Over a billion tons of food are wasted each year worldwide. Composting your food scraps is one of the best ways to divert food waste from landfills, whether you put it in a brown bin, send it for communal composting or set up your own garden compost system.
Recycling food waste lessens environmental harm, but it also fosters a culture of mindful consumption and resourcefulness. Composting is a simple yet impactful step in addressing the challenge of climate change, and as a bonus it has a host of benefits for the vegetable garden.
Composting enables you to turn what would otherwise be waste into a valuable resource for the vegetable garden, helping to close the food loop. Kitchen scraps, unused food and garden are transformed into a nutrient-rich ‘black gold’ that can be used to enhance soil health and provide nutrients to plants. This process happens as organic matter breaks down in an aerobic (oxygen-rich) environment, with the help of microbes, worms and insects.
Materials suitable for composting include fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, grass clippings, and dried leaves. There are many different types of composting systems, from a simple pile to multi-bay timber units to rotating rapid hot composters. Organic material will break down into garden-ready compost much faster in hot conditions.
When food or organic waste ends up in landfills, it produces harmful greenhouse gas emissions such as methane. Methane is much more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂) at trapping heat in the atmosphere, and it accounts for about 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. By composting at home or through community programs, individuals can drastically reduce the volume of waste sent to landfills, cutting these emissions and helping to mitigate global warming.
Composting can also help get rid of the temptation to use chemical fertilisers or plant feed. Chemical fertilizers are energy-intensive to produce and can leach into waterways, causing pollution and algal blooms. Compost on the other hand naturally enriches the soil with essential nutrients, enhancing its structure, water retention, and microbial activity. This results in healthier and more resilient plants, and ones that can thrive without any need for synthetic additives.
In addition, adding compost to your garden soil encourages beneficial microorganisms and a self-sustaining soil ecosystem. These microbes help decompose organic material, cycle nutrients, and build soil fertility over time.
Overall, the practice of composting encourages us to think about how we can live sustainably and minimise our individual footprint.
Waste-free gardening begins with rethinking what we typically consider “waste.” Many everyday items from the garden and kitchen (such as pruned branches, deadheaded flowers, coffee grounds or vegetable peelings) can be repurposed into compost or mulch. Instead of throwing these materials away, they can be returned to the soil to nourish future growth. This circular approach reduces reliance on external inputs. Instead we can aim for a closed-loop garden system where every resource is valued.
This principle can apply not just to compost but to other practices as well. Fallen leaves can be left to decompose naturally as leaf mould, grass clippings can be used as mulch, and spent plants at the end of the season can be chopped and dropped to feed the soil. Plant pots and containers can be reused, while household items such as old bathtubs can be creatively repurposed.
Compost Thermometer: Allows you to monitor the internal temperature of your compost to ensure that the composting process is ticking along with a good mix of materials. These usually feature a probe which can be inserted deep into the pile.
Garotta Compost Maker: Garotta is a ‘biological accelerator’ that can speed up the decomposition process by adding bacteria, fungi and microbial feed. This product is particularly useful if you have smaller amounts of green material and need a boost, or if you lack space for a larger compost pile.
Wood Pellets: Natural wood pellets serve as a bulking agent for your compost, improving structure and aeration. They are a great way of balancing out your green to brown ratio if you have an excess of green materials (this can happen in winter when garden activity slows down). These are suitable for use with rotating composters such as the Joraform or Ridan.
Jute Leaf Collection Bags: These breathable and biodegradable bags are perfect for collecting autumn leaves and storing them while they break down into crumbly leaf mould: an excellent soil improver. The open mesh jute material allows for healthy airflow.