Food Waste Bin

Look what's been delivered by the council this morning - six months later than originally stated - yup, the dreaded food waste bin (aka a slop bucket.)  I've had quite a lot to say on this matter before (but, darn me, I can't find the exact blog post where that particular rant took place.) Suffice to say, I shall not be using it.  HOWEVER, before I get shot down in flames about not doing my bit for recycling, let me clarify a few points.

This new food waste bin is only for kitchen use and should be emptied into the green wheelie bin (previously only allowed to contain garden waste) when it is full. Said green wheelie bin will now be emptied once a week instead of once a fortnight.  I've decided to skip the whole food waste bin step and just resite the wheelie bin to outside the back door where I can easily chuck fruit and veg peelings and any stale bits of bread etc.  Allegedly you can also put in any meat, fish or dairy bits of leftovers too (I say allegedly as how on earth can you make compost from animal products?). This I shall most certainly not be doing because a) I really really don't want a maggot-infested wheelie bin and b) I hardly ever have meat or dairy scraps anyway (fish is something rarely eaten in this house) and any scraps I do have from meat goes out for the local fox (or more likely is snaffled by next door's cat before the fox gets a look in.)  Any bits of mouldy cheese (and those really are a huge rarity as I love cheese and try never to waste any) get put out for the birds (or next door's cat again) to eat.

My real criticism with this food waste bin though is that our local council is STILL making us use black plastic sacks for our refuse collection, which is a wicked thing to do in my book as plastic takes pretty much forever to break down in landfill.  Having had several discussions with the council refuse department about this over the years it seems that introducing wheelie bins for general refuse collection is too expensive. However, they can find the money to give us all slop buckets when they face huge EU fines for not recycling enough.  Somehow a council that is stuffing landfill sites with vast quantities of black plastic sacks I consider criminally negligent regarding recycling - slop buckets or not!!

What do you think?  Do you have a food waste bin in the kitchen?  Has it ever been maggot infested?  Am I just being a complete wuss about the whole matter?

Comments

[Caroline]

One of my favourite subjects to rant about, but I'll try and keep it brief! We have the same system here, BUT our wheelie bin is only emptied every fortnight. So, because you're not allowed to use bags in the wheelie bin, in summer the food waste sits there "cooking" inside the big plastic bin for a fortnight and yes, we gets loads and loads of horrible maggots, flies and as for the smell ..... Suffice to say, I don't "recycle" their way any more, it's a health hazard.

[ilona]

I have a small plastic bucket with lid (bought it with fat balls in it), inside my kitchen cupboard, along with a pedal bin for general rubbish, a bin for plastics and cardboard, and one for tins and glass, all inside the one cupboard. In my food waste bucket I only put fruit and veg peelings, I empty it often, on my compost heap. I don't throw any other food away. To have a bucket with all manner of rotting foodstuffs in your kitchen, is disgusting.

Use it for something else, put your clothes pegs in it, or carry your cleaning equipment around the house in it.

[Pookiewoo]

Yup, I have a little food waste bin in our kitchen. I use the potato starch bags in it (99p for 20). When full it is dumped on the 'compost' heap at the end of the garden. We put ALL food waste on there as it is more of a hibernacula for reptiles, than a provider of mulch for the garden.
As to the maggot scenario, we have never had maggots in our little bin (although we have once had a problem with them in our main kitchen bin - how???).
The only problem we do get is 'fruit flies' if the lid is left open.
HTH,
Pooks
P.S - I will admit it is a bit grim to empty when full - usually 'persuade' other half it is a 'blue job' i.e. one for the boys!

[Maureen]

Oh Gawd, sounds awful.
Here in NZ it's a wheelie bin for main rubbish, blue plastic bin for all recycling ( newspapers have to be in plastic bags which rather defeats the object) and compost bin for fruit and veg when I remember as it's rather a way from the house.
I'm told all the plastic for recycling goes to China.
Who thinks this stuff up?

[sharie]

I have SIX food waste bins - they are called DOGS aka dog disposal units, every household should have one.

I can't believe they expect you to fill it then empty it into your outside bin, complete waste of time

[Bin accessories]

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[Librariann]

I live not that far from you, and I think the food waste scheme works really well.
First of all, the food isn't just dumped on a compost heap, which is why you can use all food waste (and the odd paper towel too). It hugely reduces the amount of rubbish I chuck out - we normally have one black bag per week, one recycling bag and the occasional garden waste or textiles bag.
Secondly, the 'outdoor' bin we throw it all into on collection day (once a week) is not much bigger so isn't a pain to move about. They're actually light enough to get blown away in strong winds, which IS a pain.
We use little compost bags in the kitchen caddy and then tie the bag up and dump that in the bigger bin when it's full.
Both bins have lockable lids, saving on pets and foxes having a rummage - this is the MAJOR benefit as far as I'm concerned. Our street looked terrible on bin day before we had the boxes.
We've never had maggots in either of the bins, though we did have some fruit flies at the very end of summer, and as the lid is always closed, there is no smell. We keep it by the back door anyway, so every time we open the door, any lingering smells just get wafted out.

Now, don't get me started on wheelie bins ! I think my council does a really good with its rubbish/recycling but I will fight the wheelie bins as long as I can.