Food waste bin - what is acceptable to line it with?

[Sue]

What do people use to contain food in the outdoor size food bin?

I don't have a great deal of food waste, as I compost most of it.

I had some Joseph Joseph bags (which fit my indoor bin)  and some of the council green bags, but I find these bags split very easily.

I tried lining the bin with newspaper (which is biodegradable) but the binmen just left the newspaper lying on the pavement after they had emptied the bin 😭

The bin gets very dirty if (or more likely when)  the bags split, and I don't want to have to keep washing it.

[jazzer]

wrap food waste in newspaper, I don't line the bin with anything. 

[Sue]

9 minutes ago, jazzer said:

wrap food waste in newspaper, I don't line the bin with anything. 

So your binmen took the newspaper away with the food waste?

[tomskip]

The compostible food waste bags from Lidl or Aldi are large and very strong. 

[kristen]

I thought it was ok to line with newspaper, which is what we started doing after checking online some time ago: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/food-and-garden-waste/recycle-your-food-waste

The newspaper from our bin was left behind today when the food waste was collected so maybe this isn't ok now?

[ianr]

By my reading you don't seem to be doing wrong: newspaper maybe ok to line the bottom of the bin, but not collected.  I think they're, understandably, warning specifically against the use of any bags or wrappings other than the compostable ones.

I use a kitchen caddy as well, and typically use a thicker more robust plastic bags, and decant the contents into a Lidl 15l compostable one before transferring to the outdoor one.   I did  once find  that if kept for very many months the compostable bags, source unremembered, are likely to start splitting of their own accord. More recently a box of 5l ones I tried from Poundshop  I found prone to tearing when detaching them from the roll by the time I was near to the end of the roll.

Edited July 30, 2024 by ianr

[Sue]

10 hours ago, ianr said:

By my reading you don't seem to be doing wrong: newspaper maybe ok to line the bottom of the bin, but not collected.  I think they're, understandably, warning specifically against the use of any bags or wrappings other than the compostable ones.

I use a kitchen caddy as well, and typically use a thicker more robust plastic bags, and decant the contents into a Lidl 15l compostable one before transferring to the outdoor one.   I did  once find  that if kept for very many months the compostable bags, source unremembered, are likely to start splitting of their own accord. More recently a box of 5l ones I tried from Poundshop  I found prone to tearing when detaching them from the roll by the time I was near to the end of the roll.

If they don't collect the newspaper, they could at least leave it in the bin, or put it back, not just dump it on the pavement 🙄

[ianr]

When I've seen them it's one guy trundling a large bin along the road, into which he empties our small bins.  Having wads of newspaper coming out with the rest and having then to extract them looks to me like unwelcome and unnecessary trouble for them.  It seems to me anyway rather like an unnecessary complication on all sides. If I weren't using compostable bags I think i'd rather be dealing with just a maybe messy bin, without any additional messy newspaper.

Edited July 31, 2024 by ianr

[PeckhamRose]

In August or September all residents of Southwark will be given food waste bins. Currently, those of us who live in flats don't get them.  This is a good thing,  Last Government had withheld money but paid up a while before election and now Southwark will be doing this.

[Penguin68]

33 minutes ago, PeckhamRose said:

In August or September all residents of Southwark will be given food waste bins. Currently, those of us who live in flats don't get them.  This is a good thing, 

Well...It means that Veolia will now have to make 3 collections a week ((1) food, (2) garden waste, and (3) dry recycling/ non recyclables - alternate weeks) - but they don't have an anaerobic digester facility in London to process garden and kitchen waste separately.  They are not being allowed to collect kitchen and garden waste together as now.  So that's an extra lorry run every week on every street in Southwark. They have to collect kitchen waste every week, and if they only collect garden waste every other week that just makes 26 additional journeys past your front door every year, rather than 52. We are paying (where we are) the council for 52 weeks garden waste collection a year; if they reduce that they would be hard pressed now to make a case not to reduce the fee, I believe.

I, of course, think it's right that flat dwellers should have kitchen waste collected properly and together, but I suggest this new ruling, which requires separate collection, may not be as environmentally beneficial as seems at first sight.

[Jenijenjen]

28 minutes ago, Penguin68 said:

We are paying (where we are) the council for 52 weeks garden waste collection a year; if they reduce that they would be hard pressed now to make a case not to reduce the fee, I believe.

Less frequent collections would not reduce the volume of garden waste collected