I save all my peelings etc and put them in Waitrose's home-compostable bags. I usually rip the bag then just drop it into the bin. After about a year there's almost nothing left of the bag.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I must be doing something wrong as my compost looks great but I'm sieving out bags where you can still read "Waitrose home compostable" on the side. I chuck them into the other bin to have another year feeding the worms so hopefully they'll break down eventually.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I put the bags from Peter Nyssen in mine - they use them for their bulbs. I think they're potato starch or similar. I didn't expect them to compost fully, and while I have found bits, the majority seem to have broken down well enough.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
When I emptied the compost bin which I put my kitchen waste in I got to the bottom and thought why are all of these plastic bags in here then realising that they were Lidl compostable bags still containing kitchen waste which went into the bin 12 months ago, they looked exactly the same as when they had gone to the bin, maybe the bin wasn't hot, maybe they need longer than 12 months to rot but I won't bother composting these bags again.
We are encouraged to turn the compost heap regularly. I've not had a problem with these bags, nor with the compostable chips that look like expanded polystyrene - but isn't.
I mix it with garden refuse, and shredded paper. It works for me.
I would have thought that after 12 months they would have shown some sign of decay even without turning but if the lidl bags decompose for you I guess that it is something that I am doing wrong.
You aren't necessarily doing anything wrong @barry island. The breakdown of compost can vary a fair bit depending on where you are, and what you have in the bins, and where they're sited etc. If some bits and pieces are still there when you start using it, and you notice them, you can always pull them apart, or cut them up a bit, and chuck them back in, or into a newer pile/bin if you have two. Slower, colder breakdown of compost is considered better anyway.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I put compostable bags in the council-collected kitchen waste bins (along with uneaten cat food). They don't compost down in the temperatures achieved in my compost bins.
They don't compost for me either (or at least, not in the same timescale as everything else. I do compost brown cardboard and non-glossy paper though - those rot down fine and are particularly useful at this time of year when most of the garden waste is soft green stuff.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I think that's the problem @REMF33 - there seems to be a lot of variation in the materials used in these bags. The only things I use are those PN bulb bags, but in the past, when we had a little basket thingy the council provided for kitchen waste, rather than the full sized bins, they had little bags to line the basket. They were supposed to be compostable - but they really weren't. I always put those in the council waste, and once I got my compost bin in place, I tried them but they were no use, as you say.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi @Fairygirl it wasn't a case of bits and pieces of plastic bags it was the fact that the bags didn't look any different to when they went into the bin.
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I usually rip the bag then just drop it into the bin.
After about a year there's almost nothing left of the bag.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I mix it with garden refuse, and shredded paper. It works for me.
Slower, colder breakdown of compost is considered better anyway.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...