How To Stop Your Food Waste Bin Smelling
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Got a stinky food waste bin? Here’s how to stop your food waste bin from smelling for good using simple household ingredients you might already have in your cupboards.
Whether you have a compost bin in your garden, or you use your local council’s kerbside food waste collection service, composting your food waste is one of the best things you can do to help the environment.
After all, globally around a third of the food we produce is wasted, often ending up in landfill. In landfill, food gives off methane, a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at driving climate change. Anything we can do to reduce the food waste that goes to landfill makes a massive difference.
However, if your food waste bin smells bad in the summer, then worry not. You don’t need to give up composting. There are many natural ways to freshen your bin, leaving your kitchen a much more pleasant place to be, whilst still being able to compost your waste.
How To Stop Your Food Waste Bin Smelling
Here are my six top tips to be a composting champ, whilst still having a fresh-smelling kitchen. Use the quick links to jump to a specific section or keep scrolling for the full post:
- Keep your bin out of direct sunlight
- Clean it frequently
- Deodorise with bicarbonate of soda
- Scent with essential oils
- Empty frequently in summer
- Reduce your food waste further
Keep Your Bin Out Of Direct Sunlight
Keeping your kitchen caddy on your worktop may be convenient, but it does make your bin prone to bad smells. This is because if it normally sits near a sunny window, then the heat from the sunlight can speed up the decomposition process, and cause a bit of a stink.
If you can, place your caddy in a kitchen cupboard where it’s cooler and darker. Even if it’s just in the summer months. That helps to slow down the rate at which your food scraps break down, reducing odours.
If you don’t have space in a cupboard, try placing your bin in a shadier corner of your kitchen.
Clean It Frequently
Even if you line your caddy with a compostable bag, sometimes it can leak. Or the lid can get a bit grimy and contribute to the smell situation.
Once a week or so, I recommend giving it a good spray with white vinegar. This is because the acid in the vinegar helps remove any lingering bad smells. Then give the caddy a good scrub in warm water and washing-up liquid to remove any crusty bits of food. Your bin will smell as fresh as a daisy!
Deodorise With Bicarbonate Of Soda
One great cheap, easy and eco-friendly way to keep on top of bad smells is to try sprinkling a little bit of bicarbonate of soda in the bottom of your caddy.
Bicarbonate of soda is the bees-knees when it comes to tackling bad odours around your home. How it works is that the powder reacts with the acidic molecules responsible for bad odours, and neutralises them. In chemistry, it’s known as an acid-base reaction – in which neutralisation is almost always the outcome.
I keep bicarbonate of soda on hand for all kinds of cleaning and deodorising jobs (here’s my full guide to how to clean with bicarbonate of soda) as it’s simply unbeatable.
Plus, as bicarbonate of soda is food-safe, it is fine if a little goes in your compost bin when you empty your caddy. You just don’t want to add too much as it can disrupt the composting process.
Scent With Essential Oils
If you’d rather use something less messy, then try essential oils. The easiest way to do this is to pop an old rag at the bottom of the caddy (before you line it with your compostable bag) that is scented with a few drops of essential oil.
An old cotton t-shirt, towel or similar that would otherwise be headed to the bin is ideal. I’ve found that natural fabrics, such as cotton, hold a scent better than synthetic fibres so avoid anything polyester-based.
In terms of oils, I’ve found that something quite fresh and pungent, like rosemary, lemon, eucalyptus, mint, or tea tree essential oil works well to keep your bin naturally fresh. A few drops around once a week really help to knock bad odours on the head.
Do bear in mind that some essential oils (particularly undiluted oils) can be toxic to pets. So if your dog or cat can get into your food waste bin, or is prone to rifling through the contents of your bin, then give this tip a miss.
Empty Frequently In Summer
In the warmer months, I’ve also found that emptying my food waste bin every day – even if it’s not full – really helps to avoid bad odours in my kitchen. Particularly on those really hot days/nights – which aren’t too frequent here in Scotland – but do surprise us now and again!
Reduce Your Food Waste Further
Finally, some food waste is unavoidable and has to be composted. But for the stuff that is avoidable, then remember that composting food is great, but using up all your food before it reaches its use-by date is even better! Try writing a weekly meal plan and make a shopping list, so you only buy what you need, or check out my other top tips to reduce food waste.
If you have any more kitchen problems this summer then I can help. Here’s how to get rid of fruit flies naturally. And if you get your milk delivered, here’s how to keep your milk cool on your doorstep in summer
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What the heck is a ‘caddy’? Is it some middle-class thing? Or a 21st C thing? I come from the 20thC and have a pedal bin. I used to have a bin collection day. I still do, I guess, but they can’t be bothered to come and collect it anymore, so more stinky ‘recycling’ sitting about for longer. As for implying that I waste food! Supermarkets don’t sell small amounts suitable for one person and I can’t use up a kilo of carrots (one or two per week would do me) before they go off. I long for the days when you just put all your rubbish in one bin, which was then collected regularly and that was that. Now there are bags of ‘separated’ rubbish all over the kitchen floor and dozens of bins of various colours all gaping and stinking in the street which are only emptied once a month, if that. Got to love the 21st century.
Hi Jane, a caddy is a little bin for your kitchen for collecting food waste. I’m not implying anyone wastes food, but you can put tea leaves, coffee grounds, inedible fruit and veg peelings (e.g. banana or orange peel), strawberry tops, etc, in there and then either empty it into your outdoor compost bin, or the food waste bin for collection by your local council so that it can be turned into compost. Not a middle class thing – local councils give a kitchen caddy to every household to collect food waste. Some even provide the liners free of charge. I personally like that waste is separated now for better recycling, unlike in the 20th century, but each to their own!