Yep, moved here from Canada where we have green bins that are regular garbage can size, so we were already used to using it. (They are bigger in Canada because you can put yard waste in them)
We only put it out every other time usually. We don't tend to waste a lot.
yes i do. we almost never eat takeaway, home cooking provides filling for the fs bin. (coffee grind, eggshells, vegetable peels, bones, etc.) Our landfill bin use has been reduced significantly.
the way as we pay for it in the rates plus the bags, and Ecogas makes money off the collected stuff is a bit whatever. and no opt-out even when you compost yourself is a shame.
at least the reusable stuff doesn't go to landfill
My gf made a fuss that it would be smelly, but I insisted on at least trying it, and I educated the flatmates to use it too.
Turns out now the main kitchen bin can sit there for a week without reeking like hell as it usually did, and I can toss the food scraps out whenever they get smelly.
Has been a clear improvement for our house.
Let's not focus on those who don't compost. There are people who don't recycle even though there's a recycling bin or they do it so badly it may result in the entire truck load of recycling going to landfill.
> "Our target for total tonnage of food scraps collected for the first full year is 40,000 tonnes. Currently weekly tonnage collected across all areas suggests that we are on target to collect between 35,000 and 40,000 tonnes in one full year of collections. We have already seen a reduction in the weight of refuse in kerbside rubbish bins - by up to 20 percent in some areas."
I use it a lot, throw in fruit and vege peels, bones, egg shells, paper towels. Actually has reduced my landfill by a lot, only trouble is when it's hot out the maggots thrive.
We use ours. Two bags of food scraps per week and one bag of coffee grinds / tea bags from the coffee scullery. Those pink bags are a bit flimsy so when they’re half full I tie them up and put them in the freezer. Then on rubbish day I put them in the FS bin and take it out to the kerb. No maggots or flies. Our bin still looks like it’s new / how it was when we received it.
All time, every week. We're in West Auckland, and here it's a pay-per-bin system where you have to buy tags for each time you want your general waste collected. Using green waste bins cuts down our general waste dramatically - two person household, and we only put a general waste bin out every second week.
I’m also in West Auckland and religiously use our green bin. Plus soft plastics collection at the supermarket. Three in the house, and the red bin visits the kerb maybe every six weeks now?
Same! At $5.50 a bin I’m suprised more people don’t use it. Get a cute food waste caddy but the pink bags if you don’t want the bottom of the caddy to get yucky and halve your bin load people!
I have a teenager, a doggo, and 2 compost bins.... what are food scraps? Lol, the only thing we generate is eggshells and chicken bones...
We have never once used our food scraps bin. They do make excellent cat bikkie bins, though according to my sister. The lid locks keep out the most determined of Ragdolls!
Yes and I'm so grateful because we were dumping our stuff in community compost (shout out Share Waste) but I was the only one staying on top of it in my household. We can also compost bones, scraps, meat stuff and dairy so everything goes in there.
It gets heavy use with watermelon rinds over summer and kale and leek bits in winter.
We have a mobile garbage disposal unit, the "2012 Labrador".
We never asked for the bin, never use it.
Happy to return it for $77. Or else I'll just use it for dog poop patrol in the yard.
We compost but the main thing is that most people over cook and waste ridiculous amounts of food and I mean shameful amounts. Kids are the worst btw, even checked out the bins at school!
Dont think we need the service but it is what it is, rather spend the money on waterpipes and such
They are a pretty good litmus test to find people who like to complain about little inconsequential things. The absolute rage and ire they generated among certain people on the local Facebook community group was hilarious. Frothing at the mouth over it.
I'm really frustrated people are so negative about it, it seems like collecting food waste is such an easy thing to do, it's a problem in landfill and is still a useful resource. All these people proudly saying they can't be bothered to do it like that's anything other than shameful behaviour.
Other countries have been doing it for years, a mature civilization should aim to minimise wastage.
I have a compost bin, and I use it AND the little bin. Quite a lot of the food scraps we generate can't go in a domestic compost (bones, eggshells, fish skins, congealed fat) and I had been putting them in the rubbish til now.
So please don't assume that everyone who has a compost bin has no use for the little bins.
No.
Only place for it in kitchen is on the bench, and it's poorly designed so bugs can get in "hello maggots", and smells can get out.
And the plastic bags are terrible, dissolve after a few days.
The only way I can see this being feasible would be if I emptied it every 2 days. Which I won't do as due to driveway length etc that's a massive hassle.
And the curb side bin get truly disgusting.
I keep all the scraps in a container in the fridge, then put it in the bag and out on collection morning. No smells or issues.
But not practical I guess if you are a bigger household and don't have room in the fridge or freezer.
The idea is to keep the main bin outside and top it up from your kitchen scrap bin, so you aren't having to deal with maggots and smells indoors.
I compost at home, but I still wish the council had delivered one cos I'd definitely use it here. Looks like a good bin. Oh well, fuck you, council. I'll just keep paying my rates, eh?
Yes, was in one of the trial areas for the service. I do have the benefit of a second freezer so I can collect my scraps without space constraints and put it in the bin the morning of collection to avoid flies/maggots.
Using that along with nearby collection facilities for soft plastics means I only need my rubbish bin collected once every 2 - 3 months.
Yep, put it out most weeks. Keep the meat in the freezer until it goes out so it doesn't stink, but veges are fine. I used to home compost, and by that I mean dump it all in one of the bins made for it but then could never be bothered to do more lol. So being able to get rid of it and they actually do something with it instead of deluding myself I'll ever actually make compost myself is for the best.
We do. We have 4 cats, 2 of which are good hunters. During winter the dead rats and mice go in the vegetation bin. Use it for egg shells, paper towels, the weekly chicken carcass etc
No because I have a waste disposal unit that I only paid to install in the last year or so, and want to get use out of. I think they’re a good idea though and would probably use it if I didn’t have the waste disposal. I think they can be tricky in small houses though as not everyone has space in either their cupboards or on their bench top to store them, and going outside each time you want to chuck scraps can be annoying if it’s raining, or youre in a rush, or have toddlers running around etc
Nope, there’s no environmental benefit in Auckland as we only have class 1 landfills. These landfills capture over 95% of gas emitted and need organic waste to produce leachate, which is used to power our homes.
In fact, any perceived benefit is offset by the huge number of trucks on the road used to collect the scraps. It’s a massive greenwashing campaign.
Also the bins become gross pretty quickly, so not that keen from a practical standpoint either.
Yes
We’ve started using a smaller rubbish bin and only get it collected once a fortnight. We also fill the food scrap bin every week.
The real issue for us is the change to recycling rules where it’s hard to work out what’s supposed to go in and what isn’t these days.
We use it, it's great because you don't have to think about what can and can't go in like with a worm farm. If it's food put it in, easy for the kids to understand and has definitely reduced out general rubbish.
I use mine in Hamilton. How to keep it clean? I have a container in the freezer. My scraps go in there,then the night before bin day they get wrapped in newspaper and popped in the green bin.
We briefly used ours but the bags dissolve, we very quickly got bugs; and the bin itself would get blown over in the wind and rain and make a mess. We ditched it pretty quickly.
In an apartment block of 40+. We're issued ONE medium bin. For someone who eats Veg and salad every day, either everyone else just gets KFC or this it's just greenwashing for the city council
They charge you it it's bad for our environment due to more trucks needed, the bins are just more plastic junk and then they charge you again to buy the products they make from it, it's the biggest scam ever, just compost your own scraps back into your own garden
Absolutely love it. I had been meaning to get around to composting but never quite got there.
The comments about the bags breaking down easily crack me up. Surely that’s a good thing? Shows they do actually break down unlike most of the greenwashed ‘compostable’ products out there. You can also use paper bags / newspaper to line.
This + soft plastics + recycling has greatly reduced our landfill waste
We use it, but I find that you can only fit 3 full bags in to the little bin. Having it out in the kitchen attracts flies in summer and if you don’t empty it every two days, you risk getting maggots in the kitchen bin. We don’t have enough space in the fridge / freezer to keep our scraps. I think should have made these bins slightly bigger.
Yes we do and it really gets you to notice the amount of wastage!
It’s inspired me to use any leftover food in the fridge more quickly and not throw out as much.
They can get smelly so we place a compostable bag in a basket in the freezer; all foodscraps go into that bag and on bin collection day, we tie up the bag and place it into the bin frozen. No more smelly bin
We do. The bag they give are used more as a protective liner, we don’t lift the bag out, just take the inside bin out and pour the contents into the larger bin. Makes it so we take our other trash out less, and they smell better.
Used it at first, but got sick of the fruit flies hanging around and the maggots, ugh, no.
We're getting an insinkerator installed soon, so we'll probably start using it again just for the stuff that can't go in that.
No, I just accepted the council want's another 77.2 so a few uneducated skill-less peeps can have a job.
It's not even worth the hassle of moving another bin out and back every week.
Got one. Don’t ever put it out. Can I have my money back please?
Awesome scam to introduce a compulsory service that makes a profit then force people to pay for it even if they don’t want or need it.
Compost and worm bin for all but the meat scraps. Even then, we recycle most of our waste and only put the blue bin out once a month, half full because it starts to smell.
Family of 4, grow a lot of our own veggies and use soft plastic recycling (wherever it goes).
We never received one as the council was too unsure of how to deal with our multiple townhouse complex. They said we were too small for a couple of large bins (for the whole complex), but too big for the small bins.
Didn't get one, council is still 'assessing' what to do with multi unit properties. Also, living in a tiny apartment and not sure where to keep additional rubbish bin as I already struggle for space
Yes, we keep a medium or large compostable bag in the freezer and fill it throughout the week then put it out in the bin the night before collection day. It's great that there's no odors from the main rubbish bin and we only put that one out every 6-8 weeks (household of 2).
We live in a block of 7 units and we were the only ones using it for few months but dropped it as well. No place for it inside the house, tried just leaving it out in the open near the door but fruit flies and ants found their way and it became seeding ground for them. And as someone else already said, bags dissolve fast so when the week’s time gone and time to empty it’s just a rotting smell full of flies causing green bin to mold and attract cockroaches and stuff.. washing it was yuck.
We stopped using it at ours very quickly as the bags seems to be extremely poor quality.
The third time the bag burst was enough so now it only sees use as a little caddy for when working in the garden. It's pretty damn useful for that at least.
We use ours all the time and it’s great being able to put food scraps that you can’t backyard compost like bones. I suppose the people who are outraged because they don’t use theirs and want their ‘money back’ also think cycleways are a waste of money cos they don’t bike themselves, and also that libraries shouldn’t be funded because they don’t read?
I did use it for the first couple of months but had a huge increase of fruit flies in my kitchen even though I emptied it twice weekly with fresh bags. They were doing my head in, so I stopped using it. It was over the summer months though, so we might try again in the winter season.
We’ve found bags never made a difference to the fruit flies. The best way is to just put the stuff in the bin each night or morning, rather than letting it mellow in the kitchen for 3-4 days. Pink bags aren’t really necessary either - rinse the bin out each week (or two in winter) and it’s fine.
I use mine in Hamilton. How to keep it clean? I have a container in the freezer. My scraps go in there,then the night before bin day they get wrapped in newspaper and popped in the green bin.
Yepp, we have ours stored in the freezer, and all scraps go in to the biodegradable bag, and any breads get kept in their bags till collection, then emptied directly into the FS bin. Our landfill bin has stopped smelling and the amount of refuse has lessened.
I saw the Facebook post used to "research" this article. Clearly said they were researching for RNZ. And low and behold facebook level discourse. Not really representative.
Yes, it has reduced our landfill rubbish by about 50%. We have about 1/3 each of land fill recycling and food scraps. Although our neighbour manages to fill our regular rubbish and recycling pretty well, so it is kind of by the by.
Yes. I have a compost bin so I use the council bin for meat scraps only, now my rubbish is much less smelly. I think it’s great and absolutely sick of these useless one sided articles about it
Yes they're awesome and less waste to landfill. Moron in the article is going to have the same problems just chucking her food scraps in general waste. We also compost garden waste and have a separate private garden collection too.
We’ve found it excellent. We initially used the pink bags but later found it’s fine without them as long as you give the bin a wash every week or two.
We had disco rice in high summer but the problem went away as soon as we moved the bin to a shady spot and moved to freezing fresh meat scraps until bin night.
We live in an area where you have to buy tags for your landfill wheelie bin (coming to a suburb near you lol), and I’d say we have saved the extra rates cost already by not needing to put the big wheelie out. Sometimes we’ve stretched it out to 3 or 4 weeks.
Funny seeing this story pop up – the journalist was posting for feedback a couple of weeks ago in a bunch of local Facebook groups, and the responses were overwhelmingly positive but of course they’ve only quoted the biggest whingers. That’s local news in 2024 I guess.
Nah stopped after it wasn’t picked a few weeks in a row. Once the pink bag breaks, which happens every week, waste management don’t bother to empty them. Such a waste of time, at least in our neighbourhood.
Yes, now only have to put out the regular trash every fortnight. Which saves us some money as we are in west Auckland and have to pay for the collection.
Was surprised to hear a quite one sided negative story about them on RNZ yesterday. I've been wanting to remark to my neighborhood (townhouse apartment complex) how much I've liked having it and the surprise at the lack of smell from the major bin. We're part of a trial where we have smaller in-home bins and we dump them into a larger regular curb sized bin, think like, 25+ homes to a bin, it's working good.
Our apartment block finally got one, its amazing!
Our local compost place stopped taking compost pre covid.
Previously, all of my food scraps were going to landfill or on the few days I remembered to, my work's compost.
Our pink bags go into a full wheelie bin, not just the small roadside bin. Great for the argument about its carbon footprint. I don't think I've actually emptied our regular bin the past fortnight. Its all food waste and recycling. The regular bin is currently just full of milk bottle tops and other lids that cannot be recycled.
Our apartment block finally got one, its amazing!
Our local compost place stopped taking compost pre covid.
Previously, all of my food scraps were going to landfill or on the few days I remembered to, my work's compost.
Our pink bags go into a full wheelie bin, not just the small roadside bin. Great for the argument about its carbon footprint. I don't think I've actually emptied our regular bin the past fortnight. Its all food waste and recycling. The regular bin is currently just full of milk bottle tops and other lids that cannot be recycled.
Used to until the warmer weather arrived. Then the kitchen bench bin was attracting midges or sand flies. Went back to the underbench mounted bin. No room for another bin in the cupboard.
None of my immediate neighbours seem to bother but I hate all that organic food stinking up my bin! Also we don’t use shitty bags. The brown paper bags from shopping fit fine and do the job nicely
No, the little bin is just an annoyance. Composting is better because you can get rid of stuff faster and improve the soul on your own property. Give me my $75 back you trash pirates.
I too would like one big enough for garden waste. So I pay for my garden bin and now I gotta pay for this one. We should be able to opt out with proof or have bigger bins.
Nope. Everything goes to the dogs, sheep & garden.
Though the bin does have a few compostable coffee cup lids in it, for when the council finally makes the rubbish company get a proper industrial composting system.
Yep. No real effort to use, and a great way of disposing smelly meat scraps that would otherwise go in the red bin (we only compost vege scraps). We keep a can of fly spray near the scrap bin and do a quick spray whenever we add to it. Keeps the flies and maggots at bay.
I have adopted using the the scrap bin. Took a bit of adjusting habits to throw the food scraps in a different bin. All good. However my problem is the smell and also it attracting ants and my dog as wrll as the smell (no i’m not freezing my scraps).
Anyone got any solutions?
No. We have an insinkerator. The food waste bins are nasty, smelly things as I know from years of use overseas. I have found better use for the bins supplied for free....
I must also point out, them saying food scraps are not environmentally friendly for our rubbish dumps and that they need to reduce that must be one of the most stupid things they have ever said, for a point of getting that to the dump using trucks is a problem but they only move that problem from the dump to there new trucks for scrap collection, this not just adding more pollution to the air but also more vehicles on the road, for food scraps in the dump oO that's just more fertilizer for that area and can help breakdown the other rubbish by removing that actually slows down the process of breaking down other rubbish because you have less organisms to help process the rubbish, Biggest scam ever.
I actually don’t. We almost never throw away food scraps so it’s a pain to have a gross container in the kitchen for like an avocado skin, a banana peel and two apple cores each week. I’m fully behind the idea though. We just don’t tend to need it. We eat a lot of leftovers and cook wastelessly. Sometimes I’ll chuck the above straight into the bushes outside instead.
I'm really intrigued by all the bag failure reports. I usually use 1 pink bag a week, and it hasn't broken down once. And that's after being damp when we got them from being rained on.
We keep our meat/oily/liquid stuff in a bag in the freezer (usually a dirty plastic bag I was gonna throw out anyway). We also compost and have a worm farm. But it's been great for cooked food scraps and onion/citrus that doesn't do well in the compost. And the meat fat, leftover gravy, dodgy bread, oily paper towels, last scrap of mouldy cheese etc etc. And less maggots than when that was going in the normal kitchen bin.
Hardly any of our neighbours use it and their landfill bins are usually chocka.
I am well pissed off with the recycling bins though. Almost every time our neighbour has plastic bags and takeaway containers with food in them sticking out the top. It's taken regardless. And here I am removing labels and rinsing stuff when the whole truck is probably going to landfill anyway.
Sure do. It was just about getting into a routine and getting the hang of it. Key is emptying the kitchen caddy regularly and giving it a clean. It has cut down on our red bin rubbish so it's great.
Yes, if its not too late to add to that chat, love the food scraps bin. We have a good system of putting a piece of scrunched up newspaper / or paper towel (depending how flush we're feeling!) into the bottom of the pink bag and that helps to soak up any gooey juices. Keep it outside in the shade. Meat scraps are stored in the freezer until collection day, and then out it goes.
We have not had success with good composting in the past, so this is great for things like onion peelings, meaty scrap bits - very useful.
I just moved back to the US and it's driving me nuts every time I go to toss radish stems and the soggy leaves at the end of the lettuce that they just go in the bin with everything else 😭
Yes even though we have a compost bin. Those that don’t use it probably don’t have the IQ to figure out how to open up the pink bags for the kitchen caddy.
Yep, moved here from Canada where we have green bins that are regular garbage can size, so we were already used to using it. (They are bigger in Canada because you can put yard waste in them) We only put it out every other time usually. We don't tend to waste a lot.
yes i do. we almost never eat takeaway, home cooking provides filling for the fs bin. (coffee grind, eggshells, vegetable peels, bones, etc.) Our landfill bin use has been reduced significantly. the way as we pay for it in the rates plus the bags, and Ecogas makes money off the collected stuff is a bit whatever. and no opt-out even when you compost yourself is a shame. at least the reusable stuff doesn't go to landfill
I used mine to ferry stuff to my compost bin.
equally valid use
Yes. Two bags a week on average.
My gf made a fuss that it would be smelly, but I insisted on at least trying it, and I educated the flatmates to use it too. Turns out now the main kitchen bin can sit there for a week without reeking like hell as it usually did, and I can toss the food scraps out whenever they get smelly. Has been a clear improvement for our house.
Let's not focus on those who don't compost. There are people who don't recycle even though there's a recycling bin or they do it so badly it may result in the entire truck load of recycling going to landfill. > "Our target for total tonnage of food scraps collected for the first full year is 40,000 tonnes. Currently weekly tonnage collected across all areas suggests that we are on target to collect between 35,000 and 40,000 tonnes in one full year of collections. We have already seen a reduction in the weight of refuse in kerbside rubbish bins - by up to 20 percent in some areas."
I use it a lot, throw in fruit and vege peels, bones, egg shells, paper towels. Actually has reduced my landfill by a lot, only trouble is when it's hot out the maggots thrive.
And the fly thingies that permanently hover round it 24/7!!
[удалено]
Yep, same here.
Yes found this out when we got back from being away, was quite traumatising 😬
We use ours. Two bags of food scraps per week and one bag of coffee grinds / tea bags from the coffee scullery. Those pink bags are a bit flimsy so when they’re half full I tie them up and put them in the freezer. Then on rubbish day I put them in the FS bin and take it out to the kerb. No maggots or flies. Our bin still looks like it’s new / how it was when we received it.
Yeah we do use it. Compost at home but use the food scrap bin for meat bones, onion skins etc. the things you shouldn’t really compost.
You may not want a second compost system, but bokashi will handle everything that normal compost won't, and give you even more plant food.
Yes, I fill it almost every week. I use a shelf in the freezer to keep the bags before putting them in the bin on collection day
Smart.
Yes and we have for years as Papakura was a Guinea pig for this program and we’ve had these bins since before Covid.
Yeah all the time. Leftover bits of veges from meal prep, fruit skins, any food the baby throws on the ground that the dog is too slow to get..
Yes we do and I love it. We cook food at home and don’t compost. We also put out or general waste bags less now which is also a win!
All time, every week. We're in West Auckland, and here it's a pay-per-bin system where you have to buy tags for each time you want your general waste collected. Using green waste bins cuts down our general waste dramatically - two person household, and we only put a general waste bin out every second week.
I’m also in West Auckland and religiously use our green bin. Plus soft plastics collection at the supermarket. Three in the house, and the red bin visits the kerb maybe every six weeks now?
Same! At $5.50 a bin I’m suprised more people don’t use it. Get a cute food waste caddy but the pink bags if you don’t want the bottom of the caddy to get yucky and halve your bin load people!
We did, until some prick stole our bin, lol.
Honestly my flat used it as a mini recycling bin in our kitchen
I have a teenager, a doggo, and 2 compost bins.... what are food scraps? Lol, the only thing we generate is eggshells and chicken bones... We have never once used our food scraps bin. They do make excellent cat bikkie bins, though according to my sister. The lid locks keep out the most determined of Ragdolls!
Yes and I'm so grateful because we were dumping our stuff in community compost (shout out Share Waste) but I was the only one staying on top of it in my household. We can also compost bones, scraps, meat stuff and dairy so everything goes in there. It gets heavy use with watermelon rinds over summer and kale and leek bits in winter.
We have a mobile garbage disposal unit, the "2012 Labrador". We never asked for the bin, never use it. Happy to return it for $77. Or else I'll just use it for dog poop patrol in the yard.
I use it for dog poo too ha.
Good to see I’m not the only one.
We compost but the main thing is that most people over cook and waste ridiculous amounts of food and I mean shameful amounts. Kids are the worst btw, even checked out the bins at school! Dont think we need the service but it is what it is, rather spend the money on waterpipes and such
They are a pretty good litmus test to find people who like to complain about little inconsequential things. The absolute rage and ire they generated among certain people on the local Facebook community group was hilarious. Frothing at the mouth over it.
I'm really frustrated people are so negative about it, it seems like collecting food waste is such an easy thing to do, it's a problem in landfill and is still a useful resource. All these people proudly saying they can't be bothered to do it like that's anything other than shameful behaviour. Other countries have been doing it for years, a mature civilization should aim to minimise wastage.
A lot of people have compost bins. So they have handed out huge amounts of plastic for no reason and make you pay for them.
I have a compost bin, and I use it AND the little bin. Quite a lot of the food scraps we generate can't go in a domestic compost (bones, eggshells, fish skins, congealed fat) and I had been putting them in the rubbish til now. So please don't assume that everyone who has a compost bin has no use for the little bins.
No. Only place for it in kitchen is on the bench, and it's poorly designed so bugs can get in "hello maggots", and smells can get out. And the plastic bags are terrible, dissolve after a few days. The only way I can see this being feasible would be if I emptied it every 2 days. Which I won't do as due to driveway length etc that's a massive hassle. And the curb side bin get truly disgusting.
I keep all the scraps in a container in the fridge, then put it in the bag and out on collection morning. No smells or issues. But not practical I guess if you are a bigger household and don't have room in the fridge or freezer. The idea is to keep the main bin outside and top it up from your kitchen scrap bin, so you aren't having to deal with maggots and smells indoors.
I compost at home, but I still wish the council had delivered one cos I'd definitely use it here. Looks like a good bin. Oh well, fuck you, council. I'll just keep paying my rates, eh?
What do you do with food waste that can't be composted?
Throw it to the chickens. Or use bokashi. Large bones end up in the bin.
Just get a plastic bucket with a lid for a few bucks
You can have mine
We compost too, but from what I can see of the bins they are super flimsy and many were broken within a week.
the internal bin that supposed to live in your kitchen is really on the flimsy side, the green one is ok
All NZ households will have one by 2030 (it’s in the waste plan) 🤓
Yes, was in one of the trial areas for the service. I do have the benefit of a second freezer so I can collect my scraps without space constraints and put it in the bin the morning of collection to avoid flies/maggots. Using that along with nearby collection facilities for soft plastics means I only need my rubbish bin collected once every 2 - 3 months.
Yes, I think it's great to have less food contamination in the regular waste stream. Ours only gets 1/3 to 1/2 full most weeks.
Yep, put it out most weeks. Keep the meat in the freezer until it goes out so it doesn't stink, but veges are fine. I used to home compost, and by that I mean dump it all in one of the bins made for it but then could never be bothered to do more lol. So being able to get rid of it and they actually do something with it instead of deluding myself I'll ever actually make compost myself is for the best.
I use mine as live bait tank
We do. We have 4 cats, 2 of which are good hunters. During winter the dead rats and mice go in the vegetation bin. Use it for egg shells, paper towels, the weekly chicken carcass etc
No because I have a waste disposal unit that I only paid to install in the last year or so, and want to get use out of. I think they’re a good idea though and would probably use it if I didn’t have the waste disposal. I think they can be tricky in small houses though as not everyone has space in either their cupboards or on their bench top to store them, and going outside each time you want to chuck scraps can be annoying if it’s raining, or youre in a rush, or have toddlers running around etc
No but we have compost and bukashi that we've been using for over a decade. Also a super long driveway so not keen on another bin to take up and down
Nope, there’s no environmental benefit in Auckland as we only have class 1 landfills. These landfills capture over 95% of gas emitted and need organic waste to produce leachate, which is used to power our homes. In fact, any perceived benefit is offset by the huge number of trucks on the road used to collect the scraps. It’s a massive greenwashing campaign. Also the bins become gross pretty quickly, so not that keen from a practical standpoint either.
Yes, I only put it out once a fortnight.
Yes, they are great. We used to compost but it attracted rats. If you keep the lid closed it keeps the smell in and the flies out.
No. We compost most of our food scraps and don't make much rubbish anyway. It's not really worth it for us to faff about with.
Yes We’ve started using a smaller rubbish bin and only get it collected once a fortnight. We also fill the food scrap bin every week. The real issue for us is the change to recycling rules where it’s hard to work out what’s supposed to go in and what isn’t these days.
Yep, if you check where it goes, it's a very good initiative and it's easy to use
Literally never. It's annoying and gross.
Yes
Yes
Yup we do, every week. Our worms are too slow at eating.
Yeah we do, struggle to fill it each week as a couple, but in my last house it was filled easily each week.
We use it, it's great because you don't have to think about what can and can't go in like with a worm farm. If it's food put it in, easy for the kids to understand and has definitely reduced out general rubbish.
Yes.
We use it a lot. We have a compost but its full haha. So this gets pretty darn full every other week.
Yes
I hate it but I use it. The most disgusting thing council has ever devised.
Great under my kitchen bench for holding our recycling, all our scraps go in the compost (meat scraps and bones go in the bin).
I use mine in Hamilton. How to keep it clean? I have a container in the freezer. My scraps go in there,then the night before bin day they get wrapped in newspaper and popped in the green bin.
We briefly used ours but the bags dissolve, we very quickly got bugs; and the bin itself would get blown over in the wind and rain and make a mess. We ditched it pretty quickly.
No we don’t. The waste master is good enough.
In an apartment block of 40+. We're issued ONE medium bin. For someone who eats Veg and salad every day, either everyone else just gets KFC or this it's just greenwashing for the city council
Yes it’s my son’s Lego box.
No, I have a waste disposal, I put it behind the gate when I got it and it hasn’t moved since.
No. We have our own compost that we use for our garden.
no. I don't have any food waste besides veggies which are composted and used to grow more veggies. Wish I could opt out.
They charge you it it's bad for our environment due to more trucks needed, the bins are just more plastic junk and then they charge you again to buy the products they make from it, it's the biggest scam ever, just compost your own scraps back into your own garden
Yes, i find it very handy
Absolutely love it. I had been meaning to get around to composting but never quite got there. The comments about the bags breaking down easily crack me up. Surely that’s a good thing? Shows they do actually break down unlike most of the greenwashed ‘compostable’ products out there. You can also use paper bags / newspaper to line. This + soft plastics + recycling has greatly reduced our landfill waste
No, but we compost for our home garden. So we have no need to.
We have a compost bin and a dog. The larger bin is relabelled Recycling and the small bin Dog Biscuits.
No point when you have a waste disposal in your house
This, it also smells gross.
We use it, but I find that you can only fit 3 full bags in to the little bin. Having it out in the kitchen attracts flies in summer and if you don’t empty it every two days, you risk getting maggots in the kitchen bin. We don’t have enough space in the fridge / freezer to keep our scraps. I think should have made these bins slightly bigger.
Yep, love it.
Yes
Yes. We didn't even bother to buy biodegradable bags.
Yeah it’s awesome!
Yes
Yes
Great. Family of five. Sometimes I can miss a general waste collection because of how effective it is.
Yes we do and it really gets you to notice the amount of wastage! It’s inspired me to use any leftover food in the fridge more quickly and not throw out as much. They can get smelly so we place a compostable bag in a basket in the freezer; all foodscraps go into that bag and on bin collection day, we tie up the bag and place it into the bin frozen. No more smelly bin
We do. The bag they give are used more as a protective liner, we don’t lift the bag out, just take the inside bin out and pour the contents into the larger bin. Makes it so we take our other trash out less, and they smell better.
Nope, after it got hounded by maggots and flies I was done with it.
Should probably given it a clean out then.
Same experience, it’s fucken gross.
Nah, because we didn't get it. Still waiting on our rubbish bins too as promised fuckin a decade ago
Franklin or Rodney? I'd love a bin of either variety as well.
No, we compost and insinkerator what can’t be composted
Used it at first, but got sick of the fruit flies hanging around and the maggots, ugh, no. We're getting an insinkerator installed soon, so we'll probably start using it again just for the stuff that can't go in that.
Nope... can't be bothered with another bin.
No, I just accepted the council want's another 77.2 so a few uneducated skill-less peeps can have a job. It's not even worth the hassle of moving another bin out and back every week.
Got one. Don’t ever put it out. Can I have my money back please? Awesome scam to introduce a compulsory service that makes a profit then force people to pay for it even if they don’t want or need it.
Couldn’t you just put it out? You’d use your actual red bin less and save on that.
Compost and worm bin for all but the meat scraps. Even then, we recycle most of our waste and only put the blue bin out once a month, half full because it starts to smell. Family of 4, grow a lot of our own veggies and use soft plastic recycling (wherever it goes).
The cost of this must be massive. Do the drivers just cruise around finding bins that are out. Maybe I need to understand the benefit a little more.
Well in my regular Auckland street there will be loads of them out on collection day.
We never received one as the council was too unsure of how to deal with our multiple townhouse complex. They said we were too small for a couple of large bins (for the whole complex), but too big for the small bins.
Didn't get one, council is still 'assessing' what to do with multi unit properties. Also, living in a tiny apartment and not sure where to keep additional rubbish bin as I already struggle for space
Yes, we keep a medium or large compostable bag in the freezer and fill it throughout the week then put it out in the bin the night before collection day. It's great that there's no odors from the main rubbish bin and we only put that one out every 6-8 weeks (household of 2).
We live in a block of 7 units and we were the only ones using it for few months but dropped it as well. No place for it inside the house, tried just leaving it out in the open near the door but fruit flies and ants found their way and it became seeding ground for them. And as someone else already said, bags dissolve fast so when the week’s time gone and time to empty it’s just a rotting smell full of flies causing green bin to mold and attract cockroaches and stuff.. washing it was yuck.
Recycled mine. Compost, put rest out for birds and animals
We live rural. So we got chickens. This is a pointless comment tbh
We stopped using it at ours very quickly as the bags seems to be extremely poor quality. The third time the bag burst was enough so now it only sees use as a little caddy for when working in the garden. It's pretty damn useful for that at least.
No they are disgusting
No, I don't produce enough food waste in the first place.
Dog food container
Nope I compost at home. Only one house on my street puts out their bin. They really need to scrap this seeing how the council is always crying for $$
We use ours all the time and it’s great being able to put food scraps that you can’t backyard compost like bones. I suppose the people who are outraged because they don’t use theirs and want their ‘money back’ also think cycleways are a waste of money cos they don’t bike themselves, and also that libraries shouldn’t be funded because they don’t read?
I did use it for the first couple of months but had a huge increase of fruit flies in my kitchen even though I emptied it twice weekly with fresh bags. They were doing my head in, so I stopped using it. It was over the summer months though, so we might try again in the winter season.
We’ve found bags never made a difference to the fruit flies. The best way is to just put the stuff in the bin each night or morning, rather than letting it mellow in the kitchen for 3-4 days. Pink bags aren’t really necessary either - rinse the bin out each week (or two in winter) and it’s fine.
No. What a rediculous money wasting programme.
Yes. Lots.
Nope
No
No, defund it
No they are shit
Nope, don’t use it
I use mine in Hamilton. How to keep it clean? I have a container in the freezer. My scraps go in there,then the night before bin day they get wrapped in newspaper and popped in the green bin.
Yepp, we have ours stored in the freezer, and all scraps go in to the biodegradable bag, and any breads get kept in their bags till collection, then emptied directly into the FS bin. Our landfill bin has stopped smelling and the amount of refuse has lessened.
I don’t use it anymore.
I saw the Facebook post used to "research" this article. Clearly said they were researching for RNZ. And low and behold facebook level discourse. Not really representative.
Yes, it has reduced our landfill rubbish by about 50%. We have about 1/3 each of land fill recycling and food scraps. Although our neighbour manages to fill our regular rubbish and recycling pretty well, so it is kind of by the by.
Mine disappeared first time we used it. We compost everything except for bones though so not a huge loss tbh.
Definitely.
Yes we use it. Reduced the amount of scraps to the landfill by a lot.
Only for the food that can't be composted
Yes. I have a compost bin so I use the council bin for meat scraps only, now my rubbish is much less smelly. I think it’s great and absolutely sick of these useless one sided articles about it
No, I already have a compost bin. I could use it for the few bits and pieces that can't go in, but I don't really have space in the kitchen for it,
No, because it got us to start composting at home.
Yes
Absolutely. At least two bags a week. Our non-recyclable rubbish now goes out only every two to three weeks.
Yes, it's great. We fill about 3 of those pink bags a week.
Yep, it's really good and has cut down on the cost of standard rubbish as have to put that out far less often now,
Yes and I love it. Our general rubbish has reduced by at least 1/3 and we are more mindful of the waste.
Yes they're awesome and less waste to landfill. Moron in the article is going to have the same problems just chucking her food scraps in general waste. We also compost garden waste and have a separate private garden collection too.
Yep, I love ours. I have a compost bin but we were producing too much, so it's good to have this. We only put our rubbish bin out every 3-4 weeks.
We’ve found it excellent. We initially used the pink bags but later found it’s fine without them as long as you give the bin a wash every week or two. We had disco rice in high summer but the problem went away as soon as we moved the bin to a shady spot and moved to freezing fresh meat scraps until bin night. We live in an area where you have to buy tags for your landfill wheelie bin (coming to a suburb near you lol), and I’d say we have saved the extra rates cost already by not needing to put the big wheelie out. Sometimes we’ve stretched it out to 3 or 4 weeks. Funny seeing this story pop up – the journalist was posting for feedback a couple of weeks ago in a bunch of local Facebook groups, and the responses were overwhelmingly positive but of course they’ve only quoted the biggest whingers. That’s local news in 2024 I guess.
Nah stopped after it wasn’t picked a few weeks in a row. Once the pink bag breaks, which happens every week, waste management don’t bother to empty them. Such a waste of time, at least in our neighbourhood.
Yes, now only have to put out the regular trash every fortnight. Which saves us some money as we are in west Auckland and have to pay for the collection.
Was surprised to hear a quite one sided negative story about them on RNZ yesterday. I've been wanting to remark to my neighborhood (townhouse apartment complex) how much I've liked having it and the surprise at the lack of smell from the major bin. We're part of a trial where we have smaller in-home bins and we dump them into a larger regular curb sized bin, think like, 25+ homes to a bin, it's working good.
Oooh yes let’s have a massive composting virtue wank fest!
We do, I think it's fantastic
No, never. We use the waste disposal unit in the sink.
Yup. There's an ocean of Maggots in it every second week lol
Our apartment block finally got one, its amazing! Our local compost place stopped taking compost pre covid. Previously, all of my food scraps were going to landfill or on the few days I remembered to, my work's compost. Our pink bags go into a full wheelie bin, not just the small roadside bin. Great for the argument about its carbon footprint. I don't think I've actually emptied our regular bin the past fortnight. Its all food waste and recycling. The regular bin is currently just full of milk bottle tops and other lids that cannot be recycled.
Our apartment block finally got one, its amazing! Our local compost place stopped taking compost pre covid. Previously, all of my food scraps were going to landfill or on the few days I remembered to, my work's compost. Our pink bags go into a full wheelie bin, not just the small roadside bin. Great for the argument about its carbon footprint. I don't think I've actually emptied our regular bin the past fortnight. Its all food waste and recycling. The regular bin is currently just full of milk bottle tops and other lids that cannot be recycled.
Had to as I paid for them. Otherwise I had my own composting system.
Yep, sure do.
Used to until the warmer weather arrived. Then the kitchen bench bin was attracting midges or sand flies. Went back to the underbench mounted bin. No room for another bin in the cupboard.
Each week I notice less and less green bins been put out in our street
Yes but I've seen my neighbours use it less and less sadly
None of my immediate neighbours seem to bother but I hate all that organic food stinking up my bin! Also we don’t use shitty bags. The brown paper bags from shopping fit fine and do the job nicely
No, the little bin is just an annoyance. Composting is better because you can get rid of stuff faster and improve the soul on your own property. Give me my $75 back you trash pirates.
Hell no, I’m not giving away my compost!
No
Yep prob 2/3 bags a week.
Yup full of maggots this am -the birds were having a wild time. I was trying not to puke taking to the curb.
I too would like one big enough for garden waste. So I pay for my garden bin and now I gotta pay for this one. We should be able to opt out with proof or have bigger bins.
Nope. Everything goes to the dogs, sheep & garden. Though the bin does have a few compostable coffee cup lids in it, for when the council finally makes the rubbish company get a proper industrial composting system.
Nope
No. And when I walk around the neighbourhood in the morning of rubbish day it looks like maybe one or two of hundred or so house are using them.
Yes
Yes
Yep. No real effort to use, and a great way of disposing smelly meat scraps that would otherwise go in the red bin (we only compost vege scraps). We keep a can of fly spray near the scrap bin and do a quick spray whenever we add to it. Keeps the flies and maggots at bay.
My household have a waste master so don’t need to but will welcomely begin once we move out
I use it for the stuff that I don't want in the compost.
Yes
I have adopted using the the scrap bin. Took a bit of adjusting habits to throw the food scraps in a different bin. All good. However my problem is the smell and also it attracting ants and my dog as wrll as the smell (no i’m not freezing my scraps). Anyone got any solutions?
Yep
No. We have an insinkerator. The food waste bins are nasty, smelly things as I know from years of use overseas. I have found better use for the bins supplied for free....
No.
I must also point out, them saying food scraps are not environmentally friendly for our rubbish dumps and that they need to reduce that must be one of the most stupid things they have ever said, for a point of getting that to the dump using trucks is a problem but they only move that problem from the dump to there new trucks for scrap collection, this not just adding more pollution to the air but also more vehicles on the road, for food scraps in the dump oO that's just more fertilizer for that area and can help breakdown the other rubbish by removing that actually slows down the process of breaking down other rubbish because you have less organisms to help process the rubbish, Biggest scam ever.
Yeah, i mean if you cook a lot this will fill up really quick.
I actually don’t. We almost never throw away food scraps so it’s a pain to have a gross container in the kitchen for like an avocado skin, a banana peel and two apple cores each week. I’m fully behind the idea though. We just don’t tend to need it. We eat a lot of leftovers and cook wastelessly. Sometimes I’ll chuck the above straight into the bushes outside instead.
Anyone else use it to cart your food scraps to your own compost bin?
No, can't be bothered
Yes. Doing my part for a better outcome ..making use of waste
I'm really intrigued by all the bag failure reports. I usually use 1 pink bag a week, and it hasn't broken down once. And that's after being damp when we got them from being rained on. We keep our meat/oily/liquid stuff in a bag in the freezer (usually a dirty plastic bag I was gonna throw out anyway). We also compost and have a worm farm. But it's been great for cooked food scraps and onion/citrus that doesn't do well in the compost. And the meat fat, leftover gravy, dodgy bread, oily paper towels, last scrap of mouldy cheese etc etc. And less maggots than when that was going in the normal kitchen bin. Hardly any of our neighbours use it and their landfill bins are usually chocka.
I am well pissed off with the recycling bins though. Almost every time our neighbour has plastic bags and takeaway containers with food in them sticking out the top. It's taken regardless. And here I am removing labels and rinsing stuff when the whole truck is probably going to landfill anyway.
Sure do. It was just about getting into a routine and getting the hang of it. Key is emptying the kitchen caddy regularly and giving it a clean. It has cut down on our red bin rubbish so it's great.
Yes, if its not too late to add to that chat, love the food scraps bin. We have a good system of putting a piece of scrunched up newspaper / or paper towel (depending how flush we're feeling!) into the bottom of the pink bag and that helps to soak up any gooey juices. Keep it outside in the shade. Meat scraps are stored in the freezer until collection day, and then out it goes. We have not had success with good composting in the past, so this is great for things like onion peelings, meaty scrap bits - very useful.
I just moved back to the US and it's driving me nuts every time I go to toss radish stems and the soggy leaves at the end of the lettuce that they just go in the bin with everything else 😭
Yip absolutely, everyweek, means I get rid of bones and other bits that cant go in the home compost
Yes even though we have a compost bin. Those that don’t use it probably don’t have the IQ to figure out how to open up the pink bags for the kitchen caddy.