Ian Key

Distinguished Member
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Location (town/city + country)
Derby UK
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MGS5
Derby City Council have just started to distribute the bins for the new food waste collection scheme forced on them by this government. Before now food and garden waste went in the same wheelie bin.

They want householders to put the food waste in a small bin kept in the kitchen lined with a plastic bag. They suggest a carrier bag or a bread bag etc. and when full tie the top up and put it in the larger green bin ready for the weekly collection.

I make my own bread and I don't have carrier bags so now I've got to buy bags especially for my food waste increasing my use of single use plastics. How is that being green?
 
WOW, Derbys way behind. Our councils been do separate food waste, for years.
Sounds like a daft idea the way your Council's going about it. We've got a small food bin for the Kitchen and a larger food
bin kept in the shed/garage which is collected, so it's separate from the Green waste. Simple's. 🙂 👍
 
We are to start food collection from a small brown bin from next week.
They supplied a smaller bin for inside the house and bags to go inside it.
 
We have had food waste collection for years, and I did use the service for some time. The special food waste caddy liners that were biodegradable, (either starch based or paper) invariably didn’t last the full week, so I generally needed to load one bag into another. A waste of money really.

I agree with you that using plastic bags is not good at all.

As I am veggie, I decided to buy a compost bin, and now just use that for my food waste, which is negligible really - fruit and vegetable peelings.
 
Up here we've had separate recycling for years ... the only change is that we could previously use the dedicated "food" waste also for garden waste. (Grass cuttings, leaves, hedge cuttings etc., but not earthen sods or the like). Since last year we've no longer been allowed to do this ...... UNLESS you pay for an annual permit to be allowed to do so. 🙄

Black (or green for some) bin = general waste, collected fortnightly
Blue bin = paper and card, collected monthly
Grey bin = plastic, glass and metal (tins, foil etc.), collected monthly
Burgundy bin = food and garden (if you have a permit), collected fortnightly with either the Blue or Grey bins

The cycle is thus:

Black
Blue and Burgundy
Black
Grey and Burgundy
Repeat
 
Up here we've had separate recycling for years ... the only change is that we could previously use the dedicated "food" waste also for garden waste. (Grass cuttings, leaves, hedge cuttings etc., but not earthen sods or the like). Since last year we've no longer been allowed to do this ...... UNLESS you pay for an annual permit to be allowed to do so. 🙄

Black (or green for some) bin = general waste, collected fortnightly
Blue bin = paper and card, collected monthly
Grey bin = plastic, glass and metal (tins, foil etc.), collected monthly
Burgundy bin = food and garden (if you have a permit), collected fortnightly with either the Blue or Grey bins

The cycle is thus:

Black
Blue and Burgundy
Black
Grey and Burgundy
Repeat
As kids we had to put down our coats etc to form some football posts, your lucky little blighters just have to wheel out the provided colour coded bins . No arguments of " it hit the post " as a battery free noise solves that problem.
With 3 dogs 8 cats 12 sheep and a handful of chickens what little food waste left over goes into the wormery who when big enough go into the garden as soil improvers. We are not that big on self sufficiency or being green, its just pragmatic and easier.
 
Derby City Council have just started to distribute the bins for the new food waste collection scheme forced on them by this government.
Oxfordshire has done this for a very long time.

Before now food and garden waste went in the same wheelie bin.

They want householders to put the food waste in a small bin kept in the kitchen lined with a plastic bag. They suggest a carrier bag or a bread bag etc. and when full tie the top up and put it in the larger green bin ready for the weekly collection.

I make my own bread and I don't have carrier bags so now I've got to buy bags especially for my food waste increasing my use of single use plastics.
Strange that they aren't providing caddies like other places.

Hopefully the bags are biodegradable. Your local shops will start selling them soon enough.

How is that being green?
Food waste is very bad for the environment. It breaks down underground into methane which is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. It is also dangerous as it leaks out so the dumps are hazardous.

On the other hand, methane is what we are burning to make electricity when there isn't enough wind, nuclear and solar to power the country (which is most of the time for now).

The main thing is that you are taking food waste which would have caused environmental harm and turning it into something useful and much less harmful.

 
Green box - tins and glass
Sack - paper
Sack - cardboard
Green caddy - food waste
Brown bin - garden waste if you pay for it
Plastic Sack - Plastics
Black bin - anything not above

Plastic bag indoors - all the 'Plastic' that say supermarkets only.
 
No wonder Oxfordshire has such great recycling rates. There is just one big recycling wheelie bin which has glass as well. Plus the food caddy and black bin for non-recyclables.
 
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