Garden and food waste
Environmental benefits: WRAP estimates that 6.7 million tonnes of household food waste is produced each year in the UK. If you do not recycle food and garden waste it will go to landfill, and the environmental costs of this are enormous. In landfill, food breakdown produces methane – a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
How to recycle: You can convert your vegetable kitchen waste and garden waste into rich compost. Organisms break down waste materials, such as plants or vegetables, to produce a fertiliser.
There are many different types of compost bin on the market but essentially they are units with no bottom that must sit on bare earth.
Your compost relies on the right ingredients to make it work – things you can compost at home are: fruit and vegetable scraps, teabags and plant prunings. Other things you can compost include egg boxes, eggshells and fallen leaves. Keep cooked food waste, meat and fish out of your bin though – the same goes for dog faeces and cat litter.
Nearly all of London’s boroughs and a number of councils nationwide collect green garden waste from your home for composting, and some also collect food waste from homes for composting. If your council provides this service they will give you a small kitchen bin to collect your scraps in.
Team Green Britain and London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd (LOCOG) do not endorse any of the products, companies, organisations, opinions or websites that have been mentioned in this article. The content of this article has merely been provided as background to, or discussion on, various topical issues relating to the environment and it is not necessarily representative of the views of Team Green Britain and LOCOG. Further, any figures and calculations noted in this article are estimates (unless otherwise specified), and may vary in light of numerous factors and readers are advised to undertake their own research in relation to the facts and figures applicable to their particular circumstance.