Green bin, to pay or not to pay?

Had to laugh, @glosmike! It’s very tempting, but we are neither fit nor flexible enough to get out again! We do have a special stick we use to tamp down each layer we add.
We have a small bin for food waste in the drawer under the kitchen sink, part of a bin system from IKEA . The slightly bigger food waste box sits outside and will take at least two bags from the small bin, plenty to cover our usage with a weekly collection. We used to have to use compostable liners or newspaper, but now any bag is acceptable. I think it all goes to the energy production facility in Exeter, that burns it to produce electricity.

 

How marvellous. We have a sparrowhawk that occasionally visits, maybe we should try doing the same

We already have our own small caddy in the kitchen which gets emptied into our compost bin most days. And having bones in the waste bin for a few days before they go into the main bin doesn’t bother me either. It’s just that we have so little food waste (which isn’t composted) that we probably won’t have enough in the council caddy to be collected for ages, especially if they apply the jiggle test (as they do to our general bins). For an idea of scale, the most bones we will have in a week is two maybe three chicken thigh bones from our Sunday roast. That’s maybe two weeks out of four. Maybe I need to find a neighbour to share a food waste bin with?

( I’ve also had that experience of dining next to the baby poop bin )

I’ve just realised that I sound very negative about food waste collections. I would actually rather have the system in place than food continuing to go into landfill. It’s just the logistics generally and how practical it will be for those of us with very little waste. I’m also feeling unreasonably irritated at having another two bins (food waste and a second recycling) to accommodate at the same time as being told our bin service is on strike indefinitely ..again

I shall be fine once I’ve stomped round for another day or two ….

 

@Escarpment , I appreciate your input re smells etc, it eases my mind at least in that regard. I was thinking that with all the food being kept in one wee bin in the kitchen ( rather than mixed in with other stuff) that it would start to be a bit yukky. Thanks. ( hadn’t thought of fruit flies mind).

@Butterfly6 , stomp away, I may even join you

 

Our food waste bin is collected every week and we also get free compostable liners for the caddy.

 

I’m late but new. Good experience not to be had with food bin. Mice broke into our home soon after use and the bags are not free here and expensive.

 

The food waste here is collected weekly, if you need it and as far as I'm aware, goes into an anaerobic bio digester, where bacteria break it down creating bio gas. The resultant medium is then sold off to compost companies.

 

We haven't had any problem with either smell or rodents with our food waste bin. Since being permitted to use bags in that bin, my wife double bags everything anyway. We also don't have a huge amount of food waste.

 

Since the council insisted we have roughly 5000 wheelie bins, on the upside those crates that were for recycling paper, bottles & plastic, make great strawberry planters.

 

I keep my food waste bin in the garage, I have a small container near the sink where I put just the old bits and pieces which get emptied into the main bin from time to time.

Any off cuts of scraggy meat along with fish heads etc. go straight into the main bin, which has been infested with maggots on a couple of occasions during hot weather.
But other than that its not a problem, we do have to supply our own compostable liners which work out at 35p a week.

 

@GreenFingeredPete great minds think alike One old crate here also contains strawberries .

 

Raw veg based waste goes into my compost heap, dug into raised beds or layered in the sacks I grow edible stuff in.
I'm lucky that I have a wood burnning stove - not often in use but with a bit of cardboard, paper, sticks and the like any other food waste - fish or meat bones, etc. - burn up well and warm the room up too

 

oh yeah, if I see any dumped, they not dumped long.

 

If you empty the small bin regularly it usually doesn’t smell. I keep the small one in a cupboard under the sink and the big one in a shady corner outside. It’s emptied weekly so not had an any issues. Beware very liquid waste as that might eat through the bag and it’s not great when you lift out and the bag breaks! If you do need to put wet stuff in, use a piece of bread to soak up. Apart from in Winter, I also have a second small bin for compostable waste (veg matter etc) that I compost myself, so the other one only has plate scrapings, leftovers etc.

 

Why do you lift the bag out?
I just put the bin out at collection day and they turn the whole thing upside down in their bin on the truck.

 

Although our bin men are on strike they came promptly this morning. All our recycling gets thrown in with general waste when collected. Such a shame.