composting for small gardens

[FoxHillGardener]

... the 2 house bins that are constantly overflowing with binbags...

Once you're composting or wormerying all your food scraps and cardboard and stuff, there'll be far less going into the bins so they won't be overflowing anymore. You can get a bokashi bin for cooked food, meat and fish bits. Then the only thing left going in the rubbish bin will be any unrecyleable plastics.

[Suky]

Once you're composting or wormerying all your food scraps and cardboard and stuff, there'll be far less going into the bins so they won't be overflowing anymore. You can get a bokashi bin for cooked food, meat and fish bits. Then the only thing left going in the rubbish bin will be any unrecyleable plastics.

And I put all my plastics from the supermarket in the carrier bag recycling bins. I work for Sainsburys and all our plastic packaging from the shop floor is baled along with the contents of these bins and sorted and recycled centrally.
And I love bokashi.

[Two_Sheds]

I work for Sainsburys and all our plastic packaging from the shop floor is baled along with the contents of these bins and sorted and recycled

Ah, interesting. What is it recycled into, and where?

[Suky]

Ah, interesting. What is it recycled into, and where?

I'm guessing new carrier bags All I know is that all our cardboard, paper and plastic waste goes back, on pallets, on the depot trucks and is taken to a central recycling point where it is all sorted. We do have a very good reputation for recycling as a company and I feel by adding packaging waste perhaps it will prompt the company to work with manufacturers to reduce the packaging in the first place.
(steps down from soapbox )

[Two_Sheds]

perhaps it will prompt the ...manufacturers to reduce the packaging

That's the way they should be going. It is just mental to buy eg. a birthday card, wrapped in plastic, put in a plastic bag to carry home, then all that plastic just goes in the bin (in a plastic binliner). Then truck it round the country to "recycle" it.

Best just to reduce the packaging in t'first place.

btw, I always thought the "carrier bag recycling" bins were for you to take a bag from for your shopping. That's what I do anyway

[Suky]

btw, I always thought the "carrier bag recycling" bins were for you to take a bag from for your shopping. That's what I do anyway

You would have trouble getting your hand into our bins at JS-they are like chunky plastic postboxes. Not a bad idea though.

[buzzingtalk]

And I put all my plastics from the supermarket in the carrier bag recycling bins.

Really?

What sort of plastics? I'd love to give the supermarkets back all of their crap plastic stuff seeing as not even the council won't take it back! This would reduce loads of our rubbish. PLus finding somewhere to recycle cardboard (local recycling point will not) OH and plastic bottles, can't find anywhere to recycle those either

[Two_Sheds]

finding somewhere to recycle cardboard (local recycling point will not) OH and plastic bottles (

1) cardboard: gets used as a mulch on my lotty
2) plastic bottles go in the green bin surely? Otherwise, I use them as cloches for raising cuttings, and as packing plants for postage
3) recycling the OH (other half) ....?

[buzzingtalk]

1) cardboard: gets used as a mulch on my lotty
2) plastic bottles go in the green bin surely? Otherwise, I use them as cloches for raising cuttings, and as packing plants for postage
3) recycling the OH (other half) ....?

haha! Deffo not wanting to recycle the OH!

Don't have a green bin here, just a black one. Don't get recycling/brown/green bin etc, or glass collection. So we have to get someone to drive to the recycling centre at a supermarket, and even then they don't take card, plastic or green waste.

[Suky]

Really?

What sort of plastics? I'd love to give the supermarkets back all of their crap plastic stuff seeing as not even the council won't take it back! This would reduce loads of our rubbish. PLus finding somewhere to recycle cardboard (local recycling point will not) OH and plastic bottles, can't find anywhere to recycle those either

Pretty well all plastic. Not bottles as our council collect them but all packaging that's clean or I can wash first (elfin safety and all that) including polystyrene. All the plastic from Sainsburys shop floor and warehouse goes in the baler so I reckon all my plastic can go in too.
We can recycle cardboard locally but most of mine now goes in the compost bin too along with paper too
I just hang a carrier bag on the back door handle and drop all the plastic in there, tie it up when full and bung it in the bin when I go shopping. Simples

[buzzingtalk]

sweet - ill be off to the local sainsburys soon then! incidentally, thats whre i do most of my shopping when i use a supermarket so im sure they wont mind own-brand plastics coming back

[SueA]

Our Tesco store has collection boxes where you can put unwanted plastic carrier bags & one for plastic coathangers too.
Buzzingtalk I'd go with the 'Dalek' type compost bin & you can put compost from your old pot plants etc. in as well as the usual suspects for composting & you can add the odd spadeful of soil, handful of chicken manure pellets or something like Garota compost accelerator (not keen on Garota type stuff myself though, seems a bit 'nasty') to speed it up. I use homemade compost mixed about half & half with bought compost for potting up but I don't use it for sowing seeds in.
You could also try something like a Bokashi bin which you could keep in your kitchen for food scraps which aren't suitable for your compost bin. You can put cooked food in a bokashi & they're O.K. & don't smell as long as you keep adding the special bran & you also get a liquid off them which you can use as a plant food or drain cleaner!

[Suky]

You could also try something like a Bokashi bin which you could keep in your kitchen for food scraps which aren't suitable for your compost bin. You can put cooked food in a bokashi & they're O.K. & don't smell as long as you keep adding the special bran & you also get a liquid off them which you can use as a plant food or drain cleaner!

Bokashi is good, I have 3 that I rotate through the year and I'll agree that they don't smell while in the bin although some people are more sensitive to the smell of the mix than others. There is one problem though, you need somewhere to empty the 'pickle'. The food doesn't rot down like green waste in a compost bin, the bran sort of pickles it and when it's ready you need to either bury it in the ground (I put mine in the bean trench) or bury it in a compost heap where it will rot down quickly. But it is very attractive to foxes so it needs burying well. Since using the Bokashi system I have had the best runner beans ever but it doesn't suit everyone.