This thread reminded me of something I’ve wanted to ask. I put major food waste in the freezer until trash day. (I don’t have a disposal.) It keeps the smell out of the house and eliminates the critter attraction. I picked up the habit from my folks, who lived in the semi-country.
By “major” I mean bones from meat cooked whole (I crockpot a lot), veggies from making stock, and bulk trimmings on market days. I’m also single, so it’s a pretty small volume. In fact, between this and recycling, I only use two bathroom-can-sized bags per week.
We live in the sticks, and I take the trash to a transfer station every two weeks or so. In between, we keep it in our shed. The only problem there is bears. They ripped the door off two or three times. I find that crushed up mothballs on the steps in front of the shed discourages them. Especially if they get a snoot full.
At my house, the chickens get first dibs on anything edible (this includes any meat products–beef, chicken, tuna salad that is past my comfort level to eat it). If it’s a no-go for the chickens (moldy, no clue what it is in the back of my fridge, etc), then it goes into the compost bin. For stuff that can’t go into the compost (bones, fat), it then goes into the outside trashcan with a tight lid. Trash pick up is once a week, twice in the summer.
The rest gets bagged every couple days and taken to the dumpster outside. If it’s something potentially really objectionable (like fish) I keep it in the fridge in a closed container until just before I tie off the garbage bag and take it outside.
I save empty plastic bags like bread bags, tortilla chip bags, resealable sliced cheese bags, etc.
I put stuff likely to turn stinky (including the stuff that accumulates in the sink strainer) in the bags. When I open the bag to add more stuff and it smells really bad I roll the top of the bag closed and staple it with a stapler I keep in the drawer by the sink. Then it goes in the trash can in the garage.
I don’t do it with food waste I make while cooking but I do it with leftovers that have gone a little too long in the fridge. I hate opening ripe Tupperware containers and having the smell smack me in the face. After a couple of hours in the freezer that rotten soup or salad will pop out like a giant ice cube with none of the smell.
I have a small container of stew that was forgotten in the back of the fridge last month, I’m going to give it the ice-cube treatment when I’m next ready to take out the garbage.
I live in the country, too, and having dogs, pigs and chickens (usually, none at the moment owing to a recent skunk-in-the-hen house situation), there is little waste here. Vegetable/fish scraps go to pigs and chickens; meat scraps become dog food. I compost what can’t be fed to the animals. But I do freeze smelly packaging until I haul trash (about every 6 months) because of bears. Don’t need the headaches that bears bring.
My trash hauling every 6 months consists of one regular-sized can of actual trash and 4 cans of recycling (plastics, glass, cardboard and aluminum/tin).