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Training your partner to use the kitchen compost bin

Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
in The potting shed
Any suggestions for how to train my husband to use the kitchen compost bin?  It's a simple rule.. if it's free from dairy or meat, put it in the compost.. cooked, fresh, or rotten.  Despite having it on the kitchen counter for the past 13 years of our marriage, he hasn't quite got the hang of it.  Should I give him treats for successful placements of apple cores?  Sticker sheet to track the number of times his orange skins make it in each week?  Onion skins or pepper middles?  Sometimes they go in the compost regularly.. but then other weeks it's the garbage.  I often sneak his egg shells or banana skins from the garbage can to the compost container.  SURELY after 13 years of this he would have this sorted out.  But no.  🤣

Am I the only one with this issue?  Anyone successfully train their housemates?  My young children have it sorted.  
Utah, USA.
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  • Mr. Vine EyeMr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394
    If I want something doing properly I do it myself!

    Only way with some things, although I have also found that training my boys works well because they delight in reminding us on how we should be doing things 😄
    East Yorkshire
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    We have government assistance! All household waste must be separated into grades of recycleability, including plant based matter. The binmen won't take mixed up stuff so you learn pretty quickly which bin to use.
  • PurpleRosePurpleRose Posts: 538
    Mine is trained. Took some doing 🤣🤣 If I spotted compost caddy stuff in the kitchen bin, I would ask him which bin the eg banana skin should be in. He would tell me. Then I would ask why it's in the wrong bin? I normally had the answer "I forgot." But he now forgets less and less. I think it's to stop me nagging 🤣🤣
  • WonkyWombleWonkyWomble Posts: 4,541
    I say take your wins where you can @Blue Onion
    After 20 years I still haven't trained mine to eat fruit voluntarily!
    But on the plus side,  custard cream and crisp wrappers don't need recycling so he has learnt how to dispose in the correct receptacle! 🤣
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I have the reverse problem.  It's "her indoors" who seems incapable of grasping the basics of recycling.  We have seperate containers for glass, paper and card, and 'other recyclables'.  I have to go through the containers every time before putting them out as she just seems to chuck anything into whichever box takes her fancy.
    I did have one problem, nothing to do with her, with the garden waste bin being left unemptied.  It had a label attached saying the contents were 'contaminated'.  The contaminant was soil!  The only soil was bits on the roots of plants removed from pots and tubs in the autumn.  I'd used the bin in the same way for years then get some jobsworth deciding they will change the rules!
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    New husband?
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    KT53 said:
    I have the reverse problem.  It's "her indoors" who seems incapable of grasping the basics of recycling.  We have seperate containers for glass, paper and card, and 'other recyclables'.  I have to go through the containers every time before putting them out as she just seems to chuck anything into whichever box takes her fancy.
    Same. I'm thinking of trying electro-shock training as nothing else is getting through :|  She composted her old credit card once after cutting it up into tiny pieces. I like to give the bits back to her every time one turns up while I'm digging about. I have to have some tolerance for baby brain or lack of sleep but there's only so many times you can repeat yourself before you start to wonder if you can compost entire humans...

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    wild edges said:
    KT53 said:
    I have the reverse problem.  It's "her indoors" who seems incapable of grasping the basics of recycling.  We have seperate containers for glass, paper and card, and 'other recyclables'.  I have to go through the containers every time before putting them out as she just seems to chuck anything into whichever box takes her fancy.
    ...... but there's only so many times you can repeat yourself before you start to wonder if you can compost entire humans...

    Pretty sure you can @wild edges

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Many moons ago I sorted small sharp knives which I use a lot into a counter top pot and a separate pot for the veg peeler, scissors, apple corer.   OH has got the hang of it now but after the first couple of weeks I did have to put a "KNIVES" and "NOT KNIVES" sticker on each pot.

    We now have 2 kitchen compost bins - one that's good for chooks and one that's not so citrus, coffee filters and grinds etc.   He's also in charge of emptying the main recycling bins which were all clearly labelled to start with.  It concentrates his mind as, round here, we have to take bottles, paper and cardboard to the recycling centre ourselves and we pay for anything that goes in the general waste bin.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • SuesynSuesyn Posts: 664
    I can't train my OH not to put fruit stones in the compost. So far I have discovered avocado and peach happily growing in a mature compost heap. (Yes, I probably should be using it a bit sooner!). 
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