International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) is happening this week (5th – 11th May) the largest and most comprehensive education initiative of the compost industry. It is celebrated nationwide and in other countries each year during the first full week of May. The goal of ICAW is to work together to raise public awareness on why we all should be composting our organics and using compost to create healthier soil.  

We thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit our Guide To Composting (for food service businesses)  

In our conversations with our customers who run cafes and coffee shops, they told us that a continuous problem they have, is getting rid of food waste from the kitchen and plate scraps, particularly as they must pay for waste to be collected. Back in July 2023 we ran a pilot project with our hospitality customers, to see whether there was a better way to deal with food waste from hospitality businesses. 

Working with ten independent coffee shops, pubs and restaurants, we provided them with a free composter, training and guidance on managing food waste. Over the following three months, we tracked their progress, successes and challenges – with a lot of help from our friends at the University of Huddersfield, who collated and analysed the feedback and data from the participants. 

At Dark Woods, we practice what we preach – so we have created our very own composting culture. We have invested in a Ridan hot composter (expensive, but worth it). We now compost all our kitchen waste, chaff from roasting, shredded paper and, of course, our own home-compostable kilo bags. We have given our team kitchen-waste caddies for home, and they bring in their food waste to add to our composter. All the compost we produce gets used on our kitchen garden, and we share out the regular harvests of veg and salad amongst the team. 

This is ongoing for many of our participants and long may it continue – to read more about the project and to download our guide, please visit this link