No matter how creatively and efficiently we try to put all food produced to good use, there’s always some surplus which is no longer fit for consumption. Luckily, we can still put it to excellent use by creating compost! An essential element to producing healthy soils to grow food and plants in, producing compost with surplus food gives food waste an opportunity to create new life, and therefore create a ‘closed loop’ food system in which everything serves a purpose and nothing is wasted. 

 

By enabling our communities to create their own compost, we want to encourage and empower local gardening and food production. As well as creating more pleasant environments within which to live, gardening creates opportunities for people to socialise, get active outdoors and even start producing some of their own food! The benefits to people’s mental and physical health are clear, particularly for the elderly in our community. By introducing composting to schools we’re also getting our young people to think about the impact of the food cycle and giving them the power to take action directly through compost production and gardening. 

 

Furthermore, studies have shown that nearly 50% of all the food thrown away in UK bins could in fact be composted, rather than ending up incinerated, so by composting rather than burning we’re also  preventing harmful emissions from entering the atmosphere, and taking out smelly food waste from our rubbish bins.