If you compost your veg peelings, etc, will you still do this when the council food waste collection kicks in?

[MyThreeWords]

The statutory provision of council food waste collection is coming in very shortly in most council areas, so I wondered how home composters are responding to that?

I currently compost my veg peelings and fruit waste, but my heap isn't good enough for me to compost any other food waste -- it would just lead to vermin if I tried to put other food waste in.

Until recently, I'd been assuming that I would carry on with my own veg/fruit composting when the council food waste collections come in, but it's just dawned on me what a faff that would be. Two caddies in the kitchen. Yuck. One of them decanted into my compost heap and the other into the council food bin.

Those of you who already have food waste collections, has it changed your composting habits? If you stopped adding fruit/veg waste to your own compost bin, how, if at all, did that effect the success of your compost.

Those of you who don't yet have council food waste collections but will do soon, what are your plans?

Yes, I want the compost, can never get enough. All the fruit and veg peeling that don't go into the pets go into the compost bin. I can't imagine how much the guinea pigs would judge me for throwing out veg waste!

The caddy is fine. Small kitchen counter one with a biodegradable bag that gets emptied into the bigger outside caddy regularly. I have a pot on top for the compostable bits, which gets taken outside when full.

Yep, exactly as you suggest, we have two compost bins. One for uncooked veg for the compost heap, the other for meat and cooked food waste that gets decanted to the council bin outside. They are both small and you can get really pretty ones that don’t look too bad at all really.

Yes definitely. We rarely have other food waste and that will go straight into the outside bin to avoid 2 indoor caddies.

Food waste collection starts here tomorrow.

Im currently getting my head round the other segregation we now need to do, so non compostable waste will be going in the big bin for a while at least.

We have had a separate food waste collection for several years and yes, I still compost raw fruit and veg along with my garden waste, cut flowers etc. We have 2 easily distinguishable small caddies in the kitchen and the split is roughly 50:50. I think it’s better for the environment to home compost as much as possible rather than transport double the amount by lorry. I bought the caddies myself as the kitchen one supplied by the council is really ugly.
When we first got our caddies, we needed to use either compostable bags or no bags as we weren’t allowed to use plastic. This led to a problem with maggots in the outside bin and the food sticking to the bottom of the bin and hardening. So the council changed their minds and now allow everyone to use bags of any type to contain the waste food. Apparently the plastic gets separated out at some point in the processing. It’s a lot cleaner and easier to manage with the plastic bags.

Had food waste collection for well over 10 years, I have only one caddy in the kitchen.

Veg peelings etc get put straight into the main compost bin. Last winter I could clearly see the path I'd created walking on the lawn to the compost bin at the end of the garden because I did it so often 😂

Yes I get that worn path all year round because it's the route to the washing line as well as the compost bin

We still compost. In fact most weeks there's no waste to put in our council bin. We dont eat meat, so its only the occasional fish skin/bones that the council gets.

No, I stopped using it as I didn't use the compost for anything - it was just a means of disposal (and letting bugs live their best life). Now we have food recycling it all goes in there instead.

We've had food waste collection for many years. I'm really surprised that there are areas who are only now getting it.

To be honest, I don't use it at all. I compost fruit and veg waste, and don't want festering meat and protein sitting by my sink for a week. I live alone and don't have a lot of waste, so no-one's losing it by me putting that stuff straight on the general waste.

Unless you are a vegan household, kitchen waste shouldn't be fed to chooks.

What I do is use the paper that's been under the chooks (cleaned out every day), mixed with food waste in a hot composter. I'm pretty sure I don't run it quite hot enough but it's an amazing wormery.

Cold composters aren't ok for food waste, apparently.

I wish our council offered it. We lived in an area 20 years ago that did, but our current one won't be implementing it for at least 15+ years.
I'm going to look into a wormery or bokashi system. Does anyone know if one is easier than the other to begin with?

We've had food waste collection for years. More than ten. I still collect veggie peelings etc for my own compost.

My council has given us a food waste system for years with a weekly collection. We have a small caddy for inside and a large one for outside and they provide free caddy liners.

I have 2 caddies inside( I keep them in my garage as I have a door into it from my kitchen), one for veg peelings and the other for everything else which is things like any cooked food waste, bacon rinds,bones, egg shells. I don't compost any animal based waste, including egg shells, to avoid rats in the compost.

The caddy liners are biodegradable but degrade very slowly, so I no longer put the veg into the compost bin inside the bag, as my compost was full of stringy bits of partially degraded bags.

We've had a food waste bin for ages. In theory I still compost, but when it's cold and wet to go down the garden, they sometimes go in the food bin.

We've had food waste collections for years in Edinburgh. I buy compostable bags for the inside bin and put some food waste in there that I don't want in our own garden compost bin..onion skins, chicken bones, some leftovers eg I had couscous left over last night from my plate and didn't want it all. I empty the inside bin once a week usually as we don't have a lot. It doesn't smell. The filled bag goes in the outside bin which locks shut with a lever handle though the foxes can get into it so when we put it out we hang it on the gate post.

Other veg matter, fruit skins and tealeaves go in a plastic box in the fridge which my husband takes outside and empties into our garden compost bin.
Never any smelly usually in either of the council bins but if something leaks I clean and disinfect it.

Another one who has had food collection for years here. Yes, we compost most things in our garden compost and most other stuff goes out for the birds so not much goes out for our kerbside collection.

Anything that does need to go out (mainly bones) goes in a Tupperware box in the freezer then gets put out when it’s full - so no smells or mess at all. It also means if it’s a very windy day we can skip a week and not lose our caddy down the road (which seems to be a frequent consideration these days!)

31 council areas got exemptions, usually because they already have anaerobic digesters in use for green or commercial waste. The difficult bit is organising collection by household.

It also means our household waste bin is usually clean and non-stinky as no food in it, so doesn’t need putting out as much.

Works really well for us.

We have had the same system for years. We have had to replace the larger one, at our own expense, as foxes ( I think) try to gnaw their way into it.

I stopped having a compost heap when we got food waste collection but we have a smallish garden and the compost heap was in the shade so it didn’t compost well.

I've tried wormeries and bokashi. The latter works well, but the stuff you are left with is quite disgusting and has to be buried rather than just distributed on top.

I think I made a mistake with the type of wormery that I bought. I chose it for aesthetic reasons, and It just wasnt good enough at regulating air, moisture, temperature. The worms multiplied astonishingly but then died en masse. Interestingly, I didn't even see any dead worms. They just became compost straightaway. The ultimate sacrifice. This happened twice and then I gave up

I'd like to try it again. Or get a hot composter. A couple of people on the thread have mentioned these and reawakened my craving for one. Making compost is so exciting when it goes well. A kind of alchemy

Like PPs hardly anything goes in our food waste bin. If it goes in the wormery or on my compost heap the council aren't getting their hands on it.

OP what wormery do you have? They don't really give the best instructions when you buy one.

Sorry I don't know how to shorten the quote

Well I am happy to give an update on how the hot composter is going in two or three months if I remember! I was also considering one for a couple of years before biting the bullet

I've had a Hotbin for years now.

I don't follow their instructions much. Mine is chicken poo, nextdoor's Daily Mail (line the poo trays with it), a bit of grass or garden stuff and our food waste (not meat) and it's glorious.

This thread reminded me to go out and do things with it and now my chooks are in 7th heaven, worm recycling. :-)