Composting household food waste

We have small bins, specifically for food waste. Food waste does not go into the brown garden waste bins.

I cannot understand, and never have, how people can afford to be so lavish with their food buying that they can afford to throw food away. Particularly now every fridge has a seperate freezer compartment, there really is no excuse to waste any food at all.

It doesn't take much effort to draw up a rough menu plan and review what perishable food is left over from the previous week before planning the next weeks shop, and to make sure you have a shopping list to shop to.

But to me it just boils down to not being able to understand, especially in current circumstances, how anyone can afford to buy food and throw it away.

I agree. I don’t understand why anyone throws food away.

Everybody throws food waste away though, as the categories of meat bones and gristle, vegetable peelings, cores, egg shells, items you have dropped on the floor etc (unless the dog eats them) etc. all go in the food waste bin.
We can’t put any food waste in our garden bin, because that is composted and reused by the council, but we have a separate weekly collection for food waste and other recycling.

We have bins for most kinds of recycling including one for garden waste, but food waste goes into the general bin. I think our council are soon going to introduce a food waste caddy system and I can’t say I’m particularly happy about it, if it’s anything like the one my sister in law had in Wales which she kept on the kitchen worktop. It wasn’t big enough to be practical - would not, for instance, have taken a whole chicken carcass, cooked or uncooked. Most of the general waste in this city is incinerated anyway, so doesn’t go to landfill.

Is that in the UK Greyduster?

I don’t throw food away but I do throw peelings or left overs, meat/fish bones. The council collects food waste in the green bin that also takes garden waste, trimmings, leaves, grass etc.
I compost some fruit/veg peel, dead flowers, garden waste but never meat - don’t want to encourage rats

In sure the OP isn't throwing away usable food - the problem is with meat and fish waste which does need disposing of. I am lucky and live next to a field frequented by foxes so our waste is taken there. A friend who lives in town has a Hotbox composter which deals with everything including bones - but does need some attention to maintain the optimum temperature

Germanshepherdsmum

I agree. I don’t understand why anyone throws food away.

We compost a lot of food waste: Peelings, apple cores, banana skins, onion/garlic skins and ends,the big leaves and core of cauliflower, browned bits and ends of celery stalks, tops and bottoms of aubergine and courgettes, lettuces and cabbage leaves outer layer, coffee and tea, ginger peel, broccoli stalk ends, citrus peels and white layer, pom peels and white matter, pits, bread.

Etheldreda

I think I was not sufficiently clear. The council will only take garden waste. So not peelings, left over bread (say), or anything from the house, cooked or uncooked.

I don't have a compost heap. Nor really can I easily create space for one. But I did wonder about one of these composters of the kind Wheniwasyourage suggests.

This sounds like us. We are surrounded by farms which equate to rats and our council only gives us plastic bags for household waste. If you put a cauli leaf in the garden bin they will not take it. We have nowhere for a composter other than the middle of the front lawn, I suppose I could put a flag on the top.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-6499547

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64995473

eddiecat78

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-6499547

Sorry - that link doesn't work - can't work out how to delete it - the next link that I posted is correct

Iam64

I don’t throw food away but I do throw peelings or left overs, meat/fish bones. The council collects food waste in the green bin that also takes garden waste, trimmings, leaves, grass etc.
I compost some fruit/veg peel, dead flowers, garden waste but never meat - don’t want to encourage rats

Same here. I have 4 large enclosed recycled plastic bins, with lids- we bought from the Council 15 years or so ago. And another 5 wire bins. No meat, due to rats, foxes and badgers, etc. I keep all corrugated cardboard, soak it and tear up to add as a layer from time to time, to get right balance. And rotted manure, both horse and cow, from farmer next door but one, as accelerator. Each bin get emptied every 2 years on rotation.

Apples peelings I put in field next door for blackbirds, thrushes and hedgehogs- they love it.

I don't think Etheldreda is necessarily planning to waste food!

If there is no room for a hot composter or wormery, I've heard that Bokashi bins are brilliant; this one looks good as it fits into a kitchen, and is sealed so no smell.
www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/products/organico-bokashi-compost-kitchen-waste-bin-olive-white

Also feeding birds bread CAN be harmful if not done carefully: www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/safe-food-for-birds/household-scraps-for-birds/

I think the OP's question is very sensible; many councils (like mine) don't collect food scraps, although you can probably get away with putting raw veg peelings in the garden compost green bin.

Whoops, just read that you can't put peelings in the green council compost bin - sorry!

Credit where it is due, our council are pretty good at recycling. We have a weekly collection of a food waste caddy, fortnightly black bag, and fortnightly plastics, paper/cardboard, glass and tin cans. We put out the food waste bin every week, often with very little in it apart from egg shells and orange peel. Cheese and bread leftovers go out on the bird table. veg peelings into compost bin, and in the summer even the egg shells are used to deter slugs around my lettuces.

I admit to confusion.

We had various meals for 10-30 all weekend - apart from peels, brown bits, and cores, what about leftovers and plate scrapings?

what about leftovers and plate scrapings?

I don’t wish to sound ‘too good to be true’, but as I posted earlier, we really don’t leave anything on our plates, and if I cook too many potatoes or vegetables say, they are either used the next day or frozen and added to another meal somehow.

😇

And when the GC were small, they knew not to expect big helpings, but also knew that seconds would be available if they wanted them. As GS said once “You don’t like waste do you Granny?”

Calendargirl I have nearly no food waste but if I ate meat I would have bones. They don't completely dissolve even if you make stock.
Likewise if you de-scale fish - or pit cherries or olives. There is generally some sort of food waste.

Grayduster We had a 7 kilo turkey at Christmas. By the time I had finished with the carcase it fitted - just - into a small worktop caddy.

Our council supplied us with a worktop food waste caddy and a bigger pedal bin sized one to transfer food waste into from the smaller one. I have yet to use the bigger bin. It sits in a corner of the garage, unused.

Norah I think big gatherings are the exception to the rule. You are bound to get food waste, when you may have visiters who may not be as environmentally conscious around their eating patterns as you. I just accept that is something I cannot control. I also sometimes give up when DS and family visit. I do my best to keep waste to the minimum, but at least keep it to a lower level than they have at home. DD thankfully is as fussy over food waste as I am.

HPQ I put crushed egg shells, orange peel, bananaskins on the compost heap together with bits of paper, kitchen towel, sometimes, cardboard, providing it doesn't have any anything like a plastic film of metallic coating. In fact anything that is made from vegetable matter and would go mushy if it gets wet.

Calendargirl
what about leftovers and plate scrapings?

I don’t wish to sound ‘too good to be true’, but as I posted earlier, we really don’t leave anything on our plates.

I gather we are the only people of a large family who have leftovers and plate scrapings. Not a problem as we do feed animals and compost into our various places on the land - but others do have rules to follow.

Norah me too (see post above yours)

^Quote Fleurpepper Mon 20-Mar-23 08:14:13
Is that in the UK Greyduster?^

I take it that was in response to the incinerator comment?
Yes it is UK.

My council has moved from one contract to another (cheaper) one. They no longer take (say) rotten/caterpillar eaten cabbage leaves in the brown "garden waste" bin as they used to

I asked them "what if I've grown it myself -surely that is garden waste?"
They said " not if you take the leaves off inside as it's then kitchen waste".