Turning food scraps into black gold
Over the past two years, we have worked with residents to install 14 community composting sites across Lambeth. People are now able to turn everyday food waste into free compost while at the same time cutting carbon emissions!
Why Community Composting on Estates?
Many housing estates in Lambeth currently do not have food waste collection. Residents can use the compost produced to enrich the soil of their estate community gardens, grow food or plants in patio containers, or even to top up the soil of their indoor potted plants. The composting projects have brought people together on estates, supported or started food growing projects and people have learned new skills.
Who did we learn from?
IEL has based this project on the Brighton and Hove Community Composting Project, which successfully set up community composting across Brighton. We also were grateful to learn about building Paca Digestoras from Trueque Intercambios (Costa Rica). And we topped off the project with a Food Story: Community Composting with learning from Lambeth, Brighton and Hove, Lyon and Costa Rica.
How did we do it?
From 2022 – 2024, IEL worked with a group of residents from each estate. Each site was organised in consultation with estate residents, and we worked with Lambeth Council to agree site locations. Once we had agreement, we organised a build date with residents, a compost workshop and residents received a free compost caddy, instructions on how to use it and tools to maintain the bins.
As part of the project, we have:
Get involved
To start composting, find your nearest bins on the map below. Email coordinator@incredibleediblelambeth.org and we’ll put you in touch with the organisers. We can provide you with a caddy and training on how to use the bins.
This is a list of the estates we worked with.
The map shows the exact location of all the community composting bins.
If you live on one of these estates and are interested in getting involved, please scan the QR code that you find on the lid of one of the compost bins. This will direct you to the group WhatsApp where you can ask a member of the group to teach you how to use the bins. Everyone is welcome and no previous skills are required!
As 2024 comes to an end, we’re taking a moment to reflect on everything we’ve achieved this year. IEL has worked with 26 groups of residents to improve life on
From 2022 to 2024, thanks to National Lottery players, IEL installed 14 composting sites across Lambeth and providing training and upskilling for residents to use the bins. Here’s a summary
A huge thank you to staff Megan and Orsetta, and all the residents that have made our Community Composting Project such a success. As our funding ends in June 2024,
We organised an online Food Story on 4th June 2024 where people shared learning from urban composting projects around the world: included were community composting project in Lambeth (of course!),
Members of The Remakery have helped us build 28 community compost bins, ready to be installed in Estates in Lambeth. Thanks also to Travis Perkins Vauxhall for our community project
Over the next two years, Incredible Edible Lambeth (IEL) will support residents in Lambeth housing estates to divert food waste from landfill into valuable food waste. To read the article,
During the first year, we identified that education was a key component to engaging with composting. For many, composting is a new concept and it can be confronting to open
We’ve been encouraging people to create MakeSoil sites in their community for a couple of years now…Currently, there are eight sites in Lambeth – please consider becoming a makesoil site
