SLOP BUCKETS

Same here Charleygirl, I agree.

I have space at the front for 3 large wheely bins and they would make an excellent "step up" for a burglar. All that one can see here are wheely bins everyhwere. They are all neatly placed, just in my opinion an eyesore.

We have 5 bins. One for recycling, one for garden waste, a little brown caddy for food inside which is a slop bucket (yuk) and a black bin for what the council describe as 'anything else'. You are supposed to keep the slop bucket inside, line it with bio degradable (or whatever the term is) bags and then put these into the caddy outside for the bin men to collect. Are you with me so far? I got myself in a complete pickle when we first had all these bins but it's surprising how you get used to it. I can't have that horrible slop bucket in my kitchen so I keep it in our little utility room and wash it out regularly. All these bins at the front of the house look horrible but we have nowhere else to keep them - three large wheeley bins and a brown caddy.

I should really have said food waste bin but I couldn't think of it when I posted this. Slop bucket doesn't really sound very nice. I also have to admit that my food waste bin has disappeared some while ago into the bowels of our garage. I'm too wuss to ring up the council and tell them it's been mislaid in case I go on a blacklist of dissenters "to be educated on the benefits of the food waste bin and why we should use them!"

I tried using the food waste bin briefly last summer. Compostables are composted so not a lot of food waste here. The first week some meat bones had split the lining so the bin men wouldn't take it, the second week I wrapped the crawling mess in a carrier bag and they wouldn't take that because it was not compostable. The third week I gave up,put it into a black sack and put it into the ordinary rubbish bin. Have not bothered again.
Tegan I had a bit of a rodent problem in the compost heap too, so I got some pink rodent killing blocks from the hardware shop. Put those on top of the compost and closed the lid to keep cats out. The pink blocks disappeared within a couple of days and have had no problems since.

Terribull all it takes is a quick wash out once a week to keep them clean I wouldn't want a filthy smelly bin outside either so I just wash it regularly. If our bins are missed we can e-mail or ring the council and they come back in a small van to empty missed bins.

Terribull I could have written your OP. I stopped using the "food waste bins" a while ago because they are slatted (for air I presume) and the slats would catch decomposing food in them (e.g. when husband missed the liner bag!) Anyway I stopped because I do enough good through recycling.

Now when I see the food bins left outside homes on my street on pickup day (and sometimes they are put out and no one comes to collect - double yuk) - often they are absolutely filthy. Not a very encouraging or appealing system at all.

plastic carrier bags defeats the object of recycling surely ?

We get small biodegradable bags (made from potato starch I think) free from the council for the food waste.
Not had maggots or a smell even in the hot weather.

In N. Somerset we have a small brown kitchen caddy which is kept under the sink and a larger bin which is kept outside. I line the caddy with a bag and all food waste in wrapped in either newspaper or kitchen towel before being put in the caddy. The bag is then put in the larger bin at the end of the day. This waste is collected every week. I have never had a problem with maggots, flies or smells, even in all the very hot weather we have had recently. N. Somerset have recently stated that we can now use plastic carrier bags to line the caddys.

We used the "kitchen caddy" that the council provided to mix paint in!

Peelings etc go straight into the green wheelie bin (I try not to go in it too, after the knife debacle) anything smelly like uneaten cat food gets wrapped in newspaper and then put in the wheelie, along with garden waste etc. We too have a fortnightly collection.

Tanith, your council's procedures sound similar to ours. I also don't like the term 'slop bucket' - makes me think of the lady who lived along from us when I was little. She emptied her slop bucket in the outside toilet in the mornings... ('yuck' emoticon).

My council sells beck the manure to the local punters so I suppose at least they are making some money out of it.

I agree "rosequartz" going to a different council 2 miles away and it is very different.

Not sure I like the sound of the system of mixing it up with the garden waste, although our garden waste goes in bags not a bin.

Councils don't seem to have a 'joined up' national scheme which would surely be cheaper in the long term?

My small garden is now paved over so I no longer have a compost heap. We do have a large brown bin for food and garden waste. I have little food waste but what I do have I either wrap up with newspapers or if it is eg orange peelings, I may drop that straight into the bin but usually on top of grass cuttings. I hate the term slop bucket- it reminds me of reading about prisoners slopping out in some prisons.

We do the same, tanith. The waste goes into a compostable bag inside the small bin, then bag tied up and put into the outside bin daily. The outside bin has a handle that shuts it securely.
I don't keep the small bin anywhere near a food preparation area and wash it out regularly. It seems to be fine and shuts securely.
We have had more problems with putting peelings on the compost heap, but now have a green compost bin with a lid for veggie food waste besides the open one for garden waste.

We have the same as tanith

We have a small black plastic lidded kitchen caddy which I line with biodegrable bags provided by the Council. I take the bags out every evening, knot them and throw them in the recycling bin. They don't tend to smell because the food scraps etc are contained in the tied up bag. No loose slops.

We have a food recycle bin from the council, it works fine and as long as the lid is closed properly no smells or maggots problem exist as flies can't get into the bin . . I empty a small caddy in the kitchen daily into the bio-degradable bin bag every day and its collected weekly and I then wash them out ready for the next week. The council send all food and garden waste to be heat treated and composted and its finally bagged up as garden compost as far as I can ascertain and sold for a small fee to residents.

I hate the term slop bucket too!!

I have to pay for the biodegradable liners and they're quite expensive. The green caddy from the council is far too small so I put the liner in a bowl until it's full. I've had to give up on my compost bin because of the rat problem I had.

We don't have a slop bucket. We hardly have any food waste anyway. Stale bread goes to the chickens and veg peelings added to the compost heap. We have a green bin that's collected fortnightly so any chicken bones etc., are wrapped in newspaper and frozen until it's time to put the bin out.

There is never anything much in the large green bin so I top it up with garden rubbish because I don't want the council to stop coming down the farm road because the blue bin is always full.

We don't have one provided by the council - thankfully. Wouldn't use it but no doubt one will arrive at some point.

We have a little brown bin which has biodegradable liners, provided by the council. We have it sitting in the cupboard under the sink. Into it goes any food waste (not much of that!) and things like veg peelings etc, and used teabags. At the end of the day, the bag is tied up and placed into the large brown bin outside. This bin is also used for garden waste and is collected/emptied fortnightly, and is composted by the council. We've had no problems with any smells/flies etc. Fife has the highest recycling rate in Scotland, apparently.

I think its an EU directive.

We used our green bin to store coal, as we have 2 compost bins, and a small garden.

Rarely any leftovers, reused or in the freezer, seems us lot here have gardens, brains.

Phew not just me then!

We don't have a "slop bucket" provided by our council (what a horrible term anyway) I have always frozen anything that is smelly and left in the bottom drawer of the freezer until collection day.