These specialist and costly green food caddy liners are not required, I discovered.

For all the years since Vale’s food recycling service was introduced, we’ve all been following instructions and using these light green compostable food caddy liners.

As it turns out, we needn’t have. It seems they take too long to break down for the system that’s in use. So workers have spent years ‘de-bagging’ our food recycling at their depot.

Now we’re told we can use any plastic bag, or paper bag, or we can even chuck all the food in the caddy with no liner at all. Yuck.

So now that we know so much more about the impact of single use plastics on our planet, I don’t know what’s the most environmentally friendly choice. Without any expertise whatsoever, I’m inclined to think it’s the original, compostable green bags. After all, we know they DO break down. (Maybe in 3-4 days? From the info printed on the bag. Just not between your kerbside and the recycling centre. None of this is clear.)

Actually reading the info on the bag, for the first time ever, I see there’s a Use By date. Mine have gone over that. I wonder if that mean they’ve started to biodegrade in my kitchen drawer.

Life sometimes seems too complicated.