Food waste collection has hit home composting
GUERNSEY Waste is encouraging islanders to try at-home composting, after a survey found more than a third of households stopped doing so after food waste collections were introduced.
The survey of more than 1,800 households found that 37% of households said they stopped after the introduction of collections in 2018.
As many as 42% of respondents said they composted at home, and a further 16% said they would be interested in starting.
In 2021, more than 3,500 tonnes of separate food waste was collected from households – equivalent to around 130kgs per home.
After initial processing on-island, it is exported to a facility in southern England, where it is used to generate electricity and compost.
In 2021, 1.5GWh of energy was recovered through anaerobic digestion of food waste, generating 957,205m3 of biogas.
Waste prevention and recycling officer Tina Norman-Ross said the cost of managing this material would reduce if more households chose to compost at home.
Not all food waste is suitable for composting at home, but as much as a third is. That includes raw fruit and vegetables, peelings, salad, tea bags and coffee grounds.
Guernsey Waste provides subsidised home composting starter kits, sold through garden centres for £10. They comprise a compost bin, kitchen caddy and information leaflet. Since the scheme was launched in 2005, more than 3,000 kits have been bought.
Mrs Norman-Ross said: ‘The scheme has been very successful, both prior to the launch of food waste collections and since then.
‘We think we can do more though. We are keen to encourage islanders who have stopped composting kitchen waste to give that a go again.
‘Plus there are probably a lot of islanders out there who have not yet tried home-composting, but could do.’
. The £10 home composting starter kits can be bought at Earlswood Garden Centre, Guernsey Gardens, Le Friquet Garden Centre, Queux Plant Centre, RH Gaudion and Stan Brouard.
Survey shows how few use bring banks
WESTERN parishes residents, those in houses and those over 40 were more likely to use bring banks, the 2021 Waste and Recycling Survey revealed.
There are bring banks at Waitrose Rohais and Salerie Corner in Town and Longfrie in St Peter’s.
One argument for keeping them has been that people in flats are unable to store recyclables for bi-weekly collections.
But the survey revealed that bring banks were most popular among people living in St Peter’s, St Saviour’s, Forest and Torteval, with 84% of people using them, compared with 68% in Town and a low of 62% in the Vale.
The survey also revealed that they were most popular with people in houses, with 72% using them, against 59% in flats.
An age split also saw 62% of people under 40 using them, compared with 75% of people aged 40 to 75.
There was also a split in how often people use the bring banks. A third of respondents had not used them in the last two years. But nearly 40% used them more than once a year and a quarter used them once a month or more.
While only 2% said they used bring banks exclusively, many said they used them alongside kerbside collections.
More than 40% used it for cardboard and more than 30% for glass.
With glass, bring banks were popular as people did not want the noise from night-time kerbside collections and it also allowed them to deal with a lot of bottles after a celebration.
Guernsey Waste’s operations manager Sarah Robinson said the survey showed how people were using bring banks.
‘We knew that the numbers were low, but would probably not have guessed it was this low,’ she said.
‘The information we now have will help us make informed decisions over the future provision of bring banks.’
States’ Trading Supervisory Board president Peter Roffey was not surprised so few used the bring banks regularly.
‘I have to say I’m one of the minority that does use them on a regular basis because it suits my lifestyle more than the kerbside recycling,’ he said.
‘I realise that I’m a really dwindling percentage of the population now, so that is something we’ll have to take into account when making any future decision.
‘No final decision has been taken yet. But we did flag up in the policy letter published the other day that they do cost a great deal of money to run.’
He said it would be interesting to get the views of States members when they debate the whole issue of waste charges and the waste strategy in September.
