Kitchen Garden Forum

When I was younger I remember that every communal kitchen, eg school, army, care homes, etc had a 'pig bin' where all the leftovers were chucked. I expect commercial kitchens had these too. Then every day, or whatever, the 'pig man' would come along and collect the stuff.

I'm not sure that this still happens. Is it illegal for some reason to feed waste to pigs in this way?

The reason I ask is... loooong story.. after being evacuated from Ukraine because of the Russian invasion... some of our belongings, including food, are only catching up with us now. Yeah, I know there's a war on but there was a lot of incompetence going on too. Enough said.

Anyway, what's happened is that we've now received several boxes of food among our other possessions. Some of it is surprisingly OK even though it's maybe a wee bit past its date. But some of it isn't really fit for human consumption.

For example:
stale flour and other dried good such as pulses
out of date tins of kidney beans, etc
biscuits
tea, coffee, chocolate
fancy cooking stuff (I was doing an online cookery course for fun)

You know, all the kind of stuff you might expect to find in a well-stocked pantry.

I'm assuming that some baking items, eg instant yeast, baking powder, etc might interfere with any animal's digestive process so I've not included these in the large box of spoiled food. But what can I do with them? I know that bicarb of soda has several domestic applications.

My question is basically, should I take the stuff to a local pig farmer and ask if s/he wants it or should I just throw the stuff in the recycling bin, or what? Might there be any other use for the items? So far I've filled a box about the size of a washing maching so it's not as though it's just a case of a packet of biscuits and a couple of tins.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks.

Hello Stravaig.Your food items will have to be binned.Farmers are not allowed to make or feed Pig Swill from kichen or commercial food waste since the EU and UK banned the practice after an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in 2001.

Thanks, Snooky. That's what I thought as I've not seen or heard of a 'Pig Bin' for donkey's years.

I'm still reluctant to chuck stuff in the bin, though. I wonder if birds/squirrels, etc might eat crushed up biscuits - as long as I check they're not overloaded with salt, sugar, fat. Hmm. We have a parliament of rooks (great collective noun!) and some seagulls. I like the rooks but I'm not sure about encouraging seagulls.

Maybe some of the stuff could be used to start a compost heap. We haven't got one as our front 'garden' is a car parking area (the previous owners ran a small business from the house). We have a small green up the back, though...

I could maybe build a scarecrow or tin man ornament out of the tins. I am quite determined to do better than just bin stuff.

Never had anything to do with one but
"Bokashi bins can process almost all food waste, including cooked food, meat, fish, dairy, bread, and small bones, which are often not suitable for traditional compost. The anaerobic, fermented system breaks down vegetable scraps, fruit peelings, coffee grounds, and pet waste when combined with bokashi bran."

Thanks, Geoff

I've never heard of a bokashi bin before. There's a good explanation here about the what, why and how of them
https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-inspirati ... ng/bokashi

I checked out a famous online retailer and you can get 2 x 20 litre bins for about £55. And bokashi bran is about £10 per kilo. Why they sell them in pairs I don't know.

It kinda goes against the grain to spend money to throw things away... I'll look into the idea a bit more and see if we might benefit more than it costs us.

Does anyone here use these?