Dealing With Food Waste

I'm really excited by an estate-based composting project I went to visit in Hackney last week. Hopefully we can roll out something similar on our housing estates. Actually it's not really about composting - or at least that's not the main attraction for residents. It's about rat reduction! The organisers believe, and the residents confirm, that everyone will buy into recycling of kitchen waste if vermin eradication is the main goal. Compost is simply a fabulous by-product.

The Nightingale Estate in Hackney is right next to a railway line and as a result used to be infested with rats. However since they installed their "Rockets" (see left), which turn food waste into compost, they have almost completely eradicated their rat problem.

Local residents swear by the "Rockets". Former head of the Tenants Association, Alice Burke, (see right, proudly showing us their recycling pods) says the rats have gone and they've used the compost to help regenerate the estate.

In a good week an incredible 80% of residents participate in the kitchen waste collections. Since food is about a third of all household waste the environmental benefits of recycling it locally are huge.