Changing Culture through Compost

All civilisations produce waste streams but in the last century our relationship with what we throw away has become untenable. We've been taught that it is cheaper and easier to throw away that which we don't need, and encouraged to stay ignorant of what happens to our garbage.

The Compost Culture project understands that waste has value, and that the simplest way to access that value is to take organic waste, such as food, and compost it.

Our society wastes a terrifying amount of food. It's estimated that a third of all food produced for human consumption is not consumed, and in Birmingham the majority of this goes to landfills or incinerators. And that which is repurposed is trucked long distances to bio-gas generators, which is better but still not ideal.

Redirecting food waste to schemes that produce and distribute compost locally has the following benefits:

• Enabling significant food production at a local level to support mutual aid schemes such as food banks.
• Restoring soil health to promote biodiversity in our public realm (healthy soil leads to strong plants which support birds and other wildlife).
• Reducing the financial and ecological cost of transporting organic waste to large processing plants.

Composting is definitely not the only answer, but it is an important part of the mix.

Significantly reducing waste will take systemic change across our supply chains and this is unlikely to come soon, not while there's a corporate financial incentive for disposability. And it is unfair to put the burden of change on consumers, many of whom are already dealing with the pressures of modern life.

We believe that composting produces more than just compost. We've seen how small-scale composting schemes run by and for local people, often associated with community gardens, can become vital regenerators of civic life. In short, they bring people together.

The act of composting will fertilise the soil, but it can also fertilise society, making connections between people, helping them to feel less alone and less helpless, enabling them to build a better future.