The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: suziequeue on December 28, 2014, 07:47:24 am
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our local council has introduced doorstep recycling up our lane recently. We were given (among other things) a kitchen caddy and a bigger food waste caddy to keep the bagged food waste from the kitchen caddy in until collection day.
The blurb says that the bags are compostible - guaranteed to break down during the treatment process.
Now - I have never been a big fan of putting food waste onto the compost heap as it attracts rats (we have enough already!). But I am wondering if the bags break down in a compost heap as well as in an anaerobic digester......... because if that's the case then I would be keen to compost the food waste in the bags as it means that I can "save up" bags until there is a big pile to go on (e.g cleaning out the chickens) when I have got something substantial to bury the food waste bags under.
What are people,'s thoughts on this idea?
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The pale green ones you get in the supermarket apparently do compost, but they look b@@@@y awful in the process :garden:
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The pale green ones I had a while ago were based on corn starch and broke down well. Too well. When I stopped using them I found a pile turning to dust in the back of a kitchen drawer. >:(
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Morning suziequeue,
we have the food bags and caddys. The bags start to decompose fairly quickly once any wet/damp food is put in. I change my food bags about twice a week depending on how much/little food waste we have. Usually potato peelings and egg shells. If the bag is looking a bit damp I usually double bag as OH hates using them, plus it is easier to get the bag from the kitchen to the bin outside without leaving a trail!! The big food caddy bin is reasonably secure and it doesn't smell, we have ours inside another bin. See above!!!
Anyway, yes the bags will break down in the compost heap but I think they will have started to break down before you are ready to use them. You can always try it and see what happens.
Hope this helps
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Thanks. I have done a bit of online research and I think I will start trying the bags on the compost heap.
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Sometimes mine start to break down before I empty the wee bucket to the brown bin outside! I think it is teabags or coffee grounds responsible so I try and shift them regularly even half full as the council leave enough for a family and I'm on my own.
Can't see a problem taking them for compost heaps but it depends what they break down to whether it helps or hinders the compost quality?
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Even carrier bags break down. I was offered a load recently as I get through quite a few clearing the dog poo and we don't often get them. The person offering had been collecting them for a while and the ones at the bottom crumbled into nothingness. On the other hand, I tried lining our kitchen caddy with bags that were supposed to decompose in the compost heap. Months later, I ended up picking them out as I tried to use the rotted compost.