| Living
Soil –
Here to Help Local
Councils & Communities
 Helping
Local Councils create sustainable infrastructure, thus fulfilling
Local Agenda 21, The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) and the
recently ratified Kyoto Protocol.
EM (pro-biotic) food-waste treatment has been shown to be
the solution to the landfill problem in many parts of the
world.
Living Soil has catalyzed all the UK trials in this system
for both domestic and centralized EM composting schemes, and
results indicate an easy adoption and high success rate.
Due to the experience living soil has gained over the years
we can design and tailor the fermentation composting to the
need of councils, local authorities, catering in hospitals,
prisons, and schools.
We can tailor make documentation, design educational material
so this new technology can be rolled out in the easiest way
for adoption and easy uptake by many different sectors.
Living Soil are able to provide products at special
rates for councils:
• Consultation, education, and presentations
• High-volume supply of the tried and tested ‘Kitchen
Waste Digesters’
• EM-liquid culture and EM-bokashi
 An
expensive problem with a cost-effective solution
Around 30% UK domestic waste is organic matter. Currently,
the majority of food waste is land-filled. This represents
one of the most difficult and expensive waste problems due
to explosive greenhouse gas (methane) and leachate, a toxic
cocktail which can cause serious groundwater and surface water
pollution. Because of these problems, food waste is one of
the most expensive substance to landfill:
• Food and organic waste is charged at the higher rate
of £11 per tonne
• Inactive waste has a lower charge of £2 per
tonne.
Some 17m tones of food worth up to £20bn a year are
being put into landfill, even though approximately 25% of
it could be safely eaten by people or animals, or turned into
compost and energy. The cost of transporting it and throwing
it into landfills is thought to be more than £175m a
year.
Land-filling of green waste and food waste also involves
the loss of an important resource. If treated properly it
constitutes a powerful regenerative energy for parks, gardens,
and agriculture. Councils can save a great amount of money
with employing an EM composting system to deal with the catering
waste from public utilities.
The UK ranks far behind Europe in vigorously initiating much
needed changes to infrastructure. Although composting increased
through the 1990s, less than 4% of organic house-hold waste
in the UK is treated by this method, compared to 44% in Germany.
Because of this sluggishness for the UK to modernize its
infrastructure, legislation now indicates that councils must
initiate real-world solutions. The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC)
seeks to reduce biodegradable waste sent to landfill to 35%
of 1995 figures, to be achieved by 2016.
Living Soil has the experience and knowledge to help progressive
councils design sustainable and cost-effective infrastructure
for handling food and organic wastes that will meet both the
Environment Agency and DEFRA (SVS) requirements.
Living Soil have helped initiate and pioneer several
large scale EM-composting projects within communities, schools
and national events, vastly reducing their environmental impact
and transforming food waste into a valuable compost for community
and ecological development.
Read on to find out about Living Soil initiated UK
projects.
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Cam from ELCRP with The Mayor |
East London Community Recycling Partnership
: Showing the Way
Winner of Best Community Project at the
National Recycling Awards 2004
“An example of good practice”
- The Environmental Agency
East London Community Recycling Partnership, dedicated
to urban waste minimisation, was founded in 2001 and
is an umbrella for a large number of organisations who
co-operate. ELCRP works closely with local authority
officers, social landlords and housing associations.
With Living Soil’s consultation, East London
Community Recycling Project, spearheaded by Cam Matheson
and Jane Wilde developed a food waste collection system
that meets both EA and DEFRA (SVS) requirements and
is reaching 5,000 households.
Because it meets the Animal By-Products Regulations
it doesn't require separation of meat and fish from
the rest of the organic waste.
The system, using EM Bokashi, stops putrefaction, smells,
flies and maggots. With good participations rates of
up to 84.7% this scheme is going a long way to benefit
inner city estates and relieve the pollution and cost
associated with food waste.
Collecting, sorting and storage of recyclable materials
and composting of biodegradable waste (food waste included)
is regulated by the - Environmental Protection Act 1990-Part
ll; Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994; Regulations
17 & 18 and Schedule 3; Register of Exemptions from
Waste Management Licensing.
ELCRP was inspected by the Environment Agency (EA)
and was approved for the Sorting and Storage of Recyclables
as well as the Composting of Biodegradable Waste, and
is used as an example of good practice.
Read more about this groundbreaking project at http://www.elcrp-recycling.com
& read about Living Soil on their site at http://www.elcrp-recycling.com/new%20press%20archive.html
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| The Coach House
Trust - Inner City Glasgow |
The Coach House Trust - Glasgow
The Coach House Trust is a profound
experiment in greening inner-city Glasgow, providing
an environment for regeneration. The Trust seeks to
challenge the economic and social exclusion of adults
who are recovering from mental health, addiction and
learning problems. The CHT supports personal social
and vocational development through providing training
in horticulture, woodworking, fabrics, ceramics and
landscaping.
As part of their activities, the CHT
actively promote composting in the local community.
Spearheading CHT is Rita Winters, who endorses
the EM method. The occupants of more than 100 Glasgow
flats are using bokashi bins which are dug into the
local community ornamental beds. All
kinds of vegetables, fruit bushes and flowers are grown.
The vibrancy of the Trust gardens is remarkable.
Tests have found that pathogenic bacteria,
such as E. coli, are not found in bokashi bins. This,
coupled with the lack of foul smells makes it an ideal
technique for dealing with kitchen waste.
The CHT scheme indicates how
use of EM, combined with connectivity and integration
between urban neighborhoods and local fallow land, allotments,
parks and gardens, is the key to solving the expensive
food-waste problem.
Click here to see the EM Bokashi
Coach House Trust Gardens
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| The
canteen with student depositing food scraps
for composting |
St Christophers School - Letchworth
The St Christophers School is
a progressive school providing a well balanced
education for 580 boys and girls between the ages
of 2 to 19. "We treat
our young people as individuals and aim for them
to develop competence and resourcefulness, social
conscience and moral courage, the capacity for
friendship and a true zest for life."
Click here to
see St Christophers students making Bokashi
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| Digging
in fermenting EM compost |
Heeley City Farm - Sheffield
The Healy City Farm collected food waste
from the neighbourhood and composted using Bokashi EM
for 2 weeks then dug into a test bed. The test beds
have now been planted and the results are going to be
up soon.
Click here to see
Healy City Farm
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