Festive food waste collection

Festive Food Waste in Pennington

We have been collecting uncooked food waste for composting from 40 households on our community allotment in Pennington for the past two years. The number of contributors fluctuates as people buy their own compost bins (we are always pleased when people do so), people move out of the area but other people join us. If Christmas has heightened your awareness of wasted food and you’re keen to put yours to to better use, and if you are local to Pennington or Lymington, email us and join in.

The festive season always sees a rise in the amount of green waste handed in and this year is no exception. We notice sprout tops, carrot tops and peelings, potato peelings, butternut squash peelings, tough cauliflower and red cabbage stalks.

Most food waste goes into our Hotbins and the temperature of one of them on a cold New Year’s Day shows a very healthy degree of microbial decomposition of food! Some goes to feed our worms as we have two successful worm composting bins (Hotbins are generally too hot for worms). When people don't cut up their cauliflower stalks enough (naughty) we out them in our open bins for slow decomposition.

Why do we do this? Quite simply, to prevent waste and to save a useful product; to return carbon to the soil, and to provide Pennington Community Allotment with a great source of high nutrient, uncontaminated compost.