Food waste composting venture will help Cannich Bridge Primary youngsters grow their own school dinners
Eco-conscious youngsters at a rural Inverness-shire primary school are set to use food waste to grow their own school dinners.
Cannich Bridge Primary School is celebrating the arrival of innovative new composting equipment allowing them to turn leftover food into rich fertiliser for growing plants.
They will include crops of vegetables which, in turn, add to extra nutritional value to daily school meals for pupils and teachers.
The school’s parent council has announced the arrival of the new Ridan Composter as a headline project in the school’s ‘eco plan’.
The project was made possible through a successful funding application to Soirbheas and Strathglass Community Fund, two charities that channel revenues from local renewable energy schemes back into the community.
Eleanor Forster, chairwoman of the parent council, said: “We’re so grateful to our funders for giving our school and wider community the opportunity to take the issue of food waste into our own hands.
“As a rural community, we don’t have access to food waste collection services, so this project will be keeping all food waste produced by our school out of landfill, significantly reducing our carbon emissions.”
Earlier this week, Highland Council catering staff and Kara Scott, community development manager at Soirbheas, visited the school to see the composter in action.
Pupils presented their food waste monitoring chart to showcase the school’s progress, before giving guests a hands-on demonstration.
The new Ridan Composter means the school can now recycle all food waste from the kitchen and canteen – from vegetable peelings to plate scraps – including things usually unsuitable for on-site composting, such as cooked food, meat, bread and dairy.
The clever design of the in-vessel composter allows for hot, fast composting, safe from pests.
The process is simple, sustainable, and child-friendly, with food waste added daily to the Ridan along with an equal volume of dry sawdust.
Pupils then turn the handle a few times, keeping the mixture aerated and creating the perfect environment for the microbes responsible for a hot composting process to take effect.
The composting material slowly makes its way along the insulated, sealed vessel where it is then collected in a bucket, transferred to a maturation box, and left for two to three months for worms and other beneficial soil life to move in.
The resulting rich compost can then be used in the school grounds to enrich the soil and help grow foods, some of which will be used in school meals.
This project also means the school can recycle items that would otherwise end up in landfill, including food scraps, milk, meat and more.
As well as learning about reducing food waste, the children have been learning about how food waste contributes to climate change.
The pupils have calculated that the Ridan composter should save 760kg of food waste from landfill each year, saving 487.5kg of CO2 annually.
Kara of Soirbheas, said: “We funded this project because we wanted to support practical, hands-on learning about sustainability and food waste.
“Well done to the school, the parent council, and of course the pupils themselves for their commitment and enthusiasm.
“It’s fantastic to see them turning food waste into something positive for the environment and the community.”
Maria Reynard, the school’s head teacher, said: “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in the funding and setup of our new Ridan composter.
“It is now officially up and running and the children are heavily involved in the composting process and gathering necessary data to inform menu choices.
“We can’t wait to have fresh compost in the spring, all because we saved our lunchtime food waste from landfill. We hope to open this opportunity to members of the community in the future”.