Food waste bins 101

What a sexy page you have stumbled upon. No matter how long you have had your food waste bins, I am here to give you a little helping hand to decode what’s what and how who.

Let’s first talk about what they are actually for. Long story short: creating energy.Long story long: the food that we put into our food waste bins gets placed in an anaerobic digestion tank where micro-organisms break the food down, releasing methane-rich biogas. That’s then collected and burned to generate electricity. Simple, right?

It’s worth pointing out that, like recycling, it’s not a perfect system. We should use our food and eat it.

Did you know

A full bin can generate enough electricity to:

power an led light bulb for 24hours

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boil a kettle 3 times

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charge a phone or tablet 5 times

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power an led light bulb for 24hours 〰️ boil a kettle 3 times 〰️ charge a phone or tablet 5 times 〰️

What can we put in them?

Do put in your bin:

  • All fruit & vegetables (cut, whole, trim, peelings, the lot)

  • Meat & fish (raw, cooked, bones, flesh)

  • Dairy (cheese, yoghurt, solid dairy, no milk)

  • Eggs & egg shells

  • Tea bags & coffee grounds

  • Cooked rice & pasta

  • Really any and all food, cooked or raw, just try and avoid liquids.

Do not put in your bin:

  • Packaging (foil, cling film, wrappers, plastic film)

  • Liquids (including cooking oils)

  • Non-food items (any general household rubbish, garden waste, animal waste etc.)

  • Glass & cans

What should I line the bin with?

I often have people complain to me about the compostable bags you receive with the bins. You can use almost any bag you like. I regularly use the brown paper bags from the veg stalls at the market. You don’t need to spend money on more compostable bags. The system filters out any and all bags in the system.

But it smells and attracts flies…

I can’t argue with you that food can start to smell bad after being left at room temperature for a few days.

But a little tip I learnt when I had scallop trim for the bin was to store any smelly food waste in an airtight tub in your fridge or freezer until collection day. It eliminates the smell and the potential for flies or other nasty things.

Regularly wash out your bins. The big and the small, if you can. No matter how well you seal your bag, yummy juices will leak, dry out, and smell.

For any more information about your food waste bins, go to your local county council’s website.