Foxes and food waste collection

[Ifailed]

Has anyone successfully stopped foxes opening their caddy and leaving a trail of semi-rotten food all over the place? I've tried hanging it up by the handle, putting weights on it and placing it in a larger container, all to no avail.

The bin people can come round anytime from 5am so I feel I have to leave it out overnight.

Genuinely never had an issue with this in 13 years - and we regularly have foxes in the garden - the large caddy that actually goes out for the binmen has a handle lock but they've never bothered with either it or the smaller one anyway.

Do you have one of the large 'outside' caddies where placing the handle in the upright position locks it?

It's not foolproof but ours has never been opened and we live in a very foxy area.

You can try adding a bit of vinegar to the caddy bag - it puts them off.

If you’ve got animals doing this habitually then I would try to break the habit by putting it out in the morning for a few weeks, even though that’s a pain for you. Then when you start to leave it out overnight again, make sure the outside of the bin is cleaned regularly as well as the inside and double bag the contents. I have heard of people freezing meat waste before putting it out so that it minimises any smells.

The foxes can open ours, god knows how. We’ve given up.

We used to put our food waste bags in the bottom drawer of the freezer until late the night the food waste caddy was due to be picked up. That way it was a frozen block of food put out so it didn’t smell. It does mean you have to devote freezer space to it though which not everyone has.

Keep all food waste in a lidded Tupperware in your freezer. Put the frozen block out, it smells much less and they won’t notice. Even if they do, it’s harder to make a mess with a big solid block of stuff.

Great minds 😂

We even tried putting a bungee cord round it. Somehow they even managed to get past that.

We’ve had a food waste collection for years , and have never had a problem with it being opened ( and we live rurally , see foxes aka nasty chicken murderers frequently )
The handle on the outside caddy works as a lock , which works well

We have the same caddies with the same lid locks but bloody dextrous clever bastard foxes.

we have the caddy’s with the handle lock occasionally foxes have managed to break into it, starting putting it out in morning which has helped a lot we also store it in a spare recycling box with a plastic elasticated cover over the caddy/box which has stopped them getting it so far.

Vinegar like someone else said also you could try sprinkling some cayenne pepper or chilli powder on/around it.
Foxes are so brazen whete i live, one just casually walked past me like a cat down my side entrance the other day.

Our caddy gets emptied into our garden waste bin. We’ve had no issues.

I’ve given up on food waste collection, it’s the seagulls not the foxes though, they are always in our car park from 9pm on Wednesdays, not the rest of the week because Thursdays are bin day, they can get into our seagulls proof bins

Ours lock by pulling the handle straight up. I hang it from my railings by the back hinge. There are a gajillion foxes here but none have managed to open it.

It does for a while, but looses it's rigidity after a few years.

Meat goes in the freezer until the night before bin day. I stick a brick on top of the compost bin. Its still not foolproof.

We don’t have a problem but I’ve seen these advertised a few times and stopping foxes accessing the bins is mentioned in the reviews (excuse the long link).
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4489219396/food-waste-bucket-to-bin-storage-hooks?ls=s&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=food+bin+hook&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&frs=1&loc=1&local_signal_search=1&content_source=c4c890b7-0c03-498f-9cb8-a8551cf780d2%253ALT251c314940d9683c793d7e1cd553dbcbe3164dc7&organic_search_click=1&logging_key=c4c890b7-0c03-498f-9cb8-a8551cf780d2%3ALT251c314940d9683c793d7e1cd553dbcbe3164dc7

We had this problem, but the council changed the design of the bins from the handle locking one to a spring-loaded catch. Not had any problems since we swapped to this. You had to request to get the new design and it wasn't well advertised by our council so maybe check if your council offers something like this? If not try bringing it up with your local councillor.

Like this:

www.amazon.co.uk/Kerbside-Compost-Caddy-Locking-Lid/dp/B00X2HM9JI/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.96ExPqXt-bnfMv7XeVSM4-15_EFmopIfZTTVQM1JGXT3l-XrV3kl-atKIBL0zaGJVpkBqByxcxITeKNu11sB2T-TvBjTyocRAAjLrqY94p3TG60i6lkRRkDIgY0aBIMNpbSMlr_6kuzn8O0ndK0u8SKe74utEbhzWEVgWXWmHAjS8J6DKqjFPT53UY94tnXI6Bd2a8c9wRwnstPtV37evg.Sect5vP5i8US2ehhLd6HBLRLQ1ik6slyhaHEhOVMEQ0&dib_tag=se&qid=1789781487&refinements=p_89%3AAll-Green&sr=8-2&srs=1652221031

5am sounds too early I think it's 7am here. There are rules about noise at unsociable hours aren't there?

We put most of our food waste out for the foxes so we don't get this problem. Cooked bones and veg peelings just go in the black bins but we have so little that you wouldn't know it was there. We also now have wheelie bins so the foxes couldn't get at it if they tried.

Have one with the handle locking lid here- if I leave it on the ground they do tend to get in so I sit it on top of the larger wheelie bin and it doesn’t ever get touched when there.