My war on waste!!!

Calluna

beautiful_ravens wrote: »

Hello all.

The most bizarre thing in the bin was half a pigs head - the dog would not eat it despite being on a raw meat diet, and I didn't want to put it anywhere outside because of the rats and it was getting gross, and was not meant for human consumption so I was not going to start eating it...its probably the only thing in my bin that was biodegradable.

Sorry that was a bit long!

Hi,
Could you not have boiled the pigs head and fed it to the chickens?
Ours used to love to eat any carcasses left over from roasts etc, including the scraps from roast chicken dinners :eek:

calluna

fuddle

I have enough loose tea accumulated to dig into my raised bed now so hoping for a break in the rain today.

A question about kitchen composting if I may? I am researching kitchen composters and find they have carbon filters. What are they?

I don't know if I will have enough relevant kitchen waste to make this work so just researching and keeping an eye. What with me trying to use up everything and my rabbit nipping at my heels for the rest... we'll see. I would like to enrich my raised bed in this way though.

[Deleted User]

Carbon filters will stop any smells coming from the closed canister as the compost degrades inside it. You'll still get the smell when you open the container to add more peelings though but the filter will absorb smells when it's closed and keep the kitchen smelling normal.

GreyQueen

You might want to research bokashi bins as well, fuddle. I haven't any personal experience of them but a pal used to have one in her kitchen and it wasn't at all smelly.

silvasava

I use a red plastic lidded fire bucket outside my backdoor for all my vegetable waste. I don't have any pets that would eat it so it all gets tipped on the compost bins. Just used a plastic meat tray under the sink container that's kept in the cupboard under the sink as it has drainage holes & I don't like it out on my sink.

7_week_wonder

I have a compost bin in the kitchen, although it's really only a temporary holding box until I take stuff down to the compost heap. It does have a carbon filter, but I think I've only ever changed it about three times in the last 15 years I usually empty the kitchen compost bin about once a week and I find that once I've washed it out sprinkling some baking powder in the bottom and then putting a sheet of newspaper in the bottom soaks up any liquid (from tea bags or whatever) and seems to stop it smelling.

Fuddle are you allowed an outside compost heap in your new place? If you think you are going to be there for at least a year then it would probably be worthwhile. Especially as you have a pet rabbit! A mixture of kitchen waste, rabbit bedding, grass cuttings and any shredded paper would be great. We have pretty much the same mixture (with chicken bedding instead of rabbit bedding) and we get brilliant compost!

fuddle

Oh thanks for the feedback everyone It never entered my head that I could use rabbit bedding! I feel very privileged to have the garden I now have. It has it's own area for growing your own, complete with little shed. I don't think it would be an issue having a compost bin down there at all as I can pull back the gravel to sit it on bare earth.

I will seriously look in to composting rabbit droppings and think about an outdoor composter. *skips off happily!

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE check with your local council they sometimes have compost makers cheaply for people who grow veg for themselves, we've got half a dozen both at home and on the allotment too, our council do two different sizes and deliver to the house, if you ask and they say no you're no worse off than if you hadn't asked. You can also make a really effective compost heap from pallets and cover it with a piece of carpet to keep the rain off, I know your DH is more than up to this if you can get the pallets. Make a 3 sided enclosure and cover the top with the carpet, 3 months later.....compost!!!bunny bedding and pellets are really good, as is chicken bedding and droppings, grass clippings shredded newspaper, tealeaves, peelings really anything except protein can happily go in the heap.

fuddle

the council have a buy one get one half price offer but I have to pay £18 for the smallest composter.

It will have to wait for now. I will certainly be looking at the pallet idea too Lyn as DH is bound to be able to access pallets again.

7_week_wonder

I made my version of the vegetable peelings soup this morning and DB has declared it a success :T!

In went carrot and potato peelings and left over veg including carrots, sweet potato and normal potato mash. I then added a couple more carrots and a couple more small sweet potatoes (the extra carrots and sweet potatoes were scrubbed and chopped but not peeled).

The stock was a pint of HM chicken stock and a pint of veg stock (using marigold stock) and for flavouring I added ground cumin, ground coriander, mild curry powder and some creamed coconut.

There are only two problems: 1) it was a not particularly appetising brown colour and 2) I couldn't really keep a straight face when I told OH what was in it!

I'll definitely try it again, and in the mean time the vegetable waste stock pot is growing slowly but surely. I'm hoping to make veg stock next weekend and I'll report back how it goes