Ban The Bin Bag

Used to use hundreds now I have given them up!
So what do I keep my rubbish in then?
Well I already had a bin system in place. Everything that could be recycled was put in the green bin or taken to the recycling place.
That left all the squidgy stinky food scraps which I decided to compost.
At the beginning of the year I bought a compost bin - one of the cheapest plastic ( yes I know but it was recycled ) containers - a big bucket really. I set it up at the bottom of the garden and chucked everything biodegradable into its gaping maw. Cardboard food wrappers, cooked and uncooked food.
There’s a lot talked about the mysteries of composting - the mixing of green and brown, piddling on it while the full moon shines etc. I don’t know about the full moon bit but I can confirm that cooked food does attract rats. Actually even without the meaty treats rats can be attracted to the bins - this web site has some useful hints on out-witting the ugly things http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/ratsincompost.htm.
So now all kitchen waste except cooked food goes in the compost bin which leaves the kitchen bin almost empty but for fish and meat packaging, biscuit wrappers, covering from tea packets etc. Most of it is clean waste but what isn’t i.e. the fish bags, we wrap in clean waste packaging. As the rubbish no longer sticks or gets soggy, we don’t need to use bin liners in our kitchen bin. It has one of those hard removable plastic liners that can be washed out after emptying.
That only leaves cooked food left overs. We don’t have much in the way of leftovers but what we cant eat we wrap in paper and it goes straight into the one bin bag in the black bin outside.
We have a black bin bag in our wheelie bin. The council insists we use them. However since the new regime it takes us three weeks to fill it.
Result - no plastic bin liners and a 60% reduction in black bin bag usage.
Composting Info
I have a garden but where space is limited composting with worms is an alternative. http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk have a very enthusiastic website.
Or if you don’t want to produce compost you could try a green cone. This is a waste reducer designed to be half buried in the ground. More info can be found at the Green Cone website