Organisation Background:

A community group established by residents of Fordingbridge wanting to respond to the climate emergency and make the town ‘greener’. Initially a Facebook group.

Current status of composting project:

Actively composting food waste.

Relevance to the Highlands:

Using a Ridan in-vessel composting system which requires no electricity so suitable for remote regions. Collecting food waste from households due to lack of council service (at the time of setting up).

Type of composting solution:

Food waste composting system on a council allotment site. The system has a capacity to process 200 litres per week. The community opted for the Ridan composting unit as there’s no electricity supply at the allotment site. When material comes out of the composting system, it is put into a maturation bin to complete the process and stabilise/mature the material. Once the maturation bin is full, the mixture is left for three months to mature. The enclosed system (both composter and maturation bins) prevents from attracting vermin.

How the staff, volunteers and community work together:

All volunteers.

Scale:

Up to 36 families or 100 people. Running one medium sized Ridan composter with two (soon to be three) maturation bins.

Input material:

Separated food waste (inc meat) from households with woodchip to balance the carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N ratio). Woodchip donations are free as waste product from a local joiner.

End use:

Members of the compost club can take compost free. Compost club members are a subset of the community of Fordingbridge. Every three months approximately 25 bags of compost are distributed.

Partners/ collaborators:

Council provided space within the allotment for the composting facility.

Price:

Received a £5K grant to setup the facility which paid for the Ridan composting system and maturation bins. A risk assessment was completed in order to insure the composter. The insurer also required that the composter was secured in a cage.

How the system works in practice:

All volunteer based . A team of 12 ‘Ridan Rangers’ run the composting system – carrying out daily checks of feedstock mixture, moisture level and temperature to ensure that the process is operating effectively and sanitises the waste. Only Ridan Rangers are allowed to operate the system, their involvement coordinated via an online calendar. Members of the compost club are trained on what feedstock to add and how to prepare feedstock e.g. pre-chopping food waste to make it breakdown more readily.

Main motivator:

No council run separated food waste collection at the time so setup as a solution to enable households to recycling food waste.
Number of years the scheme has been running for: Started June 2021.