Compost is an essential item when it comes to growing food
How can you help:
Make your own compost bin - check out the Wales Recycles resources on how to do this here, and what goes in to a compost bin here.
DIY your own wormery (see the video below)
Sign up to ‘Make Soil’ and help make compost in the community
Look for sites on ‘Make Soil’ to take your food waste too, and help make compost in the community
Lets talk about compost…
We need compost to grow food – it is a very essential first step!
There is so much food going to waste in Aberystwyth: in our households, by businesses like cafes, hotels or supermarkets, and by institutions like hospitals and schools. Therefore, there is so much food that we can use to make really beautiful compost with, and in turn really beautiful food!
Where do you get your compost from if you want to grow food in Aberystwyth? Charlies? B&M Bargins? Or do you make compost? Do you make enough of it to grow your own food? Where else could you get compost?
Fertiliser or peat is usually added to compost that we buy in shops in Aberystwyth.
The production of fertiliser relies on petro-chemicals (oil), and peat comes from peat bogs that are rare and essential ecosystems. The compost is then transported around the world building its carbon footprint further. This shows that to build a more sustainable food system we need to make more compost, and not rely on buying it from shops where fertiliser and peat has been added to it.
Thankfully, we can make compost at home too!
Fertiliser is processed in factories, and the phosphate that makes the fertilisers is usually mined from rock phosphate, usually in Morocco. Applying phosphate fertilisers to the soil is easy as it can be applied by tractors and it allows food to be grown on a large scale. Sadly, this this damages surrounding natural habitats, and the process relies on fossil fuels which are unsustainable and contributing to climate change.
Peat is extracted from the beautiful wilderness of the peat bogs, usually in the Scottish Highlands. Peat bogs are precious areas for wildlife to thrive in, and peat takes millennia’s to be formed by natural processes. Extracting peat to add it to soil to create a ‘compost’ for growing in is destroying wildlife, and it is unsustainable – it will run out and takes millenia for the natural process to make more of it.
Making Compost At Home
It is easy and free to make compost because it is made from food waste.
Find out how to make a compost bin here
Find out what goes in a compost bin here
If you would like to make compost but don’t have a garden, or you have a compost bin you are happy to share please get in touch or check out ‘Make Soil’. We would like to help you connect with a compost bin so you can make use of your food waste!