Street Compost Club Looks for Pilot Sites

We are delighted to welcome Mel Harvey to the Sustainable South Hams team as a compost expert and mentor. Mel will be running the new Street Compost Club scheme that brings neighbours together to collectively create compost from their food waste. This is designed to be a fun, practical and hygienic way to create compost which can then be used in gardens and planters to grow more food and flowers. This pilot project offers equipment, training and mentoring to two new Street Compost Clubs, in the South Hams, with a view to supporting more to set up once the idea has been demonstrated.  

Although reducing food waste is vital, there are inevitably kitchen scraps that can't be eaten. Some households aren't able to compost these individually due to lack of space or concerns about composting food waste. Street Compost Clubs work with equipment that rapidly starts the composting process and is placed in an accessible area so several households can compost together.  

The key aim of Street Compost Clubs is to close the loop on food waste, enabling households to safely and hygienically compost their kitchen waste locally, and then to be able to use it directly in their gardens and planters.

There are numerous projects around the UK and further afield. Ultimately each one is unique, but the Bristol Living Soil project and numerous community composting projects around Brighton and Hove provide plenty of inspiration.

Sustainable South Hams are recruiting the first two pilot sites in September 2024, and are hoping to roll this out to other sites in 2025. If your street is keen to have a Street Compost Club, get in touch with the Street Compost officer, Melissa Harvey, at melissajharvey@gmail.com.