How To Reduce Food Waste By Composting

Food waste is a huge problem, up to 40% of the average Australian household bin is food waste. That equates to about 4 million tonnes of food per year or 345kg per household, per year.

But food waste can be dramatically reduced and even completely eliminated from our lives altogether. One of the easiest ways to do that is to compost your food. The benefit of composting is you can do it no matter where you live, whether you live in an apartment on the 21st floor, a small townhouse with no backyard or if you live in a regular house in suburbia. There are so many different ways to compost and they all allow you to cut down on your waste. 

Before I list the ways to lower your food waste I want to talk about what food waste is and what happens when you do and don't compost.

What is food waste and how do we waste it?

Food waste includes all foods that are intended for us to eat but don't. Food in the household is just a small number of food that is thrown away, in fact, about 25% of all fresh produce never even makes it from the farm to our major supermarket shelves because of their strict cosmetic criteria like the size, shape and colour. 

Household food waste is the number one contributor to wasted food in Australia, we waste an average of 1 in 5 grocery bags of our shopping.

What happens when you DON'T compost

When food is sent to landfill it can not break down properly and instead of returning back to the soil where it will benefit the land, it rots and produces methane, more potent than a car's exhaust fumes. In fact, the methane gas that is produced is about 25x worse for the environment than those car fumes. 

What happens when you DO compost?

When you compost, those organic materials are returned back to the earth where they can break down. Your food scraps benefit the land, plants, animals and microbes, providing them food and nutrients to continue their own lifecycles.

Composting

Possibly the easiest way to cut down on food waste is to start composting. the great thing about composting is there are so many different ways to do it. In this article, I want to briefly describe four ways to compost your food scraps. I also want to mention an app that might be helpful for those who want to reduce their food waste output but have no room to compost or produce more food waste than they can handle.

1. Vermicomposting

Also known as Worm farming, vermicomposting is feeding worms raw food scraps. Worms break the food down and the end result is a fluffy nutrient-rich soil called humus. Worms are one of the earth's most incredible creatures. Worm farms can be purchased but they can also occur naturally in your garden. I think worm farming is an easy option for those who are just starting out. Worm farms don't take a lot of maintenance. They can be a set and forget thing. I usually check my worm farm once a day and add food scraps to it about once a week.

When it comes to food scraps you can feed them pretty much anything but in moderation. Many people say that you can't feed worms citrus peels or onions. I have found that my worms will eat these food scraps but just not in large amounts. If you would like more information on worm farming, I have written a free ebook on it. To gain access to the ebook subscribe to my email newsletter by clicking here or over on the sidebar.

2. Bokashi

Another great way to compost your food scraps is through bokashi. Bokashi is completely different from Worm farming in the way that rather than using an animal (the worms) to break the food down you use microorganisms.
To start bokashi you can buy a bokashi bucket or you can just use ordinary food grade buckets. Simply add your food scraps and apply a handful of bokashi grains or bokashi spray.

The benefit of a bokashi bin is what types of food waste you can place in the bin. Unlike Worm farms which cannot break down things like dairy, small bones, fish and meats, bokashi bran can. However, it is best to place these things in moderation and make them as small as possible. The smaller things are the quicker they break down.

Another benefit of bokashi composting is it can be done indoors, the bucket can be placed under your sink or in the laundry. Once the fermentation process is complete the waste inside needs to be buried.

3. Bury in the ground

Another easy way to reduce food waste is to just bury it straight in the ground. By burying it in the ground you can just let nature do what it does best. Microbes and worms will break it down naturally. This will help to feed nutrients back into your soil and improve the quality of your soil. This may take, however, a long time to break down.

4. Hot composting

Another effective way to compost food waste is to hot compost it. Hot composting involves the natural process of letting the waste mixed in with other natural materials both green and brown like leaves, grass clippings, sticks, and piling it up. This form of composting does require a lot more than just a few days worth of food scraps and requires a bit of space. This method is not suited to those living in apartments or those with very small yards. To achieve this method you need about 1m³ worth of organic material. This also requires a bit more maintenance. You need to water this and turn it every few days to let air in.

Share Waste

If you are unable to dispose of your food waste because you don't have backyard space or garden but you still want to compost then you might want to check out Share Waste. Share Waste allows you to connect with people in your local area who want your food waste for their own garden or maybe even to feed their chickens. Simply connect with them and arrange for a time to drop it off. This is a great initiative that allows you to reduce your food waste and allows someone else to use it. It's a win-win for both parties. 

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful in teaching you how to reduce food waste by composting and I hope it makes you seriously consider reducing your waste output. We can all make a difference and composting is an easy way to do this. Let me know how you reduce your food waste in the comments below, I would love to hear them.