Forum Topic

Cleaning of the food waste bins?

My neighbour thinks he saw an article in Hounslow Matters saying that LBH has bought a machine that cleans the food waste bins before returning them to the doorstep…?  I can’t find it.  Does anyone know about this?I am so fed up with the food waste bin being returned on its side with the open lip downwards, contaminating the other recycling boxes that they lay it in.  It would be lovely if they just locked it and stood it upright…. :(

Sarah Felstead ● 725d19 Comments

Those leak liquid too, sadly. One of the caveats with compostable bags is that they can start breaking down within days, especially in the warmth of a house (or a London summer!). I find I need to move the caddy liner to the outside bin within 3 days or so, even if it's not full yet.

Bryan Betts ● 689d

A link with an article and a Picture. More or less what I've seen many a time.Shame it's so tricky to put pictures on this site. But there are quite a few.https://www.newscientist.com/article/2249298-hungry-foxes-have-been-raiding-our-bins-for-thousands-of-years/

Raymond Havelock ● 690d

I don't know. We do not use Grundon bins at LBH council, though some businesses may use them

Guy Lambert ● 690d

I would love to get some video of it.It's nothing unusual Guy, It's been on TV and people in Ealing are always reporting this.Reading back, I take it we are talking about the 18" Green lidded box with the black swing handle which locks and not a communal Grundon sized bin?

Raymond Havelock ● 690d

Weird that it happens to you only.I get all the complaints about recycling but not a single one complaining that vermin open the food bins. Let me know where you see it and I'll investigate.

Guy Lambert ● 691d

No. Have sat and watched Foxes and even rats open the boxes and also the wheelie bins.  It's always in the small hours and often I come home from work and watch from the car.  Fascinating but does not half leave a mess to clear up.

Raymond Havelock ● 692d

We haven’t experienced that at all.  Sounds like a human is involved?

Sarah Felstead ● 693d

We have one with a handle that locks but bricks, railings, bungee straps have all been knobbled. And animals can open them without additional means.

Raymond Havelock ● 693d

Raymond.  The lock on the street food waste bin works really well no way any animal can force that open.  The house tidy does not have a lock on it and shouldn’t be put outside.

Sarah Felstead ● 694d

Where does this happen, Raymond? A problem I have yet to witness.

Guy Lambert ● 694d

Always use these. Always have. Stops the smell and flies. But Foxy is very deft at dragging them out and distributing all over the place. They are giving Squirrels a run for their money on finding ways of opening the containers!

Raymond Havelock ● 694d

using a compostable bin liner is an option in the 31st century. new-fangled, i know.

Jonathan Portch ● 694d

The food waste bin has been returned, upright, for the last 2 weeks, probably because of Cllr Guy.  Thank you.

Sarah Felstead ● 708d

Or blocking the pavements sometimes days on end. A good advert to Chummy and his mates as to who is away from home.

Raymond Havelock ● 722d

I wonder if there is a machine that can also be used by the recycling teams that returns your recycling bins to outside your house where they were placed, and not outside 5 houses down the road.

Keith Iddon ● 723d

It's near impossible to clean the bins safely and hygienically without pouring concentrated God knows what into them to quell the stench - even in winter.Unlike lower dusting of ye olden days, You can't put a Bin liner into a wheelie bin.But few people now use black bags and just chuck anything and everything into the Grey Wheeled Dalek.  Black Bags have become expensive if theres no full need and most people are more than conscious of using plastic unecessarily.Wheelybins are too deep for most to manage cleaning in confined space which means the detritus and stinky stuff gets washed out or leaks out on the pavement. It's not possible to use a hose and quite frankly, hardly anyone bothers at all. How people put up with the stench right by their own door or by their neighbours windows is quite inexplicable.To be honest I don't like using chemicals to deal with it but do out of respect for neighbours and I do theirs as well-- because they never do. Simple hygiene stuff like this never really got thought out or discussed. Nor the fact that modern plastics degrade so quickly that the recycling boxes start to shatter or split with razor sharp edges and note that the wheelie bins too are showing signs deforming and splitting.  Our old L.B.H. dustbin is near 55 years old and it and it's fibre rubber lid are still at my Mothers used as a storage in her yard.

Raymond Havelock ● 723d

Councillor Guy, my food waste bin is always returned on its side these days.  Must be how the team works across all the local streets.  The fluid is full of all manner of germs and attracts flies as it dries onto the other recycling containers.  I can’t get those boxes in my dish washer so I have to get the hose out.  A total pain during the hose pipe ban.I must say the teams work far more carefully without leaving a long trail of plastic and paper behind them, and we are always grateful that LBH keeps the collections going through Covid, bad weather and bank holidays…….

Sarah Felstead ● 724d

Thank you.  The problem is that there can be quite a bit of contaminated fluid which has leaked out of the recycling bags.  This in turn leaks out of the upturned waste bin, into the paper recycling box (or whichever box it is returned in).I have got the cleaning of the street bin off to a tee (open to others suggestions).  I swill the bottom of the bin with bleach and leave it a short while.  Then I throw that away and rinse the bleach out before taking out the top shelf of the dishwasher and placing it upside down on the bottom rack.  A quick wash (mine is a 35 min cycle) and it is sparkling.So, should you be keen to ask why I rinse the bleach out before putting it in the dishwasher?  The bleach has a foaming agent in it which, when mixed with the dishwasher soap, makes the most amazing amount of bleaching foam.  This fills the dishwasher and then leaks quite a distance from the machine, across the kitchen floor, doing what bleach does when it covers the kitchen floor.  If you try to soak up the foam, in a mad panic, with towelling hand towels, it bleaches these too.

Sarah Felstead ● 724d

The cleaning service is for the communal bins on estates where residents empty their 'personal' bins into a larger one for collection.I will talk to the ops manager and ask her about the problem you mention - I'm not sure what the policy is as I would expect household bins to be fairly clean because of using recyclable bags. Lampton 360 are always receptive to comments and will usually talk to operatives where there's a concern. I think I have a note of your address but I guess the problem applies to the whole street.

Guy Lambert ● 724d