For about a year, I let my green bin sit in the garage while my wife kept telling me to wash it because the smell and flies were getting into our home. But a contractor’s schedule and an empty bin that’s ready to be washed don’t always line up, so I got myself bin liners.
It seemed to be the smartest way to go, since I’ve washed a trash can for years and them getting nasty again was unavoidable. But with a bin liner it’s not.
With the smell issue solved, the conversation turned to the cost of large compost bin liners, the wastefulness and the environment. It quickly looked like I was not going to win that argument, so for peace of mind, I got busy looking for solutions.
Why I never called a cleaning service
I looked into one of those bin-washing services that swings by every few weeks with a pressure washer. Fine option if you’d rather pay someone else to deal with it. But even they say food waste bins get nasty; it’s natural. Bin liners, or regular washing, is the route they would go with if those are the options available. But a trash-can cleaning service is way more expensive than using a bin liner, which prevents dirt from sticking in the first place.
The fix was ridiculously simple
Turns out I wasn’t the only one in our HOA with the same garage issue. Everyone had their own version of the story: Their bins smell, washing them is unpleasant and a chore, large liners are expensive, and their Mrs complaints came back with the smell.
At a BBQ party, one neighbor brought up a unique solution he started using. It’s a trash can bag holder called BagEZ. It’s a frame that hooks to the rim of the bin, and the square-shaped center frame holds standard-sized bags open. The setup is basically: bag over the frame, clips lock the bag to it, and it’s placed into the bin. Food scraps go in, and now the wet yucky waste stays contained instead of spreading all over the bin.
So I got me a BagEZ holder, picked up a few compostable bags, and put it to work, and shocked to see how easily I got the same protection, if not better, as a bin liner. No change to our routine. Now it’s the Mrs who clips on the bag and does the whole cart thing.
All I do is on garbage collection day, I pull off the clips, knot the bag up so nothing can get out, and hang the frame up before putting my cart out for the truck.
Mistake 1: buying bags sized for the bin, not your kitchen scraps
After a couple of weeks, I compared this new fix to my old one, and quickly saw the difference. Large compostable liners that fit the entire cart because there was no other option. Now the reason I thought of that is that we throw out about 3-to 4, maybe 5, small 2-gallon bags of food waste from our kitchen caddy; that’s mostly peels, skin & bones per week. A small 13-gallon bag is more than sufficient for them, but it’s impossible to fit or stretch the smaller-sized bags, which are way cheaper, over the opening of the larger bin. Switching to a regular 13-gallon kitchen bag, the same kind I already buy for the regular trash, costs less per bag, and I’ve stopped paying for space I was never using in the first place.
In my region, diapers, pet poop, & grease are supposed to go into the trash, not into the green bin. So I got a BagEZ trash bag holder for my trash can too. I use plastic trash bags to keep these messy items separate from the other dry waste. It prevents these messy items from getting out when squashed and turning the waste into filth. It’s easier to keep a trash can clean by preventing filth from sticking to it, and it’s way cheaper than using a trash-can cleaning service on a schedule.
Cheap tricks to reduce odors, flies & pests
Flies and pests have a strong sense of smell. A clean bin is the primary deterrent. Animals do not want to waste time investigating a maybe; they go to where the smell is strongest.
Using this logic, BagEZ recommends that we follow a system to further reduce any odors that may attract animals or flies. They suggest placing an odor absorber on the trash can’s lid to capture odors emitted by freshly disposed-of food scraps inside the bag holder.
Sprinkling some baking soda goes a long way. It helps reduce odors and moisture. The powder is more effective, too, because it can cover more, as everything is in a small place, versus the same amount put into a wide-open, empty cart, and it’s basically wasted.
If you still notice flies around the bin, sprinkle some diatomaceous earth over the food waste, too. It works by drying out and killing any maggots crawling around in there.
Another tip is to spray an anti-bacterial spray on the lid and inside the bin to kill germs and old lingering odors.
And finally, they suggest using a cloth or pouch bag filled with cloves or mint leaves, which give off an odor that’s unpleasant to animals, as a final fix to reduce odors from bins stored inside the garage. Cut the smell, and there’s nothing drawing them across the yard in the first place.
Branded Bags & Precautionary measures.
If you’re paranoid about a compost bag springing a leak, or degrading and messing up the bin, add a layer of newspaper underneath to catch any drips. I’ve never actually needed it, but it’s a cheap enough safety net.
Most brands stand behind the quality of their products and are usually just a bit more expensive than the no-name, unbranded compostable bag to avoid unwanted bag splits or rips.
Everyone wins
Trash day doesn’t bother me anymore. No smell or flies fill up our garage. There are no odors hitting you in the face every time you lift the lid. There’s no sticky residue to wash out over and over again. And frankly, that’s all I care about. So if your green bin’s been driving you up the wall, you now have an easy, cost-effective solution.
You can see what the actual frame looks like at bagez.com, if you’re curious — it’s smaller and simpler than I expected.