Whole freezer contents spoiled, how to dispose?

[Adrian Caspersz]

Any creative ideas on where to get rid of a bulk lot of spoiled food?

Harrow Council will only freely collect 7 Litres a week, or 23 litres if
I buy a new bin at a cost of £78.

Council also have gone completely online - there is no one available to
talk to.

--
Adrian C

[Adrian Caspersz]

Ignore - found their complaints form :)

--
Adrian C

[GB]

On 14/11/2023 12:29, Adrian Caspersz wrote:

When our freezer packed up, I gave the contents away, as it had
defrosted but not yet spoiled.

[Clive Arthur]

When I left the door open on ours overnight, I chucked out the molten
homemade ice lollies which had been wrapped in paper and closed the
door. No-one noticed or died.

--
Cheers
Clive

[The Natural Philosopher]

+1. Its more of the fucking stupid 'precautionary principal BS that is
held to be 'good practice' these days. A freezer will take days to
defrost off power

--
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
wrong.

H.L.Mencken

[GB]

On 14/11/2023 14:20, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 14/11/2023 13:57, Clive Arthur wrote:
>> On 14/11/2023 13:09, GB wrote:
>>> On 14/11/2023 12:29, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
>>>> Any creative ideas on where to get rid of a bulk lot of spoiled food?
>>>>
>>>> Harrow Council will only freely collect 7 Litres a week, or 23
>>>> litres if I buy a new bin at a cost of £78.
>>>>
>>>> Council also have gone completely online - there is no one available
>>>> to talk to.
>>>>
>>>
>>> When our freezer packed up, I gave the contents away, as it had
>>> defrosted but not yet spoiled.
>>
>> When I left the door open on ours overnight, I chucked out the molten
>> homemade ice lollies which had been wrapped in paper and closed the
>> door.  No-one noticed or died.
>>
> +1. Its more of the fucking stupid 'precautionary principal BS that is
> held to be 'good practice' these days.  A freezer will take days to
> defrost off power
>

The thermostat on ours had gone, and it took a week to get the
replacement. So, we couldn't just refreeze everything.

Anyway, we made some people happy!

[SteveW]

Don't hold your breath. In the first half of September our
cardboard/paper recycling bin was not collected "due to having tissue
paper in it". The ban on tissue paper is purely due to infection risk
and there was clearly no risk, as these were simply the last couple of
sheets that were still glued to empty toilet roll tubes.

There is no contact other than online with the waste collection company
and (as their FAQ stated would happen) any complaint was summararily
rejected automatically, as the bin had been tagged.

I spoke to someone at the council, who agreed that the bin should not
have been tagged at all for the end of toilet rolls and advised me to
raise an official complaint - I am still waiting for a reply.

Other complaints that I have raised (well, the same one twice) are about
them turning the local football pitches through 90°, so every missed
shot at goal comes straight out onto the main road! The second complaint
was prompted when a ball had already crossed the road onto land on the
other side before I arrived and I had to do an emergency stop when a
player, carrying the ball, ran out from behind a tree, right in front of
me. Again, I have received no reply to either of those complaints.

[Peter Able]

I would have wired out the dud thermostat and plugged the freezer into a
24h timer.

PA

[Adrian Caspersz]

It's great, in'it.

Society is going to hell in a handcart and the AI thing has not even
started on us. Harrow have answered (well, the webmaster), no collection
possible other than in their prescribed bins.

I have to drive the whole festering lot in the back of the car, in
bio-degradable bags after me removing plastic wrappings and throwing up
several times no doubt - then take the car to a valet company to get rid
of the smell.... yeah, it's well gone past state of edible.

Years ago they sent out 7L bins specifically for food, but now are
enforcing their use, so they can apparently burn the scraps to produce
power. Because some transient people round here are confused and upset
by the separation rules, I'm suddenly seeing random black bin bags
dumped into my bin.

In other news, Council workers wonder why fly-tipping is on the increase.

--
Adrian C

[Theo]

Adrian Caspersz <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
> Society is going to hell in a handcart and the AI thing has not even
> started on us. Harrow have answered (well, the webmaster), no collection
> possible other than in their prescribed bins.
>
> I have to drive the whole festering lot in the back of the car, in
> bio-degradable bags after me removing plastic wrappings and throwing up
> several times no doubt - then take the car to a valet company to get rid
> of the smell.... yeah, it's well gone past state of edible.
>
> Years ago they sent out 7L bins specifically for food, but now are
> enforcing their use, so they can apparently burn the scraps to produce
> power. Because some transient people round here are confused and upset
> by the separation rules, I'm suddenly seeing random black bin bags
> dumped into my bin.

Are you overthinking this? There appears to be a 'general waste bin':
https://www.harrow.gov.uk/greengreybin

Can't you put the lot in there, wrappers and all? Stick it a black bin bag
tied up if you like.

The council won't take it outside the normal waste stream (the small caddy
and your existing bins), so if it won't fit in the caddy then the fallback
is the 'general waste' bin.

After all, you can argue it's not sanitary to dispose of it another way,
similar to dog poo.

Yes it'll go to landfill and won't get composted (apart from in the
landfill), but your quantity is small in the grand scheme of things - it's
not like you do this every week. Compared to the volume of green waste
generated by mowing a lawn, it's insignificant.

Theo

[RJH]

I had thought that - but perhaps the OP's bin collectors check bin contents,
and if they found food waste they'd refuse to take it? I know our lot have
done that with me when I've put the odd bit of green waste in my black bin.

--
Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

[Robin]

In E&W at least they cannot refuse to take ordinary food waste. Separate
collection of it is not compulsory. Garden waste is different.

Come to think of it, so are dead pets so might be scope for argument if
the freezer held a lot of guinea pigs.


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

On 15/11/2023 03:30, RJH wrote:

> I had thought that - but perhaps the OP's bin collectors check bin contents,
> and if they found food waste they'd refuse to take it? I know our lot have
> done that with me when I've put the odd bit of green waste in my black bin.

If you want to dispose of anything, where they might object if the spot
it - just put it in the wheelie bin first, at the bottom, so it is well
buried under the legitamate contents. They only ever look at what's in
the top of the bin.

[Nick Odell]

On Tue, 14 Nov 2023 13:09:33 +0000, GB <NOTso...@microsoft.invalid>
wrote:

+1

I quickly worked out that the value of the contents was far lower than
the cost of an emergency 24-hour call-out so I gave the meat etc to my
neighbours and stayed up all night cooking, bottling and otherwise
preserving the fruit and veg.

Nick

[brian]

In message <uj0c2g$1apu7$1...@dont-email.me>, Peter Able <st...@home.com>
writes

Haha. I ran my fridge like that for a year. I adjusted the on/off duty
cycle to get the temperature correct.

Brian


--
Brian Howie

[Peter Able]

Yes. I'm running our larder fridge on a 8:00 to 10:30 morning and
evening cycle. I'll get around to refurbing the thermostat when I've
time to spare.

Real d-i-y ;>}

PA

[Andrew]

On 14/11/2023 14:38, GB wrote:

You could have bypassed the stat with a short length of
cable, and to avoid running the motor 24/7 use one of those
plug in 24 hour timers (*).

15 minutes on every hour should have
been ok. After a week the timer microswitch will probably be
knackered but they are cheap disposable items, much cheaper
thatn the value of the freezer contents.

(*) The Smiths electronic version is better because I assume it
has the logic to switch on/off at the wave form crossing point
when the volts are zero.

[Robin]

On 19/11/2023 10:12, Andrew wrote:

>
> You could have bypassed the stat with a short length of
> cable, and to avoid running the motor 24/7 use one of those
> plug in 24 hour timers (*).
>

I've yet to find how to do the equivalent if it uses an NTC thermistor
and a control board. Not inclined to strip it to play while still under
warranty.

[NY]

On 19/11/2023 10:12, Andrew wrote:

>> The thermostat on ours had gone, and it took a week to get the
>> replacement. So, we couldn't just refreeze everything.
>>
>> Anyway, we made some people happy!
>>
>
> You could have bypassed the stat with a short length of
> cable, and to avoid running the motor 24/7 use one of those
> plug in 24 hour timers (*).
>
> 15 minutes on every hour should have
> been ok. After a week the timer microswitch will probably be
> knackered but they are cheap disposable items, much cheaper
> thatn the value of the freezer contents.

When our freezer failed, it failed "on": the motor was running
continuously because the contents were never getting down to the
temperature that turned the thermostat off.

I first noticed it because we have an energy-monitoring smart plug on
the freezer in the garage (*) and I was checking the graph to make sure
there was the normal pattern of on and off cycles during the day -
easier than going out to the garage with a thermometer. And I noticed an
abnormal pattern.

That was a broken weld in the coolant pipe, so the coolant had all
leaked out. Still under warranty so the freezer was replaced free of
charge. Took ages to get the company to come out to investigate, and the
first guy diagnosed a circuit board failure and ordered that, and when
another guy came to fit it, he said "No, it's a broken pipe - can't do
anything about it other than order you a replacement freezer and someone
(different) to collect the broken one." I did ask the first guy "Could
it be a loss of coolant and he assured me that it wasn't..."

The problem with some modern freezers is that the digital display only
shows the desired temperature, and not the actual temperature, so you
can't look at the display to see from outside whether the temp is
getting too high. And sod's law: the temp never got so warm that it
triggered the alarm on the freezer.


(*) Yes, it was a Beko freezer which is rated down to a few degrees
below zero - not one of these stupid freezers where you have to keep the
room warm in order for the freezer to get sufficiently cold.