I am not enjoying recycling food scraps very much

[bakedpotato]

council has given us two bins: one for the countertop, which I empty daily into a bigger bin on the front step.
we were told when system was introduced not to use binliners, so I tip the scraps in loose. I rinse the countertop bin every time (with a jigger of bleach/antibac which feels very un-eco but waddaya meant to do?). I have never tackled the outdoors one. It is truly horrid in there. And as the weather warms up it will get worse/smellier/attract flies as it did last summer. And no, I'm not going to scrub it out by hand -- for starters we don't have a hose and it ain't coming in the house. (I guess I'm hoping it will begin to self-clean as hair does is rumoured to if you never wash it)
What's the way around this? What's your system?

Ewww.
When I was living in Cambridge we had a little bin for food scraps but it came with heavy duty brown paper bags which didn't stop little puddles of yuckiness from collecting in the bottom, but did mostly keep the worst of it out.

Then when I moved and had a composter I had a very little plastic bowl for scraps, small enough for me not to have to empty it every day.

Now I only bother when there is enough (eg if I'm peeling loads of potatoes) to make a special trip to the compost bin, and then I take it out in newspaper.

Never cleaned the compost bin or big green bin - just try not to look when I put stuff in.

I mean small enough to have to empty it every day, so it never got as far as smelling.
(I chucked it out when I had hyperemesis, though, and never got another.)

I was going to start doing this until I visited my parents and saw the hoards of flies coming out of their bin, and this was in winter! I don;t think they ever clean it, I don't think it would be possible.

Brown paper bags would certainly help.

We live in a terraced street, so it's not like you can leave your bin at the bottom of the garden...

Hi Bakedpotato

I think that vinegar will do the trick for the inhouse bin, and be more ecofriendly, if that's what you want.

Re the outdoor bin - sounds really yukky. Do you recycle meat bits etc into it too?

I'd suggest putting a thick layer of newspaper into the bottom. It will soak up to gunge and although it will stick to the bottom, you could use a garden fork to lift it, and then put fresh newspaper underneath. That way it will be collected next time.

I think they recommend putting layers of newspaper (Scrunched up?) or layers of grass cuttings, into compost bins to make them smell nicer, so it should work for your waste bin too. A composting website should help with that one.

Agree that you need to experiment now, before the warm weather arrives. Ewwwww!

yes meat (not bones) and eggshells etc.

Good idea re the newspaper, I'll ring the council and check this is OK... wish we'd been given this sort of advice before the scheme was launched

I imagine a lot of people will have given up thinking it's simply too stinky

Can you try lining the outside bin in newspaper, then it wouldn't get 'sticky'? Also if you're emptying the inside bin daily, surely it doesn't get dirty enough to warrent bleaching? I have a countertop bin which gets emptied into the composter everyday - it doesn't seem to need to be washed up every day (or maybe I'm just a slob who doesn't see dirt...).

I have a huge compost bin in the garden and it didn't smell even on the hottest days. Not that many flies around it either.

Sorry, cross-posts there. Didn't realise you were putting meat waste it.

Good tip about the vinegar, Tiredmum.

We were told not to put meat in ours as it might attract rats.
I think it gets a lot less bad with just vegetable matter.

We have this scheme and are allowed to put newspaper in. I line the small bin with one sheet so it just needs a rinse with water when emptied and put a few sheets in the bottom of the big bin. Just need to make sure they empty the big one properly (they often don't round here)and replace the gunky paper at the bottom with fresh paper each week. This worked OK all last summer, only time we had flies was when it was left for 3 weeks when we were on hols - had to resort to a bit of bleach to clean it out after that!

Don't bleach/antibac the surface bin - just wash it with washing up liquid. Why is it different to a plate, or a bowl?

I wash out my outside bin using a kettle of boiled water and some soda crystals

not sure which county you live in but in Somerset they tell you to either wrap food in newspaper and put into the bins or you can buy biodegradable bags made of starch and maize (both sizes for each bin) to line them with. I line my small caddy and have it standing on an empty bit of worktop near the utility door. It never smells (only when I open the lid but never really horrible) and I empty it once it's full (no less than every two days) into the unlined bigger caddy which lives in my garage. That one does smell more (think sick) but hot soapy water does the trick - I didn't mean for that sentence to rhyme!
We started doing the food waste last July so had the bins all summer but never had a fly/maggot/smell problem. In summer I changed the bag every day. When I wash/wipe out the small bin, I either spray with snti-bac and wipe out with tissue or wash in hot soapy water.

I've stopped using our "green bin"; I never put in any meat, though we are supposed to, and since I compost garden and uncooked vegetable waste myself, there wasn't much anyway, but we were overwhelmed by maggots and flies for weeks anyway last summer, long after I quit.

I found out that a neighboring council has made it compulsory to put food waste in a ?blue bin for municipal composting, and you have to wrap the food in newspaper.

But OUR council threatens a £1000 fine if you put paper in any bin except the paper/glass one. Also the collectors peek inside the green bins and refuse to take it if it contains anything but food or garden waste. So I daren't even try to line it.

BUT I have now emailed the council to ask for advice-thanks for inspiring me guys!

The main question is, why is every single council REINVENTING THE WHEEL, eh? Why are they each dreaming up a new scheme, with different rules, fines and bin colours?

Cant help re the outside bin, as we've only just been allowed to put food in ours. For inddors, my Mum got a compost crock, I think from a daily Mail offer. Its a lidded earthenware thing, with a replacable smell filter in the inside of the lid. Its been very good so far, except at the absolute height of last summer when we were juicing like mad and it was full of pulp every day, so did attract flies.

we got a blue food bin this week, but i haven't used it yet . what annoys me is we have garden waste bin, food bin but no bloody wheelie bin. in fact, must ring council & rant at them....

you need a Bokashi bin - it doesn't stink, and their is a tap to drain the liquid which can be used as eco-friendly drain cleaner
We got 2 bins free from the council - they are small enough to fit on a worktop.

By the attitude of the blokes the tip id say it all end up in landfill anyway. They have got to be seen to be putting these schemes in place, but if the glass bin is full at the tip the blokes tell you to throw it into the landfill.
Its depressing and disheartning.

i bung all the food scraps in the green bin and don't find any problems at all (although i put the rabbit's hay in there so it may disguise the smell a bit). when they collect i just put in some disinfectant then boiling water, them tip the lot out.

our local council is having quite a few recycling vans refused as people just aren't doing it.

I rang the council (I'm in London) and they now say it's fine to put paper in the big food bin (though I can't see how it's all going to fit in -- it's full to bursting by collection day as it is).
I like the sound of these biodegradable bin bags.
Also I think they need to introduce more collections for food bins, esp in the summer. 'Kerbside' bin just sits out there on the step in full sun for 7 days. Shudder.
"The main question is, why is every single council REINVENTING THE WHEEL, eh? Why are they each dreaming up a new scheme, with different rules, fines and bin colours?" So agree, Majorstress.

luciemule - whereabouts in Somerset are you? I'm in Sedgemoor and they still only collect once a fortnight and no compostable material. We're supposed to be moving to weekly collections incl food waste. I already compost veg waste myself but am getting fed up with chucking waste food in the rubbish bin [cross]

I'm glad you asked Bakedpotato because I have been wondering the same thing. I'm in London, Waltham Forest, and we have the same system although we are not allowed to put meat in and ours is collected every other week . Also the bin is a big brown wheely bin so not easy to clean (esp when 5 ft 2!). It is well stinky and when opened loads of flies come at me. I am determined to be green but because over the winter there has been no garden waste to put in there, only food scraps, it is really disgusting at the bottom, all mouldy and wet. The leaflet says not to put anything else in other that garden waste and food scraps. I am thinking of getting one of those companies to come round and clean it, but don't really see the point. Rant over.

I'm in Bristol City Council area, and they advise using brown paper bags. They have a link to a website where you can buy them, they fit in the countertop bin (folded over, then you can just put it in the outdoor one.

BCC website is www.bristol-city.gov.uk

hope this helps

ORMIRIAN - we're in South Somerset and have been doing it for a year this July but then we're moving to Suffol so I'm sure it'll be completely different there! I'll probably buy a wormery (our friends have one) and you can put everything in it in the garden and the worms decompose it. There's a tap at the base so you empty out the liquid and pour it onto the garden as a friendly fertiliser. We used to live in Germany for a year and there, the whole country is uniform in their recylcing exploits - same bins/bags/colours etc and they recycle ALL plastics too. I think it's rediculous for the Gov to suggest charging people for their bin bags - it's their fault there's so much packaging as they won't buy the equipment to recycle it (sorry - not very relevant to OP).

My friend in Dorset has one of these "all-food waste" brown bins. They accept cardboard as well, so she uses an empty cereal packet or similar to collect the kitchen scraps in, then puts the entire thing in the bin when full. it saves washing out the kitchen caddy and gives a bit of containment to the scraps. The outside bin was dreadful last summer though, the entire bottom half got gunked up and wouldn't empty when tipped up, maggots and smell were fearsome. Definitely need to find some way of wrapping wet waste.

You can get compostable food bags. Makes all the difference. YOu can even put meat in them. You can get them from natural collection.com?.co.uk? and I think I have seen some in TESCOS last week.