Green food waste bags no longer free from Southwark Council

[BrandNewGuy]

There seems to be some confusion. The picture and text on Southwark's page make it clear:

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/530/food_and_garden_waste

Garden and kitchen waste goes in the brown bin, but can't include plastic bags

All recyclable plastic, paper, card, metal and glass to go in the blue bin

Everything else (in black bin bags if you wish) goes in the green bin

[royalbaby08]

You can get the green waste bags from your local library free of charge I did couple months back

[kibris]

All i can say is if they need to make cuts then you do aswell. Put the food waste in the black bags then in the green bins. After that put your food waste bin in th blue bin so that does not go to waste also, Not Hard

[Scottfield]

This:

[DulwichFox]

Best solution is to keep food waste to an absolute minimum..

Wish I could truthfully say that I do.. The thing is with Supermarket packaging being designed around

couples and families and living alone there is always waste.

Things like meat and fish. Once opened use immediately.

I waste a lot of bread. The more expensive sourdoughs without preservatives don't last long and I cannot

eat a whole loaf in two days..

Foxy

[Pickle]

Do you have a freezer DulwichFox? Freeze what you don't use - I hardly ever throw away unused "whole" foods, our food waste is limited to plate scrapings, peelings, bones etc. Fruit that's about to go off gets put in containers and frozen to use in smoothies, veg chopped and used in stir fries/soups.

[Horsebox]

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Best solution is to keep food waste to an absolute

> minimum..

>

> Wish I could truthfully say that I do.. The thing

> is with Supermarket packaging being designed

> around

> couples and families and living alone there is

> always waste.

>

> Things like meat and fish. Once opened use

> immediately.

>

> I waste a lot of bread. The more expensive

> sourdoughs without preservatives don't last long

> and I cannot

> eat a whole loaf in two days..

>

> Foxy

Brickhouse will happily sell you half of any of their loaves.

Otherwise, we turn stale bread into breadcrumbs which keep for ages.

[Callie]

I gave up with putting food waste in the mini sized brown bin some time ago, it was too much hastle. My food waste goes straight in my regular kitchen bin with black bin liner which then goes in the green general wheelie bin. I still use the blue wheelie & brown one for garden waste only.

[Ruffler]

Food waste should go into brown wheelie bin with your garden waste, Callie. The brown bins are collected weekly, whereas the general waste ones are alternate weeks.

[Callie]

yes I know but I'm only using the brown wheelie for garden waste, I hardly have any food waste & I'm not going out of my way to buy the bags.

[Sue]

Pickle Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Do you have a freezer DulwichFox? Freeze what you

> don't use - I hardly ever throw away unused

> "whole" foods, our food waste is limited to plate

> scrapings, peelings, bones etc. Fruit that's

> about to go off gets put in containers and frozen

> to use in smoothies, veg chopped and used in stir

> fries/soups.

Same here, except that the peelings go in my compost bin to make compost.

And bread will freeze. You can slice it before you freeze it and use a slice at a time. You can separate the slices with freezer sheets, can't remember what they're called, so they don't stick together.

Same with things like bacon.

And if you have too much meat or fish to eat at one sitting, you can cook the whole lot and safely freeze half (or more) of the cooked dish.

[Sazzle30]

Callie I do the same as you - food waste in carrier bags in the green bin.

Growing up the country I was always told never to compost meat products and food waste unless it was veg/fruit so I do wonder what happens with the contents of the brown bin.

I have little food waste as I freeze everything if I think I'm not going to use it in time ( cheese is freezable too, grate it for ease). I also only bin stuff that's gone furry or rotten and ignore sell by/use by dates. So far haven't poisoned myself or anyone else (yet) :-)& have very little food waste.

[Sue]

Sazzle30 Wrote:

> Growing up the country I was always told never to

> compost meat products and food waste unless it was

> veg/fruit so I do wonder what happens with the

> contents of the brown bin.

>

In "normal" compost bins the advice is not to compost meat etc because it attracts unwanted rats and other pests.

I assume the council has large, rodent proof bins :))

[James Barber]

Hi Sazzle30,

ALL food waste is taken to the new integrated Waste Management Facility. Put in massive concrete lined rooms. Effectively composting on a massive scale and can handle ALL food waste.

The centre has an interpretation centre you can visit. And they do tours of the plant. Earlier this year I helped take a scout group there. My second visit and just as informative.

Would anyone be interested if I organised a group visit from East Dulwich residents?

[Sazzle30]

Thanks James for the information. I shall use the brown bin from now on. I'll decline the tour thanks though.

[BrandNewGuy]

And they're doing tours on the Saturday of the Open House weekend next month:

http://events.londonopenhouse.org/building/18764

[Nigello]

Callie - wrap the food in old newspaper and put it into the brown bin. It takes hardly any time.

[Sue]

James Barber Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hi Sazzle30,

> ALL food waste is taken to the new integrated

> Waste Management Facility. Put in massive concrete

> lined rooms. Effectively composting on a massive

> scale and can handle ALL food waste.

>

> The centre has an interpretation centre you can

> visit. And they do tours of the plant. Earlier

> this year I helped take a scout group there. My

> second visit and just as informative.

>

> Would anyone be interested if I organised a group

> visit from East Dulwich residents?

I'd be interested!

[Loz]

If you think Southwark is bad, come over to Ealing to see real incompetence. Some bright spark at the council came up with the idea of charging residents ?60 a year if they want garden waste recycling (fortnightly service). And then they wonder why their recycling rates aren't improving.

Plus Ealing charge for bulky item collection - ?40 for 1-8 items, and ?25 per fridge or freezer. And they are only just getting around to the idea of wheelie bins - currently we use black bin bags for rubbish... in a borough with a huge fox population.

Southwark waste and recycling service is really quite good in comparison.

[BrandNewGuy]

Loz Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Plus Ealing charge for bulky item collection -

> ?40 for 1-8 items, and ?25 per fridge or freezer.

Oh don't worry, Southwark are also planning on charging for bulky item collection (Tory cuts, don'tcha know). Watch out for a big increase in flytipping.

[kiera]

James Barber Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ALL food waste is taken to the new integrated

Waste Management Facility...........

>

> Would anyone be interested if I organised a group

> visit from East Dulwich residents?

James - I would be interested in a group visit.

[scareyt]

Posh bread that's gone hard makes lovely French toast.

I'm happy to buy my own compost bags as long as they keep the libraries open. Southwark are great compared to Lambeth.

[mikeb]

Just to thank Dumpertruck above for the link again - first time we've had green bags for months.

www.caddylinersdirect.co.uk

[Beej]

Myself and my fella would be interested too! I loved how organised our local Southwark waste and recycling service centre is, surprisingly interesting place, looks like something out of star trek.

> >

> > Would anyone be interested if I organised a

> group

> > visit from East Dulwich residents?

>

>

> I'd be interested!

[Whittler]

I'm over the border in Lewisham and we don't have a food waste collection (think yourselves lucky) but i compost as much as i can by taking it to my allotment .....thinking of getting one of these beauties http://www.hotbincomposting.com/compost-bins/hotbin-composting-extra.html so that i can even include meat, bones etc which you can't put in a normal compost bin due to it attracting vermin, as someone quite rightly pointed out in an earlier post. This system is closed though, with everything sealed inside, and it produces good compost at an alarmingly quick rate - really good if you have a garden and/or allotment. It's not cheap, but if i added up all the dosh i spend a year in bagged compost and well-rotted horse sh*t for the 'lotty, this'll pay for itself pretty quickly, i reckon, and all from my own recycled food waste! Wish i'd invented it!