house hold food waste dilemma

We never have much left over to put in our food waste bin - any peelings, etc, go into the compost. But shells, fruit stones and bones go in the food waste, as do teabags. We use loose tea most of the time, but any fruit or herbal tea still comes in the bags. We put ours out overnight, as the bin has a sturdy lock. I can't see any scavengers getting in.

Something like soup can be defrosted, heated thoroughly and any leftover can be refrozen. The warnings about not refreezing are mainly about meat. The danger is that the bugs multiply while thawing, and will be in greater numbers than before. As long as something is heated through, bugs are all killed.
Some foods like veg, lose texture on being refrozen so not good, but not actually dangerous.
Both OH and I are retired microbiologists and many of you would be horrified by some of the things we eat!

Yes, it's safe to refreeze bread. Read that somewhere and have done it safely.

Ninathenana. Our food waste goes in our garden waste bin. No plastic allowed. If you put waste from garden in surely you can put fruit and veg waste in too as you could easily have apples potatoes etc growing in your garden. If it would go on a compost heap it can go in the garden waste bin even egg shells!

Food waste bin??? Not sure what that is...ours goes in The ‘normal’ waste in...and being 3.5 feet in height no animal barring and elephant could knock it over.

I'm not brave enough Callistemon .

Aggie I don't like to reheat twice. Anyway I may not want something two days in a row.
With the best will in the world its difficult always to use everything up.

My mum used to put her leftover veg soup down the loo. I strain it and put the veg in the food bin.

Surely the best way to deal with this is to discuss it with your neighbour.

You put your bin out at 7.30 so obviously it is emptied after that time, so why can't your neighbours put theirs out before leaving for work in the morning instead of the evening before?

If the bin can lock, ask them to do so. If it doesn't a brick on the lid should prevent animals getting into it.

If they really insist on putting the bin out the evening before, offer to do so yourself when you put yours out!

If I thaw too much soup I put it in the fridge to use the next day

I have done annep , on rare occasions, as I thought it was ok to do that with bread.
We've not had a problem (yet)

Callistemon are you saying you freeze bread, defrost and then refreeze? I thought you weren't supposed to do that.
And yes I know if I defrost raw food I can cook and refreeze. But thanks.

To be fair to Fennel and her putting food down the loo. She said she is rethinking that now.

Anneeba, agree with you- sweeping rubbish on to neighbour's drive seems a rather aggressive solution.

Not much of a problem in our house. My OH puts leftovers between two slices of bread and makes some bizarre sandwiches. He’s definitely in the eat to live camp whereas I am more of a fusspot and would probably go hungry rather than eat one of his concoctions!

Ah, thought you meant eg meat or fish.
I've refrozen bread and cake.

Callistemon if I make soup, freeze half, then defrost, I have to dump what I don't use.

Our food waste bins have a handle that when upright, locks the bin so that nothing can fall out if the bin is tipped over. I thought they were all like this.

Fennel - no food should go down the toilet - it is for the three Ps only - pee, poo, and paper. Other items can block the system, not just for you but for all on the same sewer pipes.

anneeba I totally agree why not just sweep it up is it that terrible to help someone instead of being angry and cross with them as for sweeping it all into their side that sounds very veery petty to me
I still can’t get my head round taking food into the toilet

annep if it's something that can be cooked you can refreeze after cooking.

If we leave the faintest whiff of anything on eg greaseproof paper and put it into the general waste, the seagulls will tear the bags apart and spread all the rubbish far and wide.

Bit sad to see how quick certain posters are to suggest taking on neighbours or DILs (previous thread), rather than going for a little communication and tolerance of other people. Chat to your neighbour! How aggressive would it seem to you if it was the other way round and they heaped a load of food mess onto your drive? Blimey, no need to upset folk and make enemies for no good reason... enough awfulness happening as it is that as individuals we can't control. Making a friend of your neighbour by chatting is surely the better way to go

Is this a one-off infoman?

Never had a whiff from our waste bin. The food is tied up in a compostable plastic bag. We also throw out very little food. Some weeks I do not bother to put it out.

Vegtable waste goes on the compost heap. The food bin, on a bad week might have six bacon rinds 2 chop bones and a fish skin in it. Nothing more, usually less.

Waste vegetable matter goes in my compost bin at the bottom of the garden.
The only other food waste is fish skin, chicken bones and the occasional crust of bread, which are bagged securely & go in the black (non-recycling) bin.
Everything else is frozen & used up.

If animals are getting in your neighbour’s bin on a regular basis OP, and attempts at friendly communication have failed, you could inform the council as I think they have an interest in these matters.

If you defrost something and don't use it all you can't refreeze it. You have to throw it away.

Like calendar girl and grannyticktock, we never throw away cooked food, any left overs go towards next days meal or are frozen to add to something at a later date. We have a couple of compost bins, so any uncooked veg, peelings etc go in there. We only have black bins for non recyclable waste and green for garden waste, collected fortnightly and they are never more than quarter full. I need a halo image here.

I'm another who will put 'very sloppy' food waste down the toilet to flush away. Bits of 'left-over stew' off plates etc.

I am very conscious of food waste, and practise 'portion control' as I bulk-cook in advance - so there isn't much at all in the way of 'food waste' going on in my home. Mostly it's from what grandchildren have left on their plates.

Anything that isn't 'sloppy' goes into the main big bag - but I don't like to put anything that's potentially stinky in that.

We used to have the Food Waste Bins here - and I thought it was a great idea. However, there weren't enough people prepared to go along with it, so it was scrapped - great shame!