General Chat

Visiting UK I am amazed by these little brown recycling bins on people's kitchen counters which they put their food scraps in. The owners I've asked just say they go for recycling, but to where I ask myself? Asking in the library I was informed that they are used to prevent food going into the land fill, so I now know they don't go there and they didn't seem to know what was done with them . So what do they do with all those food scraps? I have a dark suspicious lurking in my mind ...... which I hope isn't true.

They are treated with a special *bran* then composted under heat which prevents vermin being attracted, and then sold on.

I have a simlar system in my kitchen... Bokashi... Brilliant stuff. My little brown box only gets large bones in it. Small bones, fish, and everything else goes into it.
Edit: *It* being my own Bokashi system...... it is very effective.
Love

Daff xxxx

Apparently, they are commercially composted.

mmm....still don't really understand, so it is sold on as what? compost for soil? special bran? and what's Bokashi?

Well better get off to bed. Goodnight everyone.

they sound ideal have never heard of them before so did a google!!
These fabulous Bokashi Kitchen Composters allow you to compost 100% of your waste when used in conjunction with a traditional Compost Bin or Wormery.

You simply place kitchen waste into the airtight container and sprinkle with a handful of Bokashi (Japanese for 'fermentation'). Bokashi is a bran based material made with a culture of micro-organisms and molasses which begins to ferment the waste allowing you to turn ALL your kitchen waste into nutrient rich compost. This includes meat, fish, dairy products and cooked food.

The Bokashi performs the first stages of decomposition using the active micro-organisms. Then, after a little patience, the contents can be safely transferred from the Bokashi Bucket into a traditional garden compost bin, your Wormery or simply dug into the garden as a soil conditioner and improver where the process will finish itself off..

Like a Wormery, Liquid feed is also captured and can be drained off through the tap at the bottom of the bucket. This liquid is alive with beneficial microbes and, when diluted, is a very nutritious plant feed. It can also be used to prevent algae build-up and odours when poured down the drain.

The process is odourless and doesn't attract flies so the Bokashi Bucket container can be safely kept in the kitchen and used as a kitchen caddy.

We are having a new kitchen in a few weeks so think I will get one of these when its all up and running

Well we have little green bins but same thing. Ours are collected in the kitchen then if that little bin gets full we have a larger 'food waste only' bin with a lockable lid which is put out once a week and collected by the council refuse men. This is taken to a farm in the area where is is spread under polythene tunnels and treated under certain conditions, kept for 10 days by which time it has rotted down enough and is used for compost on farms. This is for all raw and cooked food including meat, bones, veg peelings, fat etc etc.

Chica, in my original answer, I did use the term *composted* and *sold on*

I thought that was a reasonably clear indication of what happened to it... and each local authority sells it on in a way that meets their own requirements... sometimes to householders and gardeners, other times to farmers and trade (ie garden centres) etc.

As others have done.... a quick google of Bokashi might have answered your question.

So now you can put your dark little suspicion to rest, lol

Do they not have the same system in Spain, then?

Daff

Daff half the time here (where I am) we are lucky to get them to put waste food/bones in the wheelie bin let alone a seperate food waste bin. I hate this time of year for dog walking as they scavange amonst the pitches and I am forever relieving them of bones, often chicken bones at that.

Now that the food waste is collected weekly, papers and bottles cans weekly too... the *garden and cardboards* bin is fortnightly... as is the bin that used to have the food and kitchen scraps.... which smell, etc etc... but that doesn't get filled with rottables anymore, so fortnightly is fine. In fact, I often don't put it out for a month, if there hasn't been much waste in it.

I have been Bokashi-ing for a few months now, and it is very effective... it can put some folk off, the bran sort of pickles the waste, but it still looks like what it is... so I have the two Bokashi bins, two wormeries, and two compost bins.

The drain off from the wormeries and the Bokashi bins is brilliant... dilute 1 part it to 10 parts water, and use it for tomatoes, houseplants, whatever... brilliant, but avoid the leaves as they will burn.

You can even shove it down your drains, as it neutralises them without killing off *good* stuff.....

Love

Daff xxxx

In Milton Keynes where I live we have weekly collections (Thank you MK Council) divided into 4. A blue box for glass, a pink sack for recyclable card/paper/plastic, a green bin for garden and food waste and the usual black bin bag for what is left over. We also have a small grey caddy for use in the kitchen before transferring contents to the large green bin. They are all collected on the same day and the system seems to work very well.

The composted waste is then sold on to local residents or used
by the council for use on all the parks and gardens round here.

We are very pleased with our system that has been in place since April.
We have a garden waste bin (brown) that actually costs us £31 a year but save innumerable trips to the dump. Collected fortnightly and used by the council to make compost
We have the food waste bin for all cooked and raw food, tea bags or anything like that which is collected weekly. We have a very small amount in that each week as we have our own two compost bins for veg peelings, banana skins, tea bags etc. plus some garden waste.
We have a recyclables bin (blue) for all plastic and glass bottles, cardboard. greetings cards, paperback books, newspapers, magazines, yoghurt etc pots, fruit containers (clear plastic) cans, metal bottle tops, telephone directories, jam jars. collected fortnightly
Then we have the non recyclables in a green bin also collected fortnightly and rarely even half full.

The system is Blue bin and food waste one week, Green bin, brown bin and food waste the other week.
And it works really well and the refuse operatives (I think they are now called) are very good and never leave any mess.