Ten steps to composting at work
1. Make some composting friends – Get some support for a composting programme. Get individuals from your organisation, the environmental team, operations managers and the food service managers interested and motivated in taking on a compost initiative. Maybe set up a composting support group to help you keep the composting continuing? 2. Plan your heap – How will you collect the food scraps? Will you compost them on-site or have a collection service? How will you get them to the compost bin/collection point? Do you have a person(s) who is responsible for emptying? 3. On-site compost bin or collection service? Businesses with outside space can consider on-site composting, instead of sending food scraps off-site. If you compost on site, pick a suitable site, make sure that any liquid can drain into the soil, that it is easy to access, and no one minds that you're using it. 4. Education station – For some, composting is a must-do thing, but it may seem like a foreign idea to others. So, depending on your organisation, you might want to teach people about composting. Invite someone in to talk about composting, or conduct a staff training session. 5. Collect it – Get a container place it in an easy place so everyone can throw their compostables in. Try high-food waste areas like the kitchen, cafeteria or break room. 6. Label it - Put stickers, labels or posters on and around the container and compost bin to let people know what they can and can't put in it. 7. Get separating – This is the fun part! And don't forget to add a good mix of fast-rotting and slow-rotting ingredients. 8. Haul it - Choose a responsible person(s) to make sure the container contents get to the compost heap (or if you have a collection service, to the pick-up point). Remember food scraps can be heavy, so if you're carrying it yourself make sure you can manage the weight. 9. Check the compost bin –To make sure everything breaks down without any smells, give your compost a stir and ensure there's enough air in it. Mix your green waste (vegetable and fruit peelings, tea bags, and coffee grounds) with enough brown waste (pieces of cardboard, scrunched up or shredded paper, loo and kitchen roll tubes). 10. Monitor the system – Are the right things going in the bin? Is everything clearly labelled? Are the bins getting emptied regularly? Is everyone happy composting? Make changes and improvements as needed. Please feel free to contact us for help or read more about how we can support people to compost together. |
Stop the mountain of tea bags in the landfill site! Get your office composting and turning those tea bags and banana peels into something that can enhance the land rather than destroy it. Sending compostables to the landfill releases methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. Why not save your work some money by reducing disposal costs, be kind to the earth, and get your colleagues involved in a rewarding activity. If you're not sure how to go about getting your work composting, here are 10 steps to get you started...