“More than a third (37%) of households who currently only compost garden material used to include kitchen waste but have stopped since the introduction of food waste collections in 2018,” said Guernsey Waste. 

Guernsey Waste is teaming up with ‘home composting champions’ to promote home compositing. 

Dee Sangan runs the sustainable and Jamblin Flower Farm, growing flowers without the use of chemicals.  

“Home composting is a great way of getting the most out of your food and garden waste, benefiting your garden’s ecosystem and your soil,” she said. “It’s also a wonderful learning opportunity for children, it’s easy to ignite a bit of passion for learning about science and biodiversity whilst digging for or ‘feeding’ the worms.” 

If more people compost at home, the less the island has to pay for processing food waste. Roughly 130kg of food waste was picked up from every household in 2022 and Guernsey’s Waste Prevention and Recycling Officer, Tine Norman-Ross, says if more of this got processed at home, the less the island has to pay to process it. 

“We think we can do more and are keen to encourage islanders who have stopped composting kitchen waste to give it a go again. Plus, there are probably a lot of islanders out there who have not yet tried home-composting but could do. For instance, if they have moved house and have a garden for the first time,” she said. 

“Whether this is using a compost bins, building your own heap, creating a wormery, buying a hot bin, or even a bokashi - there are lots of ways to compost to suit the size of your garden.” 

While not all food waste is compostable, as much as a third is.  

You can find out more about composting at home ONLINE, including information about subsidised home composting starter kits.