How to dispose of contents of a dead freezer?

[NickP]

Returned home last night from 3 weeks away to a putrid smell in the garage. Looks & smells like our old old chest freezer has gone the way of all things. Fan still working but the exterior is warm to the touch. I haven't dared lift the lid yet. It's a fairly large & old freezer (external dimensions approx. 2x1x1m). Don't know the capacity but I do know it is filled to the brim with mainly fish, some meat and veggies.

My garage is otherwise fairly clear with the exception of gardening tools and DIY bits and pieces. No signs of any dead creatures, and I have looked.

So it looks like I am facing the prospect of disposing of say .75 cu.m. of very smelly stuff.

Any ideas please? I don't think the binmen will welcome it even if well bagged in bin liners, and they collect on Fridays hereabouts.

Thanks

Nick P

[Michael Mcneil]

Bastard trench your veggie plot for potatoes or buy half a dozen point of lay pullets and shallow bury their first few weeks feed in the lawn.

[TonyK]

Double bag it, ties the tops tight and hose off the bags afterwards to get rid of any splashes. Just do this the day before they collect.

Not a nice job but its only rotting fish or meat, unless you eat it it won't hurt you. Wear some old gloves and make sure you wash properly afterwards to get rid if the stink.

:-O

[Stuart]

I had a similar problem a few weeks ago.Not a pleasnat sight when i opened the freezer but just bit the bullet and bagged it then took it to the local tip and put it in the skip.

might your House Contents cover you for freezer failures ,in which case you might need to keep the evidence or at least detail what was in the freezer . Stuart

[Derek ^]

We had a small cheap chest freezer in the kitchen which was infrequently opened it contained 2 large turkeys (Free from ASDA) sundry frozen food and lots of ice lollies. We started to notice a faint off smell in the kitchen that we couldn't track down. Eventually we got closer, and moving a pile of towels on the lid cracked it open

3-4 mm. The most awful, rancid, putrid smell of stinking carrion and fermenting orange juice (from the lollies) filled the kitchen.

Any handling was out of the question. I went down to B&Q and bought a garden incinerator and a bag of logs, the turkeys I extracted with a garden fork, the other stuff I shovelled out with a spade, and burnt the lot over about 6 hours. Surprisingly the turkeys burnt very well and nothing remained.

(snip)

Phone the council and ask them what to do, officially it should be burnt in an incinerator and not included in landfill. You might find it's not accepted at a "recycling station" and you could be stuck with it in the back of the car...

DG

[shaun]

When we got rid of our old freezer we defrosted it before arranging for the council to collect it. Unfortunately I missed 3 prawns hanging around in the back of one of the drawers. Two weeks hence I had to move the thing and opened the door - I don't think I could describe the smell.....

[David Hearn]

Fridge unplugged in wife's student house during 4 week Easter holiday. No one around, hence unplugging to save electricity etc. Door left open to avoid smells etc. Person emptying fridge missed the 3 sausages on a plate.

Wife (not at the time) returns to house with me after Easter, opens door to find weird smell. After looking (smelling?) around, discover source of smell, and source of large number of flies. Upon closer looking, find maggots crawling in stairs carpet down from kitchen to front door. More maggots found inside and behind fridge.

Landlord refused to replace carpet or fridge... Our time was spent cleaning carpets and fridge multiple times.

Student who left sausages was not the flavour of the month I can tell you! She also was the last of the 4 house mates to arrive back...

D

[Andrew Gabriel]

Almost identical experience in a shared house, and was also sausages. Fridge was emptied, turned off, and door left open. One occupant came back for some reason, presumably bought a packet of sausages and put the unused ones in the fridge and shut the door. Arrived back to find they had got out of the fridge all by themselves, by liquifying and creeping out through the door seal. Would never have guessed they had been sausages at all except for the wrapper. We cleaned up the floor, but the fridge was left for the culprit to clean out. Not nice...

[James Salisbury]

A vist to

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