During this Summer , which has been so busy, I had an unpleasant visit from maggots in my Green Waste Bin.  This bin is for Kitchen and Garden waste. My local Authority has a Website on which it says “You can recycle most kitchen waste, including: meat, fish, fruit,  vegetables, cheese, eggs, bread, pastries, uneaten food from plates,tea bags and coffee grounds.  So I do put all those items in plus garden waste, which basically consists of  weeds, some grass and leaves. In other words a good mixture! In the heat the food, if it has had flies near it, tends to encourage maggots! This particular week the heat was intense and I had left some food out by mistake including some raw beef. Naturally all went into the bin.

 When I returned home on the day of bin collection I discovered it had not been collected. My conversation with the council was that they found a contaminant in it. “I know there are maggots” I said. No, I was informed that it was not the maggots but something else I had put in. So I explained the above had been put in. “Oh no you must NOT put raw meat in, that will contaminate the bin.  No No, you cannot put raw meat in.” Slightly confused I suggested that it would be wrong to put Steak Tartar in then? “Oh yes you can, that is different if it comes off the plate.”  I just thought there is little point in arguing. 

I was then informed that the lorries were equipped with  sophisticated technology to detect what was going onto the lorry.  “So where do I put raw meat?”  The reply came quick and sharp “In your black bin. You can put anything into your Black Bin.”

Just a minute! I thought the whole idea was to separate the wet waste from landfill. Who am I to argue?

The next day I called the Local Authority again. This time I asked why they indicate, on their website, that all food waste, except red meat bones, should go into the Green Bin?  “That is correct.  All food waste goes into the Green Bin”   came the reply. I then give details of  the conversation I had had the day before. “Of course raw meat can go in”.  “But I was told  the Waste Technician had detected contamination. What could it be? ” We went through everything and finally came up with the fact that perhaps a dog poo had been thrown in by mistake. That was it!  I then said that I was very impressed with their sophisticated technology to detect that. ” What do you mean? We don’t have any technology to detect anything” she said. By this time I was totally confused. No matter. There was no way they were going to empty my bin. The only way I could deal with it was to burn the whole content of the last two weeks! The smell was horrendous!! I found no evidence of dog poos but hey ho I could not be certain about that.

So what should I do with my dog poos? Well this made me laugh! She told me about a product, which I had introduced to this country from Canada in 1990!! Sadly through it I lost a fortune! Local authorities failed to encourage people to use any form of segregation of food waste at that time! This product took all food waste including dog poos! It worked so well and did not need collecting. But the decision makers were not interested!

On my walks I have asked where the dog owners put their dogs’ poos. Some say the Green Bin others say Black Bin and some say down the drain in the street!

The question I have is that if it is imperative that animal faeces do not enter the composting material in Green Bins. How is it that so many people are still putting it in and are not being detected? It just does not make sense! I am convinced it was the awful maggots that frightened the bin people! Nothing to do with segregation of waste!