This year, Compost Co. is reaching beyond the limits of Waiheke Island and inspiring people around the country to compost food scraps.

A short video was published on WRT’s YouTube channel about Compost Co. operations early in 2020. As networks shared this video, Prashanti began receiving positive feedback and interest around how Compost Co. fills the niche of working with the circular economy of food “waste”.

Compost Co. has always hosted volunteers on site, and this year the volunteer momentum has grown beyond local interest to other organisations who wanted to use Compost Co. as a model for their own food waste recovery and composting business. Prashanti has hosted volunteers from Dignan Street Growing Point community garden, Kaipatiki Project and Mahurangi Waste Busters, who are all planning to create a similar operation in their local community. Additionally, people from around the North Island have made contact and even visited Waiheke to volunteer and be inspired by Compost Co.

“When Trish Allen from Mahurangi Waste Busters contacted me I was humbled as Trish has always been someone I look up to as a mentor through her work at Rainbow Valley Farm. When I first studied horticulture over 20 years ago I went to visit Rainbow Valley Farm and was so inspired by the permaculture in action and the transformation that Trish and her husband Jo worked so hard to achieve through creating a biomass paradise from a paddock of gorse and wild ginger.”
–Prashanti Lovegrove

Trish brought with her Anna, who also works at the Mahurangi Waste Busters, to learn about Compost Co.’s operations. It was great to hear about the Mahurangi transfer station and their plans to create a compost hub to process food scraps on site. They have already made connections with a local campground and a farmers market to supply food scraps. At Compost Co. Anna and Trish helped to turn the compost bins and inoculate the food waste for fermenting. They could see the outcomes of Prashanti’s many bokashi experiments. One bin had been fermenting anaerobically for 6 months! All in all a fabulous day was had sharing knowledge and learnings from our life experiences.

Here’s what Trish had to say about us: “Thank you for having us last week.  It was awesome!  I’m so impressed at what you have set up and are achieving.”