Nursery leftovers, shall I butt out?

[Neonlemon]

When I pick my DD up from nursery at lunchtimes the food waste is brought through in a large polythene bag and taken somewhere. It is nearly always full up with uneaten veg and I wondered whether this could be used for a womery or for making compost?

If it is just going straight in the bin it seems a shame it isn't being re-used. Nursery have a forest school and I think it would definitely help teach older children about food waste, recycling etc. Trouble is, I'm slightly concerned they might not take too kindly to a parent making such a 'helpful' suggestion.

Shall I email or just leave it?

Thanks!

Definitely suggest it or ask where it goes.

Maybe you could volunteer to help set up their compost heap. Local authorities often have reduced prices for compost bins.

Good idea, I'll contact the council now. I'm no gardener but I would have thought a great big bag of food waste each day would soon mount up and make a nice amount of compost eventually.

Can it go on a compost heap if it's (presumably cooked)? I know nothing about compost heaps as I don't have one but my dad always tells me not to put cooked food on as it'll attract rats

You can’t compost cooked foods.

my dad always tells me not to put cooked food on as it'll attract rats

I've always thought this too but why would rats only be attracted by cooked food? Are they like the rat in Ratatouille?

Id be suggesting to them to send it to somwhere that can use it, or to make soups or hide it in their pasta sauace etc, or even offer it to parents to take home.

Its disgusting to throw good food in the bin.

I think but I'm not sure that hot bin composters can take cooked food, but I'm not sure and I think they need a bit of work as you have to add other stuff too.

I think a wormery in a nursery would be very cool though.

Yes you can! Not if they’re smothered in oil, salt or sugar but it’s a nursery so unlikely. Boiled vegetables are fine to compost. And a hot composter can compost pretty much everything.

How do you know it's not being recycled? Our food waste is recycled centrally where I live.

Surely this is uneaten food from kids plates so I wouldn't want it reused in soup etc!! Wormery wise I imagine it's too much work for stretched nursery staff to be separating out the veg on each plate from the meat.

Ahh ok, I thought it was leftover from the kitchen, not the scrapings from plates 😂

I wouldn't call plate scrapings leftovers, in my defence!

If they have raw veg choppings/peelings left over it would be easy to compost it, I just assumed with how fussy my own toddler is that 99% of the waste will be what the kids havent eaten off their plates😆

Just leave it. If I worked at the nursery I would think you had a massive cheek questionning this. It isn't really any of your business.

Let’s be honest that most working parents really don’t want to receive a bag of mushed cooked veg of dubious origins

Nor do the poorly paid nursery staff have loads of extra time to set up a wormery

So if you’re up for taking charge of it and building a team of consistent volunteers- absolutely go for it. But if you’re not, I’d keep quiet.

I'd keep it quiet to be honest.

There is always going to be waste in nursery's/schools. It's no surprise

In the olden days it used to go to pig farms but that's a no no now, same as with having hens etc, you can't give them leftovers if you plan to slaughter them.

You can't put it on a mulcher, well the veg would prob be OK but def not meat,it would have to seperated.

Of course you can!

Veg waste might be best in a wormery, rather than an open bin, but could go in a normal compost bin

Something like a HotBin or Green Johanna will compost even meat and bones leftovers, if working properly

You can't give ANY kitchen/household waste to chickens (meat or egglayers, or even just pets)

Regardless if it's cooked or uncooked waste.

Even if you are a Vegan household, so entirely veggie waste

I'm not planning on taking any of my animals to the slaughter house. They love leftovers,...... And reduces the stress of trying to stuff my cooked food waste into a pocket recycle bin. 👍

No harm asking. The worst that can happen is the say no.

They might already be composting it;

It just looks like a big bag of cubed tinned veg, and although I'm no Alan Titchmarsh I don't mind tending to it if it benefits the children further down the line.

Of course you can. Are you under the delusion that cooked vegetables/fruits don't decompose, exactly like raw ones? They do.

Ratsinsects, microbacteria and worms don't care if kitchen veg waste is cooked or raw; they'll eat anything.

That's a fair point; I guess I'm just surprised when I see so much food being brought out each day after all the children have eaten. I'm not sure why they wouldn't adjust how much they're ordering in if most of it gets chucked (if that is the case, I don't know).

Just be aware it's against the law, though.
Big fine if you are caught.