tell at a glance if they're biodegradable or not.

We are lucky our council has just started collecting food waste with our brown bins and supply for free the compostable bags for food waste.
I had maggots in a bin once not nice so I totally agree with what you did, I would get onto the council and ask them their policy on this.

YABU - it was your responsibilty to check first.

some councils don't like them cos it can be hard to tell at a glance whether they are biodegradable or not. They haven't got time to physically check every

We wrap ours in newspaper or in brown paper bags and don't get maggot probs.