General Chat

I think since the foot and mouth problem and various pig diseases it has been illegal to feed food scraps to pigs and cattle.

We don’t have any sort of food waste collection but until I read your piece, AnninGlos, I wondered whether the food waste collections went for pigswill as they did at the school I attended in the fifties but I expect there will be strict monitoring of food fed to pigs now.

Zzzz we've been using the small caddy for ages, latest council idea is to put food waste in biodegradable bags (which we buy) and put in the brown wheelie bins with garden waste, we have the blue bin for cardboard and paper, the grey bin for general waste, and a green bin for plastics and tins, glass goes to our local recycle centre just down the road from us. I'm retired but feel like I've got a full time job sorting out this lot :-)

You can buy paper liners here full size for a wheelie bin, 50p each. That way it keeps the bin a bit cleaner, but we do hose it out every now and then to give it a good clean, all 4 of them.

Florence in the hebrides

Our food bins have always been collected weekly. Except many years ago when we had snow or something and bins missed a week.

We don't have food waste collection here, but we're (hopefully) moving soon, all the way to Somerset! I've checked the council website, they collect food waste and indicate that newspaper can be used as a liner for the bin.

Our local council provides bags for the food waste caddies, these can be collected from libraries, mobile libraries, leisure centres, recycling sites and adult education centres. The council really seem to make a big effort towards recycling, including giving away compost made from the contents of the garden waste bins.

We all so often complain about what is not so good about the services we receive so I thought a little praise would not go amiss.

We compost most of our raw peelings etc, and the odd bit of suitable food goes to the birds, bottom of cereal packets etc. So in our caddy go tea bags, some coffee waste, most eggshells because they don't compost that well, meat bones, fish skins, cooked food waste like tough stalks, fruit stones, meat fat and gristle.

Just looked at the leaflet that came with the caddy and among other things it says not to put anything in there that is not food waste so I guess that means we have to use bags that we have to pay for and are biodegradable.

I wonder what happens if you have a 'food waste' caddy, and never put it out?

I was just thinking what would go in mine.
Now Betty the cat is dead, I have no bowls of 'turned nose up at' cat food to throw away.
I tend to just cook what I can eat, so I rarely throw cooked food out.
Peelings will go on my compost heap - as will old bread and eggshells.

That leaves tea bags - loads of those - I won't put them on the compost, as I don't use PG tips 'paper' tea bags, and others may contain plastic, and avocado seeds!

Andysmum ours will be too, allegedly they will no doubt find a way to change it to fortnightly.

Our food waste bins are emptied weekly.

We can 'purchase' yearly, a garden waste bin - £39 for a small one, and £59 for a large one, then we have to pay £10 a year for the licence! :-S

I haven't got one - but my neighbour has got a small one. As I take the bins out (hers & mine - she brings them in), I check how much stuff is in her garden waste bin, and fill it up for her :-D

I've actually just purchased a small compost bin - I left the one I had, when I moved, so peelings etc will go in there, rather than the main waste bin (they're not allowed in the garden bin) - but I will still fill up my neighbours bin with weeds etc.

We have plastic bowl things for glass, Unfortunately, as I live mid-terrace, the quickest way to get it out is through the house, and if it's been raining, (I leave it outside), water leaks everywhere, so I'm afraid some glass goes in the main bin.

Food waste bins sound disgusting! I bet they're only emptied every 2 weeks or so.

We can put anything and everything in our general waste bins.

People like me have very little to put in apart from garden waste because I recycle everything I can, but people who can't be bothered to recycle just tip everything into the general waste bin. Some of them must have a problem because the bins are only emptied every three weeks!!

What does it say on your council recycling page?
May be it says what bags / paper you can use or there might be an e mail address where you can contact them.

I don't understand why we can't wrap the food waste in newspaper. I am really tempted to do just that.

I think the problem with the infested bin was that it never got washed out.

We are not allowed to put paper in with our food waste bags.

We have had a small caddy for food waste for years. I think it is great we used to have to use special bags that we bought. However since last year we have been able to use any bags (even bread bags because the waste is treated in a special way that also deals with the bags. Ours doesn't go for compost, it is used to 'create' some sort of energy (fuel) not sure if electricity or gas. We are not allowed to put food waste in the garden waste bin. Where daughter lives and where we were in Cornwall food waste still goes in with normal waste. Our ordinary waste bins don't smell, no food waste!

Apparently we can't put news paper in it I suppose they mean the newspaper used to wrap the food in.

I just keep the lid shut names :-D
It's not that bad, it's only veg so no different to a home compost bin. I think it must be animal scraps that are really stinky as they rot away and attract flies.