The average person in the UK produces over 1kg of waste every day and a significant amount of that waste is compostable. During this pandemic we have all watched with concern the challenges with school meals and food bank supplies and many of us wonder what we can do to help that is sustainable.

Our wastage figures in the UK are improving year on year which is brilliant, - but we still waste 4.5 tonnes of food a year that could have been eaten! That’s worth a whopping £14bn – and this amounts to £700 for an average family with children! This means we all have a part to play ourselves in the food issues that have come to the fore in 2020.

This waste equates to roughly 10bn edible meals (!) - so imagine the difference we can all start to make by wasting less food. It’s not just about the meals and the money - much of the waste we do produce ends up in landfill, and the organic material in landfill is a major source of methane, which is a greenhouse gas 20 times more active than CFC’s in causing global warming.

So, we all have a part to play and this is one of the biggest things we can do for our environment. By wasting less food we can help tackle two huge challenges: feeding the world and looking after our planet.

Composting has a huge role to play in wasting less food, avoiding organic waste going into landfill and making a useful product out of peelings, and food waste. Making our own compost is a great alternative to peat which in turn helps to prevent damage to peat bogs which are a vital home to a wide range of wildlife.

And, all this is before we think about the madness is us throwing away our vegetable peelings and organic waste to have it transported to landfill or a green waste facility at the same time that we travel to a garden centre to buy a boot full of compost in plastic bags to help our garden and house plants!

What sort of composting is best?
If you intend composting your kitchen waste the method needs to be contained to avoid pests and vermin. We recommend a mix of worm composting https://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/collections/worm-composting and bokashi https://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/collections/bokashi-organico-kits

Using these two methods together means that between them you will have the very best compost on the planet “Black Gold” from your wormery and free liquid feed for life from both types of composting and with your Bokashi it is the simplest easiest method we have found – AND it can deal with gluts of waste as and when you have them. Neither method needs too much space and if you start today you can produce liquid feed and compost in the next few weeks and months just from the kitchen scraps you produce. And with anything once you become more aware of the waste you actually produce you will look to aim to reduce your waste each and every day which can only be a good thing for you, for others and for the planet.