green cone advice...

timswf

Hi am thinking of buying a green cone.. but £78 is pretty steep ...sadly my council doesn't offer discounts.. but I may be able to get a friend in another area to order for the discounted £50+delivery... have searched back through previous posts from the summer where people have said they're "excellent" ..but would appreciate any more first hand review info.. good or bad..especially at this time of year when it is colder and less sunny. Thank you for your help ...rgds timswf

scorpio_biker

Hi,

I have one of these, bought it last summer so this is my first winter. It sits in the far corner of my front garden (the only place I could dig a hole deep enough) but is unobtrusive and the plants will soon grow round it.

There's 2 of us and a cat, and we have never got above the basket level.

The only thing I think I've noticed is a stronger 'rotting meat smell' now, I suspect that's because the waste sits around for longer before being 'digested'. However that smell is only noticable when I open the lid - I've never noticed anything when walking up to it, summer or winter. Although I haven't really looked hard at the waste to see how it's doing, I can just see this mass way down and I leave it at that.

Personally I thinks it brilliant. We have a 4 stage process for waste at home
Can it go on the compost
if not can it go in the green cone
if not can it go in the council collected recycling
if not it's in the landfill bin

The green cone has really helped keep down the quantity in our landfill bin, and with fortnighly collections we don't get any problems with smelly bins anymore - old cat food was the worst but that all goes in the green cone now.

And one small word of warning, be careful how you tip waste into the cone and keep a grip of any scraping tools, I've already lost a wooden spoon and there is no way you can get in to retrieve it - although there is a bar across the top (if you choose to leave it in place) that stops large items falling in.

HTH

Rachel021967

We've had a green cone for a few years. With the first cone it became infested with flies. Don't put pet food or anything thats been touched by a fly in the cone during the summer months. Our second cone is full so we've stopped using it and something has been digging around it so I've tried to cover the surrounding area with large bits of wood. In the summer the outside was covered in flies and it absolutely stunk when we opened the lid. Anybody have any suggestions to tackle our problems with the cone?

moonpixiewitch

Rachel021967 wrote:

We've had a green cone for a few years. With the first cone it became infested with flies. Don't put pet food or anything thats been touched by a fly in the cone during the summer months. Our second cone is full so we've stopped using it and something has been digging around it so I've tried to cover the surrounding area with large bits of wood. In the summer the outside was covered in flies and it absolutely stunk when we opened the lid. Anybody have any suggestions to tackle our problems with the cone?

I had the same problem with ordinary compost bins (free from my local council) .....RATS.....the problem required a visit or two from the environmental health in the end which I wasn't particularly worried by , but my neighbours were going loopy about it , and as we all live in the same block of flats in the countryside , I felt they had to go ... the rats and the composters
so now all my kitchen peelings have to go to landfill . Garden waste gets collected for soil conditioner or taken to recycling centre.

kscour

we bought one in the spring from green chronicle which worked out cheaper than buying direct however I notice they're selling them for £90 now!
Ours has slowed down but considering it's sited in a spot which in the past we've had to water in the winter and is now soaking from all the rain we've had I'm not suprised. We do try not to waste food anyway (2 adults 2 kids)so we don't have too much to put in there but it is starting to build up.
Flies - most of the problem we had with flies was because they were attracted to the nice warm plastic rather than what was in there. However when we went on holiday and parents house sat we came back to fruit flies installed in the cone! To be honest they don't bother me that much and a quick squirt of fly killer would soon dispense of them. I do hose the outside of cone and inside of lid to wash any off and stop any eggs being laid though.
Smell - mostly no, however I don't recommend opening the lid and shoving your face in there straight away! But it certainly doesn't smell when the lid is shut.
The caddy that comes with it is good if flimsy certainly stops any smells until you empty it.
Since having the compost bin and green cone - our rubbish is down to one occasionally two black bags a week. We don't have a recycling collection although we take tins/glass and papers to bank's so I think if we could recycle our plastic our bin would be nearly redundant.
We also had a rat problem with compost bin but it now sits on a thick sheet of metal - see if the little whatsit can tunnel through that! I did worry about attracting more of the little beggers but I think they are more likely to be attracted by smelly bin bags in shed than by the cone & compost bin.
HTH

tenuissent

moon pixie, do you have one of those off the ground rotating black composters? Cheap from council? I can't see rats ever getting into ours.

I would like a green cone. I also waste very little food (stock, cunning little meals from leftovers etc) but there are always bones, fish skin, that sort of stuff, so I am reading this with interest. We compost or recycle everything except the meaty stuff and a few tins, so there is not much left out for our weekly collection.

fleur

I've been told that to stop mice/rats in compost bins etc, every time you go past give the bin a kick, they don't like being disturbed.

Seakay

As far as a compost bin goes, there should only be raw vegetation, which rats will not be interested in - we were told never to put in cooked food or any sort of meat to avoid attracting them.
The green cone advertising material says tht they are rat proof because of the sunken basket - can anyone confirm this? Also, are rats attracted into the garden, even if they can't get into the bin?

angelavdavis

Just reviving this thread as I have discovered that my green cone has a rat infestation as of a couple of weeks ago and according to the manufacturers, they have only received 6 complaints out of 25,000 green cones sold - anyone out there had problems with rats and green cones like me?? I am interested in doing a bit of a straw poll here so I can pass on my information to the Council Officer responsible for the recycling policies.

Thanks everyone

PS: Seakay - interesting you read that the advertising material says they are rat proof because that was my assumption - but the quote from the chap at the council says:

"The manufacturers are careful wording their publicity that I have seen, and I have never seen claims that this product is rat proof (clearly a fairly thin open mesh plastic would not be). However, Green Cone do state that this product should not encourage rats when correctly installed."

He suggests that I should forward any links or advertising material that suggests otherwise, so if you have a link, it would be appreciated. Thanks

hardpressed

fleur wrote: »

I've been told that to stop mice/rats in compost bins etc, every time you go past give the bin a kick, they don't like being disturbed.

I always give mine a kick before lifting the lid, after I thought I saw something small and furry in it, might just have been my vivid imagination.

peter_the_piper

I keep my bird peanuts in a hefty plastic dustbin, the rats even tried to chew into this, so unless the cone is very substantial they'll likely find a way in.