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We've just had notification that we are now not permitted to add kitchen scraps to our allotment bins.Someone apparently reported seeing a rat on the lottie site.We have two plastic bin type compost bins which are partly submerged in the soil.Ok so how does this work?No kitchen scraps allowed,but we ARE allowed to add waste veg/foliage from the plots.Not to mention rats have also apparently nibbled the tops of veg (carrots etc)that are still in the ground?So we don't take kitchen scraps to the lotties?The rats are still going to eat off the plots?Jeez any more rules added to our site and I think I'll tell them where to shove it haha

Rats will eat anything that's left around even if it's vegetables. The rats won't come just for kitchen scraps. We have pigeon lofts on our allotments as well as hen keepers. They run bait boxes as the rats will eat their pigeon and poultry food.

I suspect that you have other attractions for rats that will come from fields and houses to forage. To keep the sites clear tell your rule makers you need bait boxes and ask to have them installed as soon as possible.

Thanks Flo,I could suggest the bait boxes but I expect the council will deem them a health and safety matter!We don't have room in our back garden for a compost bin either so it now looks like my daily veg/fruit scraps will be going to landfill.Our council have just announced that they will be charging for the green wheelie bins to be emptied from June this year! £40 per bin?????? We're getting rid of ours just on principle!

Contact your environmental officer who will declare your rats a health and safety hazard.

If one door won't open, kick another down is my motto!

First of all, they should define kitchen scraps. Mine are almost 100% fruit and veg peel, leftovers etc... So - if I eat an apple in the garden, the core is not kitchen scrap, but if I eat it at home it is? That would not make sense! I could understand if they say "no meat, no bones etc"...

Same problem here with the garden waste bins when they say no kitchen scraps. So if you sit in the garden to peel potatoes, shell peas, chop up cabbage then the waste is garden waste and otherwise, if done in the kitchen?

The best strategy is to put some wire mesh under the bins. This will allow the worms in but prevent anything bigger. Second the comment about no meat and bones.

one word - bokashi

I've been thinking that too, dnd, but I'm not sure it gets over the original problem - I'm guessing that even fermented kitchen scraps will be banned. So unless hh has a garden to use them in her em fermented scraps may still have to go in the bin.

from what I understand, you can add the ferment straight into the soil, so you can just dig a hole, bury they stuff and then it can add to the soil and bypass the bin completely, and it is supposed not to be attractive to rats once it has gone through the fermentation.

Absolutely. My concern is whether the allotment powers that be would see it that way, that's my point. Unless they're fully conversant with how bokashi works they will continue to blame the kitchen scraps for the problem.

It would be worth checking out if they'd allow it before setting it up - it can be quite expensive. It seems ridiculous that perfectly good composting materials are going to landfill though.

The world has gone bonkers, we had some guff from the waste people to say you can't put coffee grounds into the compost bin and they have to go into the special bucket to be taken away by them. Why?? I don't know, hordes of rats hyped up looking for a caffeine fix?

Is someone buying it from them for mushroom farming? Quite the big thing at the moment.

diggernotdreamer wrote:The world has gone bonkers, we had some guff from the waste people to say you can't put coffee grounds into the compost bin and they have to go into the special bucket to be taken away by them. Why?? I don't know, hordes of rats hyped up looking for a caffeine fix?

Unless they start giving valid reasons for their strange demands, I'd just refuse... Don't they realise that if they make up these weird rules people will just stop using separate collections, and it will all go back into the "normal" bin?

From last year we have been told not to put kitchen waste in our garden waste bin ,not that it really effected us as most of our waste went into our own compost bin. The council's reason was that removing kitchen waste allowed the garden waste to be open air composted rather than having to have it heat treated to kill off potentially harmful bacteria. Reducing their rat problem was also mentioned. Strange thing in my eyes though was that we were told that home composting was still ok so presumably it doesn't matter if our own compost is full of nasties. Food waste is now to be put in the general waste bin which goes for incineration which generates electricity. Oddly though sawdust shouldn't go in either bin we have been told.