Food waste bin

Niv

sevenhills said:

badmemory said:

Does your council not give you biodegradable bags that you can put in the bin?  You can buy them too.  We used to have people who actually stole them by following behind the bin lorries.  As the guy said - why would they do that when they give them out free.  They do biodegrade as if you keep them inside for too long particularly with fruit bits in the bag will get a few holes.  Just fold over the top of the bag after putting something in.

No bags here. I put the food in with the garden waste, which strictly speaking not meant to do.
You are allowed fallen apples from your own apple trees, but not apples from the kitchen.
I like to recycle, so bending the rules is ok.

If that includes any kind of meat / bone waste please stop doing that as you actually are not recycling, you are causing contamination to the composting process and likely causing rejects which will be disposed of via alternative methods including landfill.

Belenus

We are a retired couple with no one else in the house so perhaps food management is easier for us than families with children etc.

Vegetable food waste such as carrot tops and broccoli stalks are put on a plant bed in front of the kitchen window with fuschia and pyracantha bushes that appear to thrive on it. We are conscious of the risk of encouraging vermin such as rats but so far in 11 years we have seen no sign of that. We have occasionally seen hedgehogs eating it.

Left over meat is put in the fridge and eaten the next day or is frozen for future use.

If we have meat food waste that we know will never be eaten (chicken bones etc)  we bag it up and put it in the fridge or freezer until bin collection day.

Our area does not have a waste food collection service.

YoungBlueEyes

@Niv how does meat contaminate the composting process? 

I sometimes put chicken bones in my council food waste bin.

badmemory

YoungBlueEyes said:

@Niv how does meat contaminate the composting process? 

I sometimes put chicken bones in my council food waste bin.

Different councils have different rules.  It just depends what they do with the waste.  Ours give us a very complete list of what can & can't go in each bin.  Our brown bin can have garden waste & food whether cooked or raw & includes meat & bones.  They all seem to be different & use different coloured bins.

Money_Grabber13579

badmemory said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

@Niv how does meat contaminate the composting process? 

I sometimes put chicken bones in my council food waste bin.

Different councils have different rules.  It just depends what they do with the waste.  Ours give us a very complete list of what can & can't go in each bin.  Our brown bin can have garden waste & food whether cooked or raw & includes meat & bones.  They all seem to be different & use different coloured bins.

Same here, my council specifically says that meat, fish and bones are to be put in the brown bin and not the landfill bin.

Niv

YoungBlueEyes said:

@Niv how does meat contaminate the composting process? 

I sometimes put chicken bones in my council food waste bin.

If you are putting in the food waste bin then its perfectly fine. The person i was responding to was putting their food waste in the green waste (i.e. garden waste).

The process for treating each type of waste is different so for green waste composting it would typically be open windrow composting, for food waste often AD (anaerobic digestion) or possibly IVC (In Vessel Composting). AD and IVC have specific processes for handling food waste and ensuring harmful bacteria etc is dealt with (primarily this is ensuring the waste is at a specific temperature for a defined time). The open windrow composting is a more natural composting where, yes it does heat up but the controls are not in place to handle non green waste.

Each batch of compost gets lab tested before it can be sold and if it fails it may be reprocessed or may be disposed of - depending what it failed for - bones in the compost would probably mean landfilling for example.

donutandbeer

Our council asks us to put all food waste in the garden waste bin. Our council also doesn’t have a separate food waste collection.

YoungBlueEyes

Our council gave us a little brown kitchen bin and liners. They then go into the garden waste wheely bin.

Thanks for your detailed reply @Niv

Niv

If those are the instructions from the council then its fine as it means they have a process in place for processing the food waste.

As each council seem to do it differently there is no one answer, I was responding to someone who acknowledged they were putting food waste in their green waste which they said they knew they were not meant to do.

donutandbeer said:

Our council asks us to put all food waste in the garden waste bin. Our council also doesn’t have a separate food waste collection.

YoungBlueEyes said:

Our council gave us a little brown kitchen bin and liners. They then go into the garden waste wheely bin.

Thanks for your detailed reply @Niv

Northern_Wanderer

Try this https://www.lakeland.co.uk/20428/ceramic-crock-food-compost-bin-white-28l

comes with a carbon filter and stops flies and smells. I do use a compostable bag in mine as it's nicer that way, easier to clean.....

I hate those plastic caddys the council give out, flies everywhere and stinky.