Food waste is a major environmental, economic and ethical issue in the UK — and it’s one that we all have the power to help solve.
📊 The Food Waste Problem in the UK
Every year, millions of tonnes of edible food are thrown away across the UK:
-
The UK generates around 10 million tonnes of food waste annually – that’s around 115.7 kg of food wasted per person each year.
-
Households are the largest contributors, accounting for around 60% of total food waste.
-
Of this, most of the waste is edible food that could have been eaten — and it’s estimated that households alone throw away 6 million tonnes of food every year.
-
This waste isn’t just a missed meal — it’s a missed opportunity. UK households throw away food worth billions of pounds every year, and the greenhouse gases released from decomposing food contribute significantly to climate change.
Despite increased recycling and awareness, significant food waste still ends up in residual bins, meaning it’s incinerated or sent to landfill — the least sustainable outcome for both the planet and household budgets.
🌱 Small Changes Make a Big Difference
While reducing food waste at source (through meal planning, smarter grocery shopping and storage) is crucial, what we do with unavoidable food scraps matters too. Instead of binning kitchen leftovers — peels, cores, and other organic waste — we can turn them into something valuable: nutrient-rich soil for gardens and plants.
Here’s where bokashi systems and wormeries come in.
🌿 What Is Bokashi Composting?
Bokashi composting is an easy, space-saving way to ferment your kitchen food waste — including things that most composters can’t handle, like meat, dairy and cooked food.
Unlike traditional backyard composting, bokashi uses beneficial microbes to ferment waste in a sealed bucket, producing a pre-compost that can be buried in soil or added to a compost heap. It’s clean, odour-controlled and perfect for kitchen use.
The result?
✔ You divert food scraps from landfill
✔ You reduce methane emissions and waste collection costs
✔ You produce nutrient-rich compost that boosts soil health and plant growth
➡ Learn more about bokashi and how it works at wigglywigglers.co.uk.
🐛 Wormeries: Turning Scraps into Garden Gold
Wormeries are another brilliant way to recycle food waste at home. Red wigglers and composting worms feast on vegetable peelings, fruit scraps and other organic material, transforming it into worm castings — nature’s richest plant fertiliser.
Why choose a wormery?
-
They’re compact and ideal for gardens, patios or balconies
-
They improve soil structure and water retention
-
They produce castings that help your plants thrive naturally
Pairing bokashi with a wormery is a powerful one-two punch: bokashi can take all your kitchen scraps (especially tricky ones like dairy or cooked food), and worms can then finish the job by turning the fermented material into superb garden fertiliser.
🍃 Your Part in a Greener Future
Food waste doesn’t have to be an unavoidable part of life. With simple home systems like bokashi composters and wormeries, we can all turn what was once waste into something useful and beneficial for the planet.
If you’re ready to start reducing your food waste and enriching your garden soil the natural way, check out our range of bokashi kits, wormeries and composting solutions at 👉 wigglywigglers.co.uk.
