Food waste recycling

[Night Train]

Our council has just started collecting all food waste in the garden waste bin.

They are offering 26 free compostable bags and a kitchen caddy but after that bags will need to be bought.
Dad reckons the street will stink of rotting food that has been in the bin for two weeks between collections but I suggested that we could just freeze the 'animal' food waste in a sealed tupperware, and then put the frozen waste in the bin the night before collection so that our bin doesn't smell and we don't need to buy the bags.
I think it is a solution that could save the manufacture and transport of the bags, at least for this household.

For those who have food recycling, what's your solution to storage and the potential for smell?

 

[Brains]

Our local council runs many of their 600+ vehicles off the food waste/garden trimmings they collect !
For us they collect weekly, including a special Christmas tree pick up 1st week of January.

We also have a single bin for glass/plastic/metal/paper, so we have a small 3rd bin for the few things we do not recycle such as polystyrene, nappies and stuff you can't flush down the loo.

 

[ianrauk]

ours is a weekly foodwaste collection.

They say you have to pay for bags if you go to the council however you can get them free from the boroughs libraries.

 

[Dayvo]

I don't think the Chelski team waited for their after match dinner at Old Trafford today!

 

[nosherduke996]

Or Liverpool for that matter

 

[ianrauk]

I don't think the Chelski team waited for their after match dinner at Old Trafford today!

blah blah blah.. you're lips are moving but all I hear is blah blah blah...

Shove that in your recycling bin..

 

[Arch]

Freezing sounds like a good idea. We (speaking as a resident) don't have food waste collections, but we (speaking as a recycling officer) wish we could offer it. Our problem is that our service is too small to process it safely.

Actually, all my food waste is veg timmings, with very rare meat or fish content (I use mince or tinned fish, so there's no waste), so it's all compostable - it's just that I don't have a garden to use the compost in.

 

[User482]

You used to put food in a bin. Now you're putting it in a different bin. It'll smell exactly the same.

 

[Night Train]

You used to put food in a bin. Now you're putting it in a different bin. It'll smell exactly the same.

The only difference is that previously the food waste was pretty much sealed back in the packaging it came from and the bin was emptied weekly. Now it is without the packaging, or buy compostable bags to use, and the bin is emptied fortnightly.

I have found a big tupperware to go in the freezer, it should take the relatively small amount of non vegetable food waste we produce.

 

[Night Train]

Dose using energy to freeze it not negate the environmental benefits of recycling it.

Don't know but the freezer is running anyway and it removes the need to make and transport compostable bags to my house.

I heard from somewhere that a freezer is more efficient if it is full then empty or part full. If true then adding a box of waste food in the freezer will, once it is frozen, make the freezer more efficient.

 

[snorri]

I heard from somewhere that a freezer is more efficient if it is full then empty or part full. If true then adding a box of waste food in the freezer will, once it is frozen, make the freezer more efficient.

devils advocate mode
If you have space in your freezer for a box of waste, your freezer is too big. It would be better for the environment if you had a smaller freezer.

 

[Night Train]

Devil's advocate, If it were environmentally sustainable to dispose of a freezer for a replacement everytime the volume of the contents changed then recycling food waste would be on a whole different agenda.

We, my folks, generally fill the freezer as they have a thing about making sure there is enough food in the house. By eating some of it, and not immediately restocking, room can be found for a four litre tupperware box.

 

[ASC1951]

I have always composted my food waste, including bones. It needs plenty of cardboard because it's wetter than garden waste, but all these dire warning about smell and rodents is nonsense - mine goes in an old wheelie bin and nothing gets in or out of that without my assistance.

 

[coffeejo]

Putting the waste in the freezer is an excellent idea: I do that with the excess fat after cooking.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Putting the waste in the freezer is an excellent idea: I do that with the excess fat after cooking.

Have you got your own liposuction machine then?