Gransnet forums

House and home

Do you use a food caddy to recycle food?

(75 Posts)
Chestnut Sun 10-Jul-22 10:35:36

I've been using a Joseph Joseph food caddy for the last four years and it's brilliant. Sits on the worktop near the sink and is so convenient, much better than putting all those messy foods in the kitchen bin. The food caddy liner bags are biodegradable and can be tied up with cut up strips. The outdoor food caddy is collected every week so no rotting food hanging around for too long. All in all, what's not to like?

Chestnut Sun 10-Jul-22 11:39:00

Nannan2

WEEKLY household rubbish collection?whats that?(WHERE is that??)?Every fortnight for us - green bin- (northwest) and same for glass,cans,plastics(all 3 in a blue bin) charcoal bin(looks black) for garden waste once a month- brown bin (cardboard& paper) once a month.But we can have as many brown bins as we need(within reason) Thank goodness or we'd be stuck.

Black bins, recycling bins and garden waste are usually once a fortnight, but the smaller food bins are nearly always weekly. I don't think anyone gets other waste collected weekly, just the food.

MawtheMerrier Sun 10-Jul-22 11:43:14

Here in Milton Keynes it is weekly.
We’re not just all roundabouts and concrete cows! ? ? ? grin

Nannan2 Sun 10-Jul-22 11:45:00

Am considering a house move, but the area i need has very tiny wheelie bins compared to ours- (they all look like the 'single person' bins) even though its about 10 miles away-I'm not sure how we'd manage even though we have little food waste really(i get to have leftovers regularly- sons wont have them!?) But we do recycle a lot.And they look tiny too.?

tanith Sun 10-Jul-22 11:47:08

I’ve had a food waste caddy from the council for a long time, I have bio degradable bags and it sits under the sink then into the lockable big food bin outside which is collected weekly.
Black bin and recycle bin are collected alternate weeks.

Nannan2 Sun 10-Jul-22 11:50:03

I might ring my current council and ask why we can't have weekly general rubbish done too, at least in summer- they implied EVERYONES was going onto fortnightly, allover England.And then ill ring council of other town to see about the tiny bins situation.Before i decide.?

CraftyGranny Sun 10-Jul-22 12:10:10

Stockport Council are really good with their rubbish collections. They supplied us with small green caddies for food waste, along with biodegradable bags to put in them. (I treated myself to one of the ceramic apple caddies from Lakeland) The bags then go into the green wheelie bin along with garden waste and collections are weekly. We have black bins for general waste, blue for paper and cardboard and brown for glass, plastic bottles and tins, which are collected fortnightly

Witzend Sun 10-Jul-22 12:17:20

Yes - our non fancy kitchen caddy was supplied by the council, along with the bigger bin for collection. It’s collected weekly.

I’d hate to have to put food waste - even when securely bagged - in the general landfill bin.

Might add that any scraps of meat of fish go in one of the compostable bags in the freezer, until the night before the bin men come - to avoid the smell attracting flies, plus I hate the thought of such stuff festering for days in the bin, especially during warm weather.

Chestnut Sun 10-Jul-22 12:42:37

Might add that any scraps of meat of fish go in one of the compostable bags in the freezer, until the night before the bin men come
That sounds like a good idea, but I'd probably forget it was there!

Jane43 Sun 10-Jul-22 13:09:58

Yes our local council supplied a small food caddy which houses one biodegradable bag and a larger caddy to put the filled bags in. We don’t have a lot of food waste but we do have vegetable and fruit peelings, egg shells, chicken bones, coffee grounds and the occasional slice of bread and usually fill two or three bags. The large caddy is collected once a week. It is a great idea and I believe the food waste is used to produce energy and fertiliser. The council provided the biodegradable bags initially but have now stopped, however they are available very cheaply in supermarkets.

BlueBelle Sun 10-Jul-22 13:15:36

We don’t have any collection here in the East but I have a food caddy and bio bags for all the peelings and skin and bits and bobs of uncooked food to go in my compost bucket and cooked food waste ( not much) has to go in the black bin unfortunately
No idea what a Joseph Joseph caddy is but my little caddy was cheap enough from supermarket

Mollygo Sun 10-Jul-22 13:15:52

Our council supplied a food bin, then decided it was not economical to collect. Raw food waste-e.g. cauliflower scraps, rhubarb leaves can go in green waste. If we put food on there they won’t empty the bin.

AreWeThereYet Sun 10-Jul-22 13:22:54

We do (Surrey). Green outside food bin bin and a grey inside caddy (supplied by the Council). We use compostable bags inside the caddy, tie them up as necessary and put them in the green bin outside. Collected weekly.

I'd love to compost in the garden but we already have rat visitors from time to time, I don't want them moving in permanently.

Teacheranne Sun 10-Jul-22 14:17:38

CraftyGranny

Stockport Council are really good with their rubbish collections. They supplied us with small green caddies for food waste, along with biodegradable bags to put in them. (I treated myself to one of the ceramic apple caddies from Lakeland) The bags then go into the green wheelie bin along with garden waste and collections are weekly. We have black bins for general waste, blue for paper and cardboard and brown for glass, plastic bottles and tins, which are collected fortnightly

I’m also happy with Stockport Councils rubbish collections, particularly the green bin collection which is every week, ideal in the summer as we also put our food waste in it.

I sometimes wonder if it’s worth putting my food waste, never more than two bags a week, in the bin during the winter when I have no garden waste, I feel like I’m being a nuisance to the men who have to load up an almost empty bin onto the lorry.

Teacheranne Sun 10-Jul-22 14:20:09

Witzend

Yes - our non fancy kitchen caddy was supplied by the council, along with the bigger bin for collection. It’s collected weekly.

I’d hate to have to put food waste - even when securely bagged - in the general landfill bin.

Might add that any scraps of meat of fish go in one of the compostable bags in the freezer, until the night before the bin men come - to avoid the smell attracting flies, plus I hate the thought of such stuff festering for days in the bin, especially during warm weather.

I like the idea of putting the scraps of food into the freezer until collection day but unfortunately my freezer is tiny so don’t have any free space.

Witzend Sun 10-Jul-22 14:22:02

PS, our recycling and landfill are collected on alternate weeks. If we want garden waste collected, we have to pay for a separate green bin. Our council tax is one of the highest - if not the highest, in the country.

Chestnut Sun 10-Jul-22 14:33:51

Teacheranne does your council tell you to put food waste in the garden bin? Garden waste is usually separate from food waste. Do you pay for garden waste? If the food is supposed to go in the garden bin then maybe phone them and ask what you should do about disposing of two bags of food waste in the winter.

M0nica Sun 10-Jul-22 14:48:12

Shysal I live in Oxforshire. Green waste goes to the composting facility.Food waste goes to anaroebic digesters at Wallingford, Cassington or Banbury, which produce, first, methane gas, which is fed into the national gad grid and the waste product is sold as fetiliser.

Franbern Sun 10-Jul-22 15:51:19

Sadly NO. When I lived in my house I did so, there food and garden waste was collected fortnightly.
However, there seems to be nowhere that flats have this facility.

SInce I move here, we have improved the re-cycling in these flats, have bins for plastic, cans, one for jar and glass, one for paper and card, and two large ones for all other rubbish.

Unfortunately, that does have to be all food waste.

Witzend Sun 10-Jul-22 20:26:54

Teacheranne

Witzend

Yes - our non fancy kitchen caddy was supplied by the council, along with the bigger bin for collection. It’s collected weekly.

I’d hate to have to put food waste - even when securely bagged - in the general landfill bin.

Might add that any scraps of meat of fish go in one of the compostable bags in the freezer, until the night before the bin men come - to avoid the smell attracting flies, plus I hate the thought of such stuff festering for days in the bin, especially during warm weather.

I like the idea of putting the scraps of food into the freezer until collection day but unfortunately my freezer is tiny so don’t have any free space.

Mine is only the small one under the fridge, but there’s never much meat/fish waste, just a few scraps - fat will often go out for the birds. The biggest thing will be a chicken carcass, but after I’ve stripped it and boiled it up for stock, it squashes up quite small.

Floradora9 Sun 10-Jul-22 21:37:44

Our food caddy waste gets sent to a centre in Perth where it is debagged, shredded , pasturised and then digested. Bio fertiliser and energy are produced and the electricity generated is used in the process or sent to the Nation Grid.We are avid collectors of waste.

HurdyGurdy Sun 10-Jul-22 22:18:30

We have two brown food bins. One for outside, and one smaller one for in the kitchen. We are supplied with biodegradable liners for the kitchen bin, at no charge. The brown food bin is collected every week.

Franbern Mon 11-Jul-22 11:12:15

Joseph Joseph kitchen items seems to be incredibly expensive. Not sure how much one of their food caddies would cost, but I would bet would be around £25 quid. The little brown ones given out by most councils are free and if you want something nicer looking can usually get something for ten quid..

Recently, I went looking for a small drainer type of thing in black for my new kitchen sink . Saw the Joseph Joseph ones which cost in excess of fifty quid - yes £50!! Went and purchased an Adidas one for under a fiver.!!!

Chestnut Mon 11-Jul-22 11:48:08

My Joseph Joseph food caddy is £23 but worth every penny. It is much better than the council ones.
Joseph Joseph Food Caddy
I agree their products are expensive and I haven't bought any more. They are very good though.

HousePlantQueen Mon 11-Jul-22 12:05:03

Yes we do, and I am always surprised when others don't. We have a food waste bin collected weekly, then used in aerobic (?) digester to produce energy. We don't have huge amounts as tend not to waste food, but egg shells, veg peelings etc. Far better than going into landfill. Our local authority are pretty good on this actually, garden waste collected and composted, then sold as soil improver too. As a result, our black bag/landfill waste is generally a small half black bag per week at most, collected fortnightly

VB000 Mon 11-Jul-22 12:06:31

SunshineSally

Yes we do. We bought a food waste caddy from IKEA and compost as much as we can. Having said that, in 2024 our council will be bringing in additional bins including food waste - which will mean that everyone will have up to 4 big bins each and collections (apart from food waste) will move to 3 weekly!
Some households will struggle to find somewhere to store them all! ?‍♀️

This is the situation in South Somerset - 3 weekly bin collections now.

However, plastic (in reusable blue reinforced weighted bags), cardboard/glass (in crates) and food waste (in small caddies) are weekly collections.