About The Compost Connection

The Compost Connection is a new venture in Sheffield which will create living compost from local domestic and commercial food waste. We intend to be both a commercial and community enterprise that will offer a viable alternative to current food waste disposal options available in Sheffield and produce a beautiful compost which will be supplied back to household members of our collection scheme, sold commercially and made available to community organisations involved in food production.

We chose the name Compost Connection to reflect the connectivity involved in food waste composting process:

• at a community level by connecting growers/producers with consumers not just by the food we consume but by the waste generated and returning that to the growing cycle as a useful commodity

• at a biological level - plants need a health soil that has networks provided by bacterial and fungal organisms in order to be able take up nutrients

CoCoCo&Co Ltd is the Limited Company which will trade as the Compost Connection. It stands for Consider, Commit, Cooperate. And Compost and seeks to convey the holistic approach we will adopt in our business by thinking not just about profit but the local and wider community, the environment and the current and future health of our planet by considering each and every action we take, committing to our wider aims and cooperating with individuals and organisations across Sheffield and beyond.

CoCoCo&Co Ltd will be incorporated in accordance with the B Corp Legal Requirement - this is a prerequisite for businesses who wish to become B Corp certified and requires the Articles of Association of the Company to be amended from the standard model articles to include a requirement that the Directors of the Company must take into account all stakeholders including society and the environment when making decisions on behalf of the business. More information on the B Corp Legal Requirement can be found here.

When the business is operational we will then apply for B Corp Certification so that our business activities are aligned to an internationally recognised standard for ethical trading and externally certified.

Living compost is a compost which is more than just organic matter, it contains an active microbiology including beneficial bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa which are all vital ingredients for a healthy living soil.

Many commercial composts are created in such a way and at such a scale that the raw ingredients are heated to such temperatures that most life is killed off rather than just weed seeds and pathogens and then isn't given the time or environment to mature and allow the microbiology to develop.

In many cases soils are not deficient in the essential nutrients that plants require to grow, but instead lack the microbiology that provides the means for plants to use those nutrients.

We can compost any food waste including vegetable peelings, cooked food, meat (but no bones please), dairy and cereal/grain based products.

We encourage householders to add bokashi bran to the food waste as this kickstarts a fermentation process which makes the food waste unattractive to vermin.

We hope to make bokashi bran available to individuals and businesses working with the Compost Connection.

We will provide airtight buckets from food and construction businesses which we will clean and divert from going to waste. You just need to fill the bucket with your food waste and a bit of bokashi bran and keep it sealed ready for collection.

We anticipate this will be every 1-3 weeks depending on the volume produced and your location.

Ideally collection from householders would be free and we are trying to understand if this will be possible, however due to logistics and economy of scale it may not be without public funding. Sheffield Council's hands are tied somewhat by the long term contract with Veolia who have an exclusive contract for household waste collection in Sheffield until 2038; they would want compensation for excluding food waste from that contract as it is a key source of fuel for the Sheffield incinerator.

Similar schemes elsewhere in the UK make a monthly charge, in return for which the scheme members receive regular supplies of compost but we appreciate not all householders who want to have their food waste composted will have any great need for compost, if at all.

We want to encourage as many households to get involved as possible in such a scheme so another option we are considering is a pay what you feel basis.

We are aiming, subject to finding a suitable premises and obtaining the relevant permissions, to start collecting food waste in September which would mean our first batches of compost would be ready by the start of 2025.

The proposed method of composting will have 3 stages:

1. Initial food waste collection by householders and businesses - ideally at this stage bokashi bran (learn about bokashi composting here) is added to layers of the food waste to start decomposition by fermentation - this also makes the food waste less attractive to vermin.

2. Once collected the food waste is added to an 'in-vessel' composter with equal amounts of a carbon source (normally wood chip or sawdust)  to undergo the 'thermophilic stage' of composting. The material in the composter is turned regularly (i.e. once a day) to ensure oxygen can get into the mix. The compost should reach an ideal temperature of 60 degrees centigrade in the vessel which is enough to kill weed seeds and where fats, proteins and cellulose in the off waste would break down without killing off all beneficial bacteria and fungi present . This process takes at least two weeks and once finished you have a form of pre-compost where much of the food waste has broken down but which isn't yet ready for the garden. Here is a good introduction to the science of composting.

3. The final stage is maturation where the compost is stored in some form of container or bay to continue breaking down. During this 'mesophilic stage' of composting bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms develop which break down the lignin and other 'harder' materials in the compost at temperatures between 10 to 40 degrees centigrade. We plan on using a form of maturation based on the Johnson-Su bioreactor which allows plenty of oxygen to enter the compost mix to ensure the decomposition is aerobic. This was developed by Dr David Johnson and Hui-Chun Su based on research they had undertaken at the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture at New Mexico State University which showed that compost with a high fungi to bacteria relationship can generate much higher yields. A video guide to making the reactor is here and a presentation of his research is here. Due to the initial pre-composting in the vessels, this stage should take 2-3 months rather than 6 to 12 months but we will be testing the quality of the compost to ensure that it has developed a fungi:bacterial ratio of at least 0.3:1 so we can confidently call it a living compost.

Yes, we are a registered upper tier waste carrier and dealer our registration number is CBDU539982 and our current certificate can be viewed at the bottom of this page.