new council waste system

shaun40400

hello uk peeps

south dublin county council in its wisdom last month introduced a new waste bin system..so we now have the following
green,,,,plastic,paper,card,tin
brown,,,food waste cooked and un-cooked,fast food packaging,grass cuttings
black,,, for for anything else

the problem is the brown bin,,,its collection is once a month,,we have just done two weeks and the bin is half full which is ok the problem is the maggots and flies and the stench,,
their instructions is wrap all food in paper parcels to help reduce this problem,,,,yep that one dident work

im wondering is the main fly attraction the cooked and raw meats or the cook food waste,,
my thinking is this will have to go back to the main bin,,unless some one knows a good fly deterrent

waiting with peg on nose
shaun

ka7e

No solution, but EEEEEEEWWW! I think your council needs a different strategy. It makes sense to empty the really offensive perishable stuff more often. I'd be complaining long and loud!

Here we have food waste collected weekly. 2 brown lidded boxes are supplied, 1 small for the kitchen and a large lockable one to decant it in to. The large one goes out for the weekly collection. The only thing that is collected fortnightly is the "anything else" wheelie bin and garden waste wheelie (for which you pay extra ).

jacgab

I know (according to jokes) that the Irish often seem to do things the odd way round. But I think your council have been ill advised. Anyone that composts regularly knows that you should never put cooked food, meat, fish or any other foodstuffs except for vegetable/fruit stuffs and eggshells into compost as it attracts flies, rats and other unwanted pests.

I would put all your cooked food etc into the black container and have it taken away more regularly. If the council complains then advise them to look at any composting site on the web and smile smugly.

morg_monster

Food waste collection works very well BUT you need weekly collections really. monthly is not enough at all; maybe possibly in last years winter, but not usually. Our food waste bin gets collected every week, it is only a a smallish caddy. It means that we can have fortnightly collections of "other waste" and recycling, as there is only really dry waste in thosee bins (feel sorry for people with nappies etc though). Really, do complain to the council, take photos, and get your neighbours to moan too if they are having problems, write to the paper. I guarantee almost everyone will be feeling the same way (including the poor people who have to empty the bins!)! Someone has given them very poor advice.

As for the meantime - it is meat that encourages the flies most. We have had maggots in ours in the hottest weather even with weekly collection. The fact is that even using the normal bin, you may still get maggots - but at least you can do black bags and the worst is out of sight/mind! If you do want to try and keep using the food waste bin some suggestions:

Get a peg for your nose, put all the current maggoty stuff in a couple of black bags and leave them in the normal bin. Then clean out the food bin with boiling water and bleach and start over.

Get a small bin with a tightfitting lid to go in the kitchen (the council supplies ours - another must in my opinion for this scheme to work), and line with compostable waste bag to collect the food waste in rather than newspaper. We buy small bags from sainsburys that fit in the caddy in the kitchen; every other day or so we tie it up and it goes in the outside caddy. Should be well sealed - but maggots are very small and they do get in sometimes...

Always scrape leftovers into this bin immediately after a meal; don't leave them out even for a short while as flies could lay eggs on them and then they'll go into the bag and the bin.

Consider keeping a locknlock box in the fridge to put meat waste in, and only empty it into the bin the night before bin day. This should keep the flies off but obviously, for a month its not ideal! especially if you have a family the whole fridge would be full of leftover meat scraps! It does work though and won't smell if you get a well sealed box.

Spray the edge of the outside food bin with jeyes fluid or something similar, as often as you can manage (we do every day or so). Although flies can't get IN the bin, they can lay eggs on the edge and these can wriggle through the tiny gaps and get into the bin. The fluid should kill off tiny eggs but you will need to do it often as the flies will come back and lay more

Keep the outside bin somewhere where its in the shade for most of the day, for us this is behind one of the other bins!

Good luck, it is horrendous dealing with maggots, the smell is so vile...

morg_monster

jacgab wrote: »

I know (according to jokes) that the Irish often seem to do things the odd way round. But I think your council have been ill advised. Anyone that composts regularly knows that you should never put cooked food, meat, fish or any other foodstuffs except for vegetable/fruit stuffs and eggshells into compost as it attracts flies, rats and other unwanted pests.

I would put all your cooked food etc into the black container and have it taken away more regularly. If the council complains then advise them to look at any composting site on the web and smile smugly.

Sorry I just wanted to add - us homeowners are recommended not to put cooked food, meat etc on our compost heaps, but for large scale composters like councils it is fine really - the piles get very hot as they are so large and everythign is broken down very quickly. Yes they probably attract rats but they are easier to control in a non-domestic environment, and all rubbish tips are running with rats and things anyway. This is pretty standard with food waste collections and in fact the whole point really is that they collect EVERYTHING so there's nothing minging left in the normal bin. I even sneakily put paper towels in our food waste bin too after wiping up a spill!

mcgrow

Perhaps they are relying on it breaking down in the bins.

shaun40400

thanks for the replies ,
compost-able bin bags sound like a good idea,and for the mean time i think all meats will go to the black bin ,,along with cooked waste till they sort out the system properly,,,,jayes fluid is well in use :-)

Lotus-eater

In all honesty I never really understand why this is a problem for people.

You should compost in your garden, so all of your raw veg/fruit etc will go in there. If you have to throw away cooked food, almost always you are cooking too much, or not using up leftovers. So change your practices.

There isn't much else left!

If you had meat, or fish leftovers, I would be putting them into the main black bin, including all bones unless they have been cooked in a stock and there is basically nothing left on them. I don't think anyone wants meat rotting outside their back door for a month. But if you have a close fitting lid, flies can't get in, so you have no maggots.

shaun40400

just ben on to the council..
quote from very nice man....
oh no,,,thats nots nice!!! we need to look at this then,,doesn't look like its working properly!!!!!

im thinking like !!!!!!!! did any one not test the system 1st??
i will pass on your comments to the board...(yeah i bet)
so told him to log it as a complaint so they have to issue an answer with in 3 months,,if they dont i can go to the executive board and get the system halted until they get a proper solution

that will be in around 6 month time,,,if i haven't forgotten about it by then ,,,which is what they will hope for!!

and i asked him how many complaints had been logged about this situation as far as im aware your the first say he,,,,DOUBT IT!!!!

shaun40400

lotus eater

councils here are around 5 yrs behind the uk if not 10yrs,,
im on disability benefit and dont have €65 euro for a compost bin ,,and already pay €32 a month for collections..and im not paying to have empty bins collected
as for food waste,,,how dare you make an assumption as to our situation..

for you information our food waste weight was 2,4 kilos for 17 days,,less than 4lts in volume

its not the amount f waste produced its the system that's wrong

Smoffi

wrap all food in PAPER first.... so that instantly cuts down on the amount of paper being recycled lol...


Councils everywhere need a brain cell !!