Food Scraps Recycling

pinkteapot

We currently have recycling collected for plastic, glass/tins and garden waste. Everything else goes out in black bags. (Only half a black bag a week normally - very proud!)

Had a letter from the council to say we're part of a trial in the town for food collections. They will shortly be delivering some sort of caddy that food scraps go in, so they won't be in the landfill bags.

Does anyone do this already and how do your organise it?

Currently in our kitchen we have a bin and a set of these:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8423328/Trail/searchtext%3ERECYCLING+BINS.htm

So everything is sorted at point of disposal, and the bin/caddy gets emptied into the relevant container for collection.

We don't have room for another bin to put food waste in separately. I'm not sure what sort of caddy the council mean but I don't really fancy having it sitting in my kitchen, grubby inside and outside after being put out for collection.

Also, is it ALL food waste that goes in food recycling? Meat/fish scraps and the caddy thing will reek unless I clean it regularly, surely....

chunkychocky

We have food waste collected. It really doesn't smell, not even in Summer (though we are vegetarian so don't have meat waste). We have a small kitchen caddy which has a fitted lid so smells don't escape and flies don't get in. I use a compostable bag in it, which was recommended by the council. When it gets full I lift the bag of food waste out and put it in a larger food waste bin which stays outside with all of the other bins / boxes / recycling bags. The one outside does get a bit rank as the food waste has longer to decompose so liquids escape out of the compostable bags over the space of the week. I generally just give it a quick swill under the outside tap before I put it back and it is fine. The inside one I clean out thoroughly once a week, but I could probably leave it longer as it doesn't really get dirty with the compostable bags. The cheapest place I've found for compostable bags for kitchen caddys is Sainsburys.

The council did say that it isn't compulsory to use compostable bags and that some people like to wrap their food waste up in old newspaper which is also acceptable. I like the convenience of the bags though.

Ben84

Our council set this up a while ago. The caddy they supplied was a small plastic box with lid for the kitchen and a bigger outside bin. Our council accept all food waste, not just vegetable stuff.

We found the compostable bags very leaky and the newspaper no better, so it ended up needing the caddy cleaned every time it was emptied and the outside bin cleaned every week. It was always smelly and foul. Plastic bags are much better, but can't be used. Unfortunately I got tired of it and no longer use it. This seems to be common as the number I see out on bin day has dropped over the past few months from nearly every house on our street to just a few now. Try it and see how you get on, but I think a lot of people find it easier to just throw food waste in the kitchen bin with plastic bags that keep it contained much better. They may also be wrapping up vegetable waste in newspaper as they make it and home composting to avoid the caddy and bin cleaning.

pinkteapot

Thanks both - Ben84 - sounds a bit like how I expected it would turn out. Maybe that's why our council is only doing a trial of it initially.

I'll give it a go but I suspect meat/fish waste will be back in the kitchen bin in no time...

tanith

We have had this system for 2yrs now and I find easy and simple to do , small caddy in the kitchen large food waste bin outside, use bio-degradable bags in the kitchen one which just lifts out when full (caddy needs cleaning weekly) and goes straight into the outside bin . Its collected once a week and I usually just swill the outside bin out with the hose before putting it back although in the winter it really doesn't get that grubby.. it works fine and we no longer have nasty smelly black bags to put out.. I only fill a black bag every 2 or 3 wks now and cats and foxes no longer rip the bags to pieces on the street on bin day... both the caddy and the large food waste bin have a handle that lifts and locks the lid so no smells ..

grahamc2003

We have a food caddy type thing, about a foot high and 9in diameter just to put it into perspective. It's chromed metal with a lid which incorporates a charcoal filter. I was worried about smells, but we've had none whatsoever. It takes all vegetable waste, and gets emptied into the compost bin every day or two. No meat goes in there, any fat/inedible bits either go to the dog or chickens (the latter being ultimate food recycling, since you put waste food in and get excellent food out). Any liquid waste fat gets poured over the dog's normal food - he loves it. The result of that is our bin men take away virtually no watse food - the dog used to eat all our chicken bones (after making stock from them), but now he's older they get burnt on the stove, and the ashes end up in the compost too. We also have no waste paper or cardboard from packaging, magazines or junkmail etc - that all gets burnt too.