So we don't have a separate food waste collection.
We do have a little food waste caddy which we use to collect our food waste, veg peelings, fat, chicken bones etc.
We have a 12kw wood burner in the front room that was running at full heat last night, so I dropped the paper bag from the caddy on the fire. It burned very strongly and produced a fair bit of extra heat.
There is nothing left apart from ashes this morning.
Am I killing the planet/myself/my neighbours? Or is it getting energy from waste that would be going to landfill?
Well my food waste caddy goes in our brown bin with grass cuttings and the like and supposedly goes to compost somewhere (if you can believe the local council) so in theory rots down and puts nutrients back into the earth somewhere, but produces methane which is 4x more potent greenhouse gas than CO2...but apparently produce alot less methane than burning produces CO2, so probably better to compost.
Well my food waste caddy goes in our brown bin with grass cuttings and the like
so probably better to compost.
We don't have a brown bin, don't really have a "garden" as such, so have no way of getting rid by composting.
I'm not particularly eco but Mrs BigJohn is a keen gardener (we're pretty self sufficient for veg 8 months of the year) so all veg waste and coffee grounds go in the compost and any bones get made into stock and frozen to make sauces for Saturday night dinner.
Get a wormery?
JeZ
It's already unlikely to end up in landfill and will probably be incinerated. The incinerator will burn more cleanly, recover more energy and probably remove more of the nasty gases than your wood burner will, either way you'll be putting most of the carbon straight into the air, composting will release less gas overall although more CH4 which may offset the reduce bulk carbon release.
If it does end up in landfill the methane will be captured and burnt on site so it will be released as CO2 rather than methane. Some of the bigger sites turn this into power, usually to power the gas reclamation equipment on site.
Peelings, skins, veg, bones etc all make stock.
Won't it be very wet? I'd imagine it could have a negative effect on your flue over time.
A lot of veg (carrots for example) are nearly 90% water by weight.
Also if you're in a smoke controlled area "assorted kitchen shite" is not an authorised fuel so I guess you'd be breaking the law.
Peelings, etc. on the compost. Bones, etc, out for the cats/foxes (?) (after making broth). They seem to disappear.
Compost it.
Burning food waste is bad air quality wise and will cost you more in getting your sooted up flue cleaned.
Couple of things
When you make stock you’re still left with the “peelings and bones”
Bones, etc, out for the RATS (?) (after making broth). They seem to disappear.
What do you all do with your compost when it's ready to be used?
Bearing in mind we don't all have flower beds or veg beds
I just put mine into dog poo bags, and then hang them from a tree on one of my local country walks.
Isn't that what everyone does?
I am not sure I can jump my fence on a motorbike though bru keep
Unless you hate cats and foxes please don't put the bones out for them. Particularly chicken bones when cooked shatter and can seriously harm animals. My cat came in gagging once i pinned him down and extracted a chicken bone from the back of his throat.
