Do you use a food caddy to recycle food?

Pukka Herbs are plastic free.

25Avalon I only have teabags for fruit teas. Ordinary tea, I use leaf tea, so no bags involved.

We are told to put tea bags in the food caddy. Nothing about which type of tea bag.

You can always cut used tea bags open if unsure they are biodegradable and put spent leaves in compost and bags in general waste. I’ve been reading those with plastic in can leach out into your drink and be consumed.

M0nica

I did have problem with teabags. The bags do not degrade, so I was always pulling them out of the compost. These now go in the bin.

Monica a lot are now plastic free. PG Tips and Sainsbury’s own are completely free. You might like to check out your favourite brand. During lockdown we had a gift of a hamper of Fortnum and Masons loose leaf tea in fabulous wooden boxes and tins. I now mostly use loose leaf in a teapot with an infuser.

I did have problem with teabags. The bags do not degrade, so I was always pulling them out of the compost. These now go in the bin.

Oh, and cans.

We don’t have a food waste collection here in Wiltshire ?, but I do have a small food caddy for uncooked food waste that gets emptied into one of my 3 compost bins. Cooked food waste goes into the kitchen bin.
Glass, cardboard, plastic and fabric are collected kerbside, anything else you have to take to the recycling centre yourself.

Depends on the kitchen roll you use, mine are 100% recycled paper.

All vegetable trimmings go on the compost heap together with kitchen towel, paper tissues and any small pieces of paper and cardboard that don't have any kind of finish.

We used to Monica until we discovered little furry creatures liked to inhabit the compost heap.

I don't feel at all guilty abou puttings out peelings, bones etc as it all goes to produce electricity.

Paper, cardboard is collected for recycling as are cans, plastic, glass and garden waste. We don't put out much that cannot be recycled.

Chestnut

MOnica I thought kitchen roll contains plastic. We don't put tissues or paper towels in the food waste or the recycling.

Kitchen roll shouldn't contain plastic, but it depends what you've mopped up with it. Oils are difficult to digest, so anything contaminated with oil or cleaning products should go in general recycling.

I have a small food caddy, which is collected every week. I wrap kitchen waste in newspaper or put it in a compostable bag (available from most of the grocery stores round here). We're allowed to put one bunch of dead flowers in it.

I also have a medical waste collection every few months for used diabetes lancets and test strips.

Garden waste has to go to the council tip or I could pay extra for an additional bin.

MOnica I thought kitchen roll contains plastic. We don't put tissues or paper towels in the food waste or the recycling.

Callistemon I go weeks without putting food waste out and then it may just be two bacon rinds. All vegetable trimmings go on the compost heap together with kitchen towel, paper tissues and any small pieces of paper and cardboard that don't have any kind of finish. Much of our meat and fish comes trimmed of all bone or skinned.

Like H19954 I serve portion controlled meals directly on to plates and batch cook so that evrything surplus to immediate consumption gets frozen.

The Freeholders of our flats don’t allow any recycling bins. After years of sorting our rubbish it all seems a bit odd. OH goes to the recycling centre every few months and takes whatever is available. We had a good compost bin previously and found it very useful.

No, our council only seems interested in houses, not our flats.
Besides which, we are infested with flies and earwigs every single year, and I don't intend to provide anything else to attract them.
I've only just got rid of the mice which nest in the loft area here.

H1954

No waste food collection service here but we tend to not have leftovers that can't be frozen or used the following day.

We always try to get portioning right in the first place too.

How do you manage not to have any waste?

We don't waste food but don't put vegetable/fruit peelings etc on the compost heap any more, just garden waste and there are always some bones or trimmings which are inedible which go for recycling.

No waste food collection service here but we tend to not have leftovers that can't be frozen or used the following day.

We always try to get portioning right in the first place too.

I've puzzled about this for some time as our council doesn't provide food waste bins. bags, caddies etc
Been in trouble on here for putting sloppy foodwaste down the toilet.
We have very little other food waste as I try to re-use leftovers.

AskAlice

We pay £49 a year for our garden waste to be collected fortnightly. We were told that, as the council are not allowed to charge for food waste to be collected, we are unable to put food waste in with the garden waste as we pay for that service. Hence the food waste has to go in the general rubbish bin and goes to landfill.

That's crazy. You should chase them up about food waste because it contributes enormously to greenhouse gases. Food waste is really bad for the environment! They have a duty to collect it and I would be contacting the local newspaper if they won't.

Casdon

Yes, it’s compulsory in Wales, they check your black bins to make sure you haven’t put food waste in them. It’s collected weekly, and when recycled, our food waste is now transformed into electricity to help power homes and communities. I like the system, it means your black bin is always clean, and it’s very easy to wash out the food recycling bin - the food is put into biodegradable bags in the food bin, so it doesn’t get disgusting either.

We can use plastic bags now, too, at least in our Welsh Council area, because the food waste gets squeezed out at the recycling plant and the bags go on to be recycled to produce electricity as well.

They provide two waste bins, a small one for indoors and a larger one to put out for collection.

We pay £49 a year for our garden waste to be collected fortnightly. We were told that, as the council are not allowed to charge for food waste to be collected, we are unable to put food waste in with the garden waste as we pay for that service. Hence the food waste has to go in the general rubbish bin and goes to landfill.

Chestnut

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.

Yes, we are told to put food waste in with the garden waste and the council provide little waste bags. We do not pay extra for our weekly garden waste collection.

It’s a good idea to contact them about their suggestions for disposing of food waste in the winter, thank you.

Same as you Witzend in Bath&North East Somerset. Big food waste bin and small black caddy for the kitchen. You can either use bio degradable waste bags or wrap waste in old newspapers. The larger bin is collected weekly with the rest of the recycling. The bins aren’t very aesthetic. I have a china caddy in the kitchen which can be cleaned in the dish washer. Food waste is mainly stuff the dog can’t or won’t eat - we are talking lab here?

One thing that concerns me is that it almost feels alright to have waste food as it will go in the bin and the council will use it. We should be reducing food waste and not buying more than we need.

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.