Last year, UK homes created 4.5 million tonnes of food waste. That’s 4,500,000,000 kg of food that could have been eaten and, instead, ended up in landfill, where it produces dangerous greenhouse gases.
Alongside a better use of resources, we could also start composting the organic materials we normally throw away—potato peels, banana peels, coffee grounds, bread, eggshells.
The problem for many people is that they have no outdoor space or access to a composting bin.
Enter ShareWaste—an app connecting people who want to recycle their kitchen scraps to neighbours “who are already composting, worm farming, or keeping chickens.”
The idea is to help people recycle their organic waste, even if they’re often travelling for work or living in a place without space for a composting bin.
ShareWaste is as simple to use as signing up to connect with neighbours and choosing whether to donate or receive organic waste.
A private messaging function within the app allows would-be donors to talk to neighbours who have signed up and then donate the scraps.
“If you’re like us, you produce awful lots of organic scraps,” Share Waste founders and married couple Eli Bramborova and Tomas Brambora write on the ShareWaste website. “Heaps of it, really. Peels, used coffee grounds…Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn all that stuff into new soil rather than adding yet another pile to landfill? We think it would.”
Tom is a software engineer, working on the technical aspects of the ShareWaste platform, while Eli heads the day-to-day operations of the app.
“Now you can divert waste from landfill while getting to know the people around you,” the couple adds.
Share Waste is a grassroots solution, protecting the world from dangerous methane gas and helping composters at the same time.
One app user, Margaret Archibald, told Infotel that although she isn’t an “app person,” she thought the Share Waste programme was easy enough for many people to use and benefit from.
“I do not like to see one scrap of organic material going into the landfill,” she tells the site. “There is no need for that.”
“You can never have too much compost. You can ask any gardener that, we all want more compost.”
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