Stinky food waste bin

savingforoz

Like many other places round the country, we now only get our waste collected once a fortnight. Like lots of other people, I now have a smelly food waste bin out the front of my house, which by the time it's collected is full of maggots and pongs to high heaven.

What I want to know, are there any natural products I can sling in there to keep the pong down and the maggots at bay? Would bicarb of soda work? I want to do my bit to help recycling and reduce waste but find the smell and maggots absolutely vile. And it will only get worse as summer gets going...Any ideas appreciated. All the local council say is "wrap food waste in newspaper first..." - absolutely useless, doesn't work!

xlt_hunter

TBH - food should never go into a black bin and thats my thoughts - its a shame and a waste as well.

Do you have a garden? If so, get a composter or some chickens... they will munch there way though the food waste (not meat!) and you get gifts in the terms of eggs or compost at the end

savingforoz

Sadly no garden - well, a concrete square the size of a postage stamp!

xlt_hunter

Thats a shame.... could say a wormery would be the next best thing...

martindow

The smell is because of other processes happening and a slow break down of the waste. How about bokashi (there's a thread running at the moment about this) or a worm bin? Both break down food very quickly and without smell. You need a bin with a tap at the bottom to release the liquid formed as the food waste is broken down. This can be diluted and used as a plant feed.

ANNEGEDDES

i buy those compostable plastic bags, from a company called tree huggers on ebay. They fit into the kitchen caddy and do reduce the smell, defo worth the money!! so before you start doing that just wash the bin out really well, then everyother week after collection swill it out with hot water and i guess bicarb, vinegar, essential oil, fairy liquid?????

Chipps

When you say "food waste bin", do you mean a wheelie bin? Is it a bin where you put all non-recyclables or is it purely for food?

It seems odd if the council are actively encouraging people to waste food!

I have to hold up my hand and say that we do occasionally throw food in the black bin. But do stress the word "occasionally". The best way round your problem is to cut down the amount of actual food wasted. Try planning to use the excess in another meal, or put extra portions in the freezer for a "ready meal" on another day. Or what about cooking slightly less in the first place, if people are not eating all that's on the plate - give 'em a bit less! (if need be put it on a smaller plate so it still looks like a full plateful!) The main sort of food waste that will get maggots is meat, so it makes sense both for your bin and your pocket not to throw that away!
And if there is any waste, put it in a plastic bag (from those supermarkets that still give away free bags!) and tie it up tight. The flies will find it more difficult to get in and lay their eggs, so fewer if any maggots.
I don't know how many are in your household, but our bins are collected on alternate weeks and even when there were 5 of us, I still rarely filled the black bin more than half full. Now, sometimes it's only about 3 supermarket bag-fulls - but that's just for 3 of us.
We do have the advantage that the alternate week includes a green wheelie bin, which is for all garden waste and kitchen compostables eg tea bags, veg peelings etc (but obviously not cooked food or meat!)

hope this helps

savingforoz

It's a bin purely for food waste. No meat in there,, but my cat eats fish (or more accurately, leaves half of it!) so there's fish waste in there. Other than that, I don't waste food - I'm a foodie, so either it's eaten or leftovers frozen! - it's vegetable peelings, fruit stones and the like. I will look into the bags from treehuggers as there's nothing I can do to reduce the fish waste (fussy feline with special dietary needs due to colitis)

The composting idea is good, because even though I don't have a garden, I have keen gardening friends. Have been looking on Amazon.

Chipps

What are the council going to do with the food waste? Is it for them to compost? If so, probably fish shouldn't be in there. So maybe bag that up in sealed plastic & put in non recylable bin. That should get rid of maggots.
Does the council have a policy where they won't take food waste if it's wrapped in plastic? (Hence the request for newspaper wrapping) Might be worth checking before getting treehuggers bags, as dustmen may not realise it's compostable, and refuse to take it.

savingforoz

Thanks, Chipps, from now on the fish waste will go in with the rest of the black bin rubbish. For the rest of it, I've found a neat ceramic kitchen waste pot on Amazon that uses carbon filters and produces compost, which I can then take to my gardening friends. Will also give the bin a thorough clean out (my nostrils are bracing themselves :eek: )

I know it's not just me as others complain about the nasty niffs from their bins, and seeing rats is sadly more common than it used to be...there's been some programmes on TV about the issue too.

Littlebean_2

Our local council introduced wheelie bins a while ago, with food/kitchen waste going into a separate bin which they empty weekly (at the minute). They say that it goes into an industrial high temperature compost process and so fish, meat, bones etc can all be included. I buy the green biobags from Sainsburies/Waitrose which fit in my little kitchen bin. They are great, although a bit flimsy so you can't stuff too much into them. So far our food waste wheelie bin is fine - smellwise. We compost peelings etc anyway so our wheelie bin usually contains only 1 or 2 little food waste bags per week.