Anyone using their little brown food bin? Post Reply

[muddyboots]

Ps as for storing the little caddy. I store it out of sight in my cleaning cupboard which is in the kitchen.
I take it out when prepping food, then put it back.
I leave the lid unlocked so can just open the lid quickly if needing to thrown something quickly when not cooking.

[MagnoliaMum]

I already have a compost heap in the garden, in which I put all our veg waste so wasn't sure how much I'd use the brown bin. But actually it's really helpful for those things that don't compost well at home because the temperature in the bin doesn't get high enough, such as fruit stones, avocado skins, lemon rind etc. And for things I wouldn't put in the compost so as not to attract rats, such as leftover pasta, items past their use-by or meat skin/bones. It was brilliant for disposing of the turkey carcass after Xmas!

Even if you only use it a little, it's worth getting into the habit, as it all adds up to reduce landfill. It means the black binbags are less likely to smell of food and therefore left alone by wildlife. Around us, the crows are worse than the foxes - pecking holes in the bin bags to access the rubbish and strewing it along the road, and that's even if it's put out on the morning of collection! So far our brown bin hasn't been broken into...

[PreventBankScam]

I think I am being a bit of an idiot.

My assumption was it was a bin to be kept outside and you put your food directly into it, as in scraped the food off the plate into the tub.

However reading this I think it's actually to be kept on a kitchen surface and fitted with a liner? Is that right? So I lift the plate and scrape food into it on my kitchen worksurface?

And another silly question, if it's an indoor caddy for a kitchen surface what do you do with it on bin day? Take the whole thing out or just the liner? If it's the liner that's cool but if it's the caddy then aren't you moving a kitchen surface container from a food prep surface to the ground outside next to bins and all the fox **** that is there?

Do you have to deep clean it to put it back on food prep surface?

Sorry I think I'm not getting this but thanks for all replies, this is just how my mind works.

[gemima]

Was sceptical to begin with but having spent the Summer in Italy and saw how good they were at recycling I decided to pull myself together and do some good in the world and now I make sure to use it.  Love it and feel better for it!  It's all so easy.

[Countess Binface]

Yes of course all our house are using it for months now, the system works well.

The little grey box stays in kitchen.
Your liner bags for this will run out but you are not obliged to use them. Can use paper . i ordered some compostable ones from Amazon as I like cleanliness.

The brown box is large enough to transfer quite a bit into, the handle is to be pulled *forward* and locks so there is no problem with foxes even though they are resident near and active on bin collection days :)

The food collection is regular and all works well, very pleased.

We generate quite a fair bit of 'food' - vegetable cuttings etc mainly from cooking as I waste very little actual food. Maybe the odd rotten banana or bit of pasta .

[Countess Binface]

P.s. we keep the grey one on floor by kitchen bin. When chopping open lid and chuck stuff in.

It gets rinsed out fairly regularly, as any bin might need.

I put a 'Food waste' label on the top :) just in case anyone forgets.

The brown one we leave out back in outhouse and transfer the contents of the grey one as necessary, carrying it out to front on bin days, bringing back after collection.

Top floor no outside space so they leave their brown bin by wheelie bin. It stays there until bin day and gets filled and left out front.

[PreventBankScam]

this is so useful thank you.

again sorry for all the questions.

does the grey "inner bin" ever go outside? Do you tip the grey inner bin just right into the brown bin? Or if you have a liner does the liner just get dumped into the brown bin? I thought the brown bin actually sat on the kitchen work surface!

[Countess Binface]

Brown bin = only outside

Grey bin= kitchen (floor in our case, its a 'bin' right?)
Transfer contents of grey to brown bin as required.

There was a leaflet that came with it 😄

The pale green liner bags if you use them, are very thin so I tie up and transfer to brown bin when little grey bin is about 1/3 full, or the bag might split.

Repeat as required

Brown bin never gets full for us. It might only have one green bag or two at bottom. Dont forget to properly close handle .
N.B. handle should *not be in upright carrying position but clicked and angulated forward.

Hope this helps 😁

[PreventBankScam]

Perfect.

Exactly what I needed.

[readysteadycook]

We have stopped using ours. And most of our road has stopped as well.

I recently read It costs around £1.7m a year, just to collect these brown buckets, so wrong.

[chorister]

"We have stopped using ours" - please think of the environmental benefits for everyone else and start again.  It really isn't that much effort.

[twosons]

We use ours all the time and, it seems, so do all the neighbours. Fantastic idea - we eat a lot of fruit and veg so create a lot of waste that is now being put to good use rather than going into landfill. It's great for keeping bones and chicken carcasses out of the ordinary bins, which the foxes round our way are adept at breaking into. The brown bin locks securely and it has reduced the amount of black bin bags we fill.

[SWtastic]

@countessbinface Here's an alternative for your brown bananas - put them in the freezer and when you have a few, put them frozen into a nutribullet or similar with some almond nuts and cocoa powder and whizz them up.  You won't know that it's not ice cream as it's so smooth and tasty.  You don't need to add sugar either!