Kompost Girl

Countryfile - Food Waste in the UK - 22 Aug 2011

2011-08-22T21:00:00.011+01:00

Ever wondered what happens to your recycling?

2011-05-24T11:09:00.001+01:00

MRF - Materials Recovery Facility

Ever wondered what happens to your recycling? Watch this awesome animation to get an idea of what happens within a MRF and beyond:

RecycleBank MRF Animation

PS: Although this is aimed at our American cousins the process works very similar in the UK - Single Stream Recycling is called Co-Mingled Recycling or Dry Mixed Recycling in the UK and aluminum is aluminium.

Master Composter & Master Gardener Conference 2011

2011-05-18T20:36:00.002+01:00

Follow this link to read about my adventures at the Master Composter & Master Gardener Conference 2011.

Henley Business School - Worming Their Way Out Of Waste

2011-02-14T15:18:00.016Z

Henley Business School - Worming Their Way Out Of Waste

Henley Business School, University of Reading (Greenlands Campus) is taking new strides along its path to become one of the UK's greenest venues. Since achieving BS ISO 14001 for Environmental Management in 2010, Greenlands has gone on to implement numerous systems to continue to improve its sustainability credentials.

Segregating waste for recycling has been common practice on the Estate for several years but the team has now gone one step further to divert many tonnes of waste away from landfill, by harnessing the power of the mighty worm!

Working alongside Gwen Powell, ACIWM & Master Composter from Kompost (www.kompost.co.uk), several specially created composting bins have been introduced to the waste and recycling collection point on the Greenlands Campus. These bins are filled with food waste, tea bags, coffee grounds and other vegetable matter and then play host to a colony of busy earthworms, who munch their way through this wonderful banquet and in their wake leave a glorious organic compost, that then goes back onto the gardens of the estate to bolster productivity.

Alan Brand, Director of Hotel and Estate Services at Henley Business School, University of Reading, commented: "Over the past 10 years, (the Greenlands Campus at) Henley Business School has been investing in many ways to improve our sustainability credentials and since achieving the ISO 14001 Accreditation, we have also have been awarded the Gold Award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme and are one of the few UK businesses to achieve the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC) Platinum Level Green Star Accreditation.

I am very pleased to say that staff have adopted this latest addition to our efforts with great enthusiasm. Our first bin was filled within a very short time after installation and 'feeding the worms' has become a part of the daily routine. It's amazing to think how much difference these little creatures can make to reduce landfill, just by doing what comes naturally."

Greenlands is located just outside Henley-on-Thames on the bank of the River Thames and offers Conference, Event and Hotel facilities for corporate and private hire.

Worms at Work - not just all play and no work at Mattel HQ in Maidenhead

2011-01-19T13:33:00.011Z

Worms at Work -
not just all play and no work
at Mattel HQ in Maidenhead

After assessment it has come to our attention that by further segregating compostable waste we could reduce the total volume of our waste by up to 35%, which will reduce our pay-per-ton volumes but also eliminate the need for that waste to be transported elsewhere to be treated.

So we are taking the plunge into composting

some of our food waste here in Maidenhead!

Over the next couple of weeks we will be working in partnership with a local company, kompost™, to introduce the on-site food waste composting™ - this will complement our recycling efforts and turn our used tea-bags, coffee grounds and fruit & vegetable peelings into high quality compost. We will start by rolling this out in the office initially and at a later stage we will include the canteen waste.

Look out for these bins and start using them please!

{PS: email sent out to the staff to introduce the new recycling campaign}

Bin-the-Bin

2011-01-18T12:09:00.000Z

Bin the Bin

In a move towards sending zero waste to landfill, many businesses across the UK have decided to bin-the-bin.

What is Bin-The-Bin Scheme

Centralised recycling stations are introduced to include separate bins for recycling paper, food and drink cans, plastic bottles and for disposing of general non-recyclable waste. (Some Facilities Managers / Green Champions even go so far as to introduce food waste recycling by placing food waste caddies in the staff kitchens and in other areas where apple cores, banana peels and lunch leftovers might be captured)

Consequently individual waste bins are removed and will no longer be emptied by the cleaning staff

Managing Without a Desk Bin

I hear you all asking:

“Do you really expect me to go to the recycling containers every time I make a piece of rubbish?”

“Aren’t the bins too far away and getting too full?”

“But I’ll just bring in my own bin, so what’s the point in taking it in the first place?”

Most people are already expected to sort their waste at home so many businesses are asking members of staff to adopt these practices in their workplace.

It may take some getting used to but once people do, the results of the full recycling system will really start to be seen. It is likely that many people will replace their bin with some kind of customised receptacle, but this is the whole idea, it’s the changing of the thought processes around rubbish creation. It is no longer someone else’s responsibility when you throw rubbish under your desk. Now the scheme enables you to sort it into the correct recycling bin.

There are a number of systems that can be used to make this an easier transition:

· Use the recycling containers when you happen to be passing them e.g. making a cup of tea (many staff don’t have this facility) or leaving your office.

· Store your waste in the lid of a paper box, yoghurt pot or ice cream tub and empty it once a day.

· Group up with some other people and sort your waste into different containers in the office so these can taken to the nearest recycling containers when convenient.

There are likely to be a range of different ways that people can develop – if you’ve got one, let us know so we can share it.

PS: See how the University of Liverpool announced their Bin The Bin Campaign

To infinity and beyond…with food waste

2011-01-17T19:37:00.002Z

To infinity and beyond…with food waste

Have a look what Ordnance Survey says about the Tidy Planet Rocket Composter - treating food waste on-site:

To infinity and beyond…with food waste (click on the link to read their blog entry)

Business Leader or Eco Warrior

2010-12-30T17:12:00.000Z

kompost™ - on-site food waste composting™

2010-08-26T12:34:00.009+01:00

How quick time flies when you're having fun!

It's been 12 months since I've given up full time employment to pursue this venture and 12 months since I've had time to blog!

I'm very proud to introduce my SME to the blogging world:

kompost™ - on-site food waste composting™

kompost™ identified practical on-site food waste composting™ solutions for office based organisations and businesses, to include on-site contract catering services, corporate headquarters, schools, colleges and hotels with their own grounds.

SEGRO's on board!

2009-08-28T14:42:00.120+01:00

I can't believe how the last 13 months flew by! I finished my maternity cover contract with Rank on the 21st of August and my time with Group Legal will be remembered with great fondness.

Rank's on-site compost bins are now up and running and I'm looking forward to pop-in every now and again to check in on my former colleagues and to make sure that my worms are happy.

I live in Cippenham, a little village which forms part of Slough, and people might smirk at this but I am happy to call this home. We are smack bang in the middle of two Junctions off the M4 (6 & 7), without the noise from the motorway, which means that we are 20 min from Heathrow and less than 45 min from Central London. We can show our visitors Windsor Castle and Burnham Beaches without much fuss and the quiant little villages of Marlow and Henley are not far either.

From a business point of view, being situated across the road from the Slough Trading Estate, I found that the companies situated on the Bath Road provide me with all my tenants for Baobab House.

A couple of weeks ago, while doing research about my little concept, I received a beautifully designed leaflet called "Vision for the Future" from SEGO plc through the post:

A new chapter....

2009-06-22T19:30:00.022+01:00

I have been attending Business Link and HMRC seminars, to get myself up-to-speed with running a little enterprise, and I take my hat off to all entrepreneurs that have gone before me.

At present I am working full steam on my Business Plan and I'm hoping to meet with as many people as possible to see whether this is just a dream or whether it will become a reality.

As soon as I've been able to finalise my costing and other practicalities, I will get the website up and running and before long I'm sure Ill be making a difference......

"one compost bin at a time"

Upwards and onwards!!!

***

They want to do it....

2009-06-04T20:35:00.025+01:00

..... but they need a little bit of help:

It was not long after I managed to get Rank's bins up and going that I was contacted by Softcat, through the Master Composter scheme, to assist them with their "little problem"....

Gemma, the Facilities Manager at Softcat, is part of a sub-committee dealing with the company's impact on the environment. The committee decided that one of the things they can do as a company, to reduce their carbon footprint, is to compost their tea bags. As they have in excess of 200 employees and an estimated 1200 tea bags are consumed on a weekly basis they realised that this could be a great start.....

Peter Kelly, Softcat's Chairman, also has a passion for composting. He even took time out of his busy schedule to train as a Master Composter, with his wife, and regularly attends community events in the Buckinghamshire County, to promote the benefits of home composting.

When Peter heard from Colette Littley, our MC co-ordinator at the Bucks County Council, that there is this crazy girl doing on-site composting for Rank (a company that he is familiar with, as he worked with Rank Xerox for 7 years before he set up Softcat) he asked Colette to put me in touch with him.

I jumped at the chance to see how another large corporate company's kitchen waste could be dealt with, albeit only tea bags in this instance.
I arranged a visit, assessed Softcat's grounds with Peter and Gemma and decided on a plan of action:

(spot the small compost bin tucked behind the hedge to the left of the black downpipe on the wall)

Their compost bin was too small, not in the right position and they were doing exactly what I did at first with Rank's office kitchen waste; just dumping it into the compost bin and hoping for the best - they needed a proper mix of "browns and greens".

I asked Gemma to order a bigger compost bin and offered to provide a working worm colony to start the bin with. Peter and Gemma were up for it and we have now transferred their old bin to a new location, added our workforce and explained to Sabina (Softcat's tea lady) about the "recipe" for a successful "compost cake".
Et Voilà!

***

Perhaps there IS someting to be done...

2009-05-25T19:12:00.011+01:00

I mentioned the Animal By Products Regulations (ABPR) before and a quick layman's explanation (as I understand it):

Due to the problems that foot-and-mouth and BSE caused in England and Wales (and the unfounded suspicions that composting, of certain waste, attributed to the spread of these diseases) the Government has had to imply strict regulations when it comes to composting:

"Where catering or household waste contains meat, it must be composted in a premises approved by Defra under the Animal By-Products Regulations 2005. The only exception is for catering waste composted on the premises on which it originates, provided that the material produced is used only on that premises, and that livestock are not kept on the premises. This means that householders may compost their own kitchen waste on their own domestic compost heap. This exemption may also apply to schools, hospitals or prisons. They may compost their own kitchen waste for use on that premises, provided livestock are not present."

I did all my reseach and realised that an "on-site composting solution" for office blocks, where there is NO meat, fish or diary to be dealt with, was a possibility...... but would it work in practice?

When I mentioned to Christine, our Facilities Manager here at Rank, that we should be thinking about a "Plan B" and mentioned that I would like to apply for an Exempt Certificate from the Enviroment Agency, to deal with the composting of Rank's kitchen waste on-site, she gave me the go-ahead.

With guidance from Jane Wallis, Business Link's Sustainable Business Adviser, I successfully applied for the Exempt Certificate and on receipt Christine ordered two large compost bins:

..... and so the experiment begun.....

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Think-and-Do-Tank needs MY help...

2009-05-23T17:13:00.015+01:00

.... with their 2 year old compost bin which turned into a wormery - all by itself!

When my parents emigrated to the UK in 2000, two years after I moved over here, my Mother took on the position of Operations Director for the New Economics Foundation (nef), and their current offices are near Vauxhall, in London.

Coincidentally, nef actually worked on a project in conjunction with the Open University, Community Compost Network and London CRN, and produced a paper called Unlocking the Potential of Community Composting.

nef has had an on-site compost bin for many years but due to the member of staff that used to take care of the compost bin moving on it has not been "harvested" for over two years......

So, when the daughter showed some interest in the whole "compost thing" the mother couldn't be more delighted....

I was commandeered to pay a visit to nef's premises to carry out an inspection for myself:

.... and I was delighted to find an urban compost bin which contained more worms than I ever expected and the most beautiful compost that I've seen! Look what tea bags, coffee grounds, banana peels and apple cores can turn into:

nef has a simple system in their kitchen:

and they use the end product to grow their own salad and create a beautiful haven for the staff to enjoy:

***

From Pretoria via Wakkerstroom to Slough

2009-05-22T16:26:00.059+01:00

A little bit more about me and then I’ll explain my idea:

I was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1974 and I grew up with my parents, At and Elna Kotze, having their own tour coach business, Kotze Tours, the only touring company that took a group of people into Botswana, with an un-converted bus (1985).

In the 1980s and 1990s my parents were two of only a handful of SATOUR accredited National Tour Guides, taking people around Southern Africa to include South Africa, South West Africa (Namibia) and Botswana and they were often away for long periods at a time, when I stayed with my paternal grandmother, Ouma (grandmother) Lenie, and my African ousie (older sister) called Emma.

I have only happy memories of my childhood in Pretoria but, nonetheless, just before I turned 15 (1989), I decided it was time for an "adventure"; I asked my parents whether I could go to the koshuis (boarding school) in Volksrust, near to where my mother's sister, Aunt Jenny and her family lived.

Having sold the touring coaches in the meantime, my parents followed 6 months later when they bought an old farmhouse outside Wakkerstroom, which they turned into the Weaver's Nest Guest House. Although I was born in the capital, Pretoria it was in the little village of Wakkerstroom that I grew up and I still see myself as a girl from Wakkies.

Running parallel with my parents' businesses, my mother also became one of the first "Eco-tourism warriors" in South Africa. Through her social entrepreneurism she became an Ashoka Fellow and won the World Wildlife Fund’s Green Trust Environmental award in 1998.

Elna Kotze & Changemakers Interview

In 1998, at the age of 24, thanks to my Welsh maternal grandmother entitling me to UK Ancestry, I emigrated to the UK to pursue my love of travelling... and then I got stuck in a job, took out a mortgage, got divorced, met The Dane, took out an investment mortgage, and didn't get to see Europe as originally planned until 2005, when Dennis and I gave up our jobs to travel for 6 months.
We returned to the UK, after having seen 14 countries in all (Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Greece, France, Monaco, Andorra, Spain, Morocco & Egypt) to get stuck into the rat race again and also started our second Professional Houseshare in 2006.

I mentioned the Professional Houseshares previously and Baobab House in Slough (since 2001) and Magnolia House in Maidenhead (since 2006) are our two investment properties. Dennis and I run these two properties on a "house in multiple occupacion" basis, where professional people rent rooms from us on a month-to-month basis but share the communal areas, and in return we take care of all the utilities, maintenance, etc.

Having spent my younger years growing up with entrepreneurial parents and spending most of my adult life in an office, I now feel ready to follow in their footsteps..... to "make a difference".
I have spotted my little corner; I stand with my one leg in the corporate world, I can associate and communicate with "office" people on their own level and in their own language and with my other leg I feel very happy standing "in the compost heap", dealing with day-to-day practicalities, designing systems & procedures and I love problem solving.

Tomorrow: Think-and-Do-Tank needs MY help!

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Research, Research, Research

2009-05-21T19:47:00.044+01:00

Ann, our tea lady at Rank, planted an idea in my head and a concept was forming, but I knew I had a lot to learn and so I started doing research on the Internet - I now realise that my idea is NOT a new idea… perhaps just a fresh twist on an existing idea?

Before I continue, a quick explanation of the different organisations in the "Compost World”:

Communit y Compostin g Network (CC N)

“The Community Composting Network supports and promotes the community management and use of waste bio-degradable resources. It is a member's organisation, self-managed by an elected committee of members.”

I see the CCN as the umbrella organisation of the “Compost World” in the UK and, from what I’ve found on the Internet, I can see that they’ve played a very big part in carrying out research and collecting information, to pave the way for anybody interested in composting.

To me the discovery of the Growing with Compost Toolkit:

(in association with the Socrates Grundtvig Programme) was a real epiphany:

The Worm Research Centre

"The Worm Research Centre was initially set up to provide objective information about the use of worms to the benefit of the environment, investigating their scientific and technical performance."

Their research papers, in conjunction with the Open University, are in my humble opinion, invaluable as a resource for anybody interested in vermicomposting and vermiculture.

WRAP (Waste and Resource Action Programme)

“WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change."

"Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."

"WRAP works with partners right around the resource efficiency loop to prevent waste, promote recycling and develop markets for valuable products. This helps bring measurable business gains and long term benefits to the environment.”

WRAP Home Composting Advisors

They are individuals employed by WRAP and forms part of the WRAP Recycle Now Campaign which includes: “providing advice and support for all householders engaged in home composting, via support literature, a dedicated helpline (0845 600 0323), a website and a team of Home Compost Advisors in the field;”

In 2007 & 2008 their job description, to fall in line with the Home Composting Campaign then running, was to assist householders to compost.

In 2009 their job description is changing to fall in line with the new Love Food Hate Waste Campaign and also the WEEE Campaign, which means that WRAP’s emphasis on Composting is now shifting and less resources will be available to promote composting as a way to reduce waste being sent to landfill.

Co mpost Doctors

“Specialists in the composting of catering waste, Compost Doctors is managed by the Community Recycling Network (CRN) UK in partnership with the Community Composting Network (CCN).”

“The Compost Doctors are a consortium of experienced, professional composters specialising in small scale, on-site composting of food waste.”

“Compost Doctors consultancy is currently being subsidised through the Third Sector Capacity Building programme funded through WRAP and REalliance”

The Compost Doctors have the ability to advise businesses (hotels, hospitals, restaurants, etc) to deal with catering waste which includes MEAT, FISH & DIARY (this has to do with the Animal By-Products Regulations (ABPR) and I'll explain why this is so important in another post...).

Master Composters

“Master Composters are volunteers who encourage people in their local community to start composting at home, and offer support to people who are already home composting and may be having difficulties or need encouragement.”

(see "Recent News – 6^th May 2009" in the sidebar to the right)

Master Composters are trained by:

Garden Organic

"Garden Organic is the working name of the Henry Doubleday Association (HDRA)"

"..... the UK's leading organic growing charity, has been at the forefront of the organic horticulture movement for 50 years and is dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food."

Compost Works

“COMPOST WORKS is a not-for-profit environmental organisation, promoting more and better composting in the Mole Valley. We give practical demonstrations by holding Open Days in members' gardens. We have a Compost Hotline and attend fetes and fairs with a mobile display including a fully functioning composter. We run a permanent compost project and demonstration site at The Grange Centre in Bookham - a residential centre for people with disabilities, offering training including horticulture. The extensive gardens are run on organic principles and include a walled kitchen garden with vegetables and fruit on sale throughout the year. If you would like to visit the compost site, please ring the Compost Hotline to arrange. We are supported by a grant from Surrey Waste Action.”

I met Hugh Baker from Compost Works who was very generous in his time and in sharing his knowledge of community composting and composting in general. Hugh's booklet Speedy Composting is the most concise and comprehensive guide on composting I could find on the Internet.

Various other Community Composting Networks

Tomorrow: "Who is Gwen Powell?"

****

"Mission Vermi"

2009-05-20T21:55:00.021+01:00

It was in March this year (8 months after I started with Rank) that I mentioned to Christine, our Facilities Manager, that we'll have to start thinking about a "Plan B", as my space for compost bins is running out and also reminding her that I'm finishing my contract with Rank in August 2009 and then "who will collect the kitchen waste and dispose of it?"

In the meantime we've (Rank's Staff) had an e-mail from Christine, reporting back to the staff on the progress of the "Waste Watchers Initiative" (started about 18 months or so ago), to reduce the Company’s carbon footprint.

In the e-mail Christine quoted some percentages (wich I cannot recall off by heart), by which Rank's recycling efforts had improved and it said how pleased the Company was with the effect that the staffs' co-operation has had on the reduction of Rank's carbon footprint.

I was standing in the kitchen next to one of the caddies, with our tea lady present, when I mentioned to Christine that I estimate the amount of kitchen waste that I collect to be about 5kg a day (= 25kg a week = 100kg a month = 1.2 tonne a year!).....

This is when Ann piped in and said:

"......perhaps there is something to be done?"

****

Hobby turns into passion....

2009-05-19T20:03:00.067+01:00

My interest in home composting, and more specifically in vermicomposting, started as a hobby, about 3 years ago, when I obtained my first 220 litre compost bin via the Slough Borough Council's alliance with WRAP's Recycle Now Campaign.

This was mainly to redirect my own kitchen waste but really to provide my very keen gardener mother with compost for her hanging baskets in spring.

Then, in July 2008, I commenced a 12-month maternity cover contract as an Administrator, for the Rank Group plc, a large Corporate Company in Maidenhead.

I noticed recycling (plastic, paper, etc) being enforced on all the staff, but all the kitchen waste going into the general waste.

Rank is spread over two floors, with approximately 180 people sharing three small kitchens. We do not have a canteen or a restaurant, so it is only tea bags, coffee grounds and fruit & vegetable scraps - NO meat, fish or dairy.

A week after I started my contract I spoke to Christine, our Facilities Manager, and offered to collect the kitchen waste, to supplement my home composting efforts.

No official e-mail was sent out to introduce this new arrangement, I simply placed the caddies in the kitchens and labelled them with a laminated notice, setting out what can and what can’t be put into it, and so far I have had only one contamination – leftover tuna…… which I threw away as soon as I realised it. The caddies are emptied into a plastic carrier bag on a daily basis by our helpful tea lady, Ann.

The response was overwhelming - within 3 days of putting the caddies out I was taking approximately 5kg of office kitchen waste home every day! Over the Christmas period I went away for 2 weeks and removed the caddies temporarily, when I returned people e-mailed me and stopped me in the hallways to ask when the caddies were coming back?

Both my mother and I are very fortunate to have relatively large gardens (we live in two properties diagonally behind each other and have opened up the fence between us so that our gardens are interlinked), and I also own another investment property in Maidenhead with a large garden. My partner, Dennis, and I run Professional House Shares where young professionals rent rooms from us, but where we still have the responsibility of taking care of the gardens, so I am able to use the space as I wish. At the moment I have six 220 litre compost bins successfully on the go.

From a traditional “brown/green mix” point of view it was a bit hit-and-miss as I had very little experience about composting and I was merely dropping all the Rank office kitchen waste into the Dalek bins, hoping for the best. Soon I had six 220 litre compost bins filled up.

You can just imagine the bins sitting there with more than ½ton of office kitchen waste, waiting to be composted. When I inspected them they were in a big mess, smelly and not decomposing at all. I decided that I needed some help and started doing research on the Internet about composting accelerators…. that was when I discovered vermicomposting.

I decided to top-up my naturally occurring earthworm stock with a mix of 1kg (±2,000) commercially bought “Dendras” (Dendrobaenas or otherwise know as Eisenia Hortensis also known as European Nightcrawlers) and “Tigers” (brandling worms also know as Eisenia Foetida) from the online shop of Wiggly Wigglers. Within 4 months I managed to harvest the most beautiful “product” from 4 of the bins - Go Worms Go!

Since my original worm acquisition I’ve bought another 6kg (±12,000) of Dendras and have built 4 experimental wormeries from recycled tyres to see how much of the raw office kitchen waste my "workforce" can handle per week. My latest acquisition is a garden shredder and a 220 litre compost tumbler, to see whether I can speed up the process and make it easier for my "workforce" to do their magic.

Tomorrow: How "mission vermi" came to me....

***

I have a confession....

2009-05-18T21:52:00.020+01:00

....but don't tell The Dane....

....I'm infatuated....

....with 14,000 worms....

....and they've inspired me to plant a vegetable patch....

....who would've ever thought!?

Anyway, let's start at the beginning:

4 months ago I didn't even know that vermicomposting existed, nevermind what it meant, so before I continue first a WIKI introduction:

"The process of producing vermicompost is called vermicomposting. Vermicast, similarly known as worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by some species of earthworm. Containing water-soluble nutrients and bacteria, vermicompost is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner."

Now that I've got the confession, and introduction, out of the way I'll have to continue tomorrow, as it is 11pm and The Dane is calling....

I had to come back to introduce you to one of my BEAUTIES!

(photo by: Jeremy Trew)

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