FoodLoop is a design-led social enterprise that offers local authorities a blueprint system for localised composting of biodegradable waste on housing estates. A specially designed community composting machine, the Rocket Composter, is installed on each estate and managed by local residents. As well as dealing with waste collection and management, they will also learn gardening and landscaping skills, using the compost to cultivate fruit and vegetable plants on communal areas of the estate.
Co-design processes will be used to find ways of getting maximum buy-in from staff and residents in the whole process. Workshops with staff and residents will help create waste separation and collection systems best suited to their needs, and will generate ideas for the design of new green spaces on the estate to improve their sense of community.
The purpose of FoodLoop is three-fold:
To create compost from waste, successfully diverting food waste from inner-city flats from landfill by giving residents direct experience of the issues and offering them a functional system for managing it; To green the estates, transforming the unused and often wasted spaces of inner city council housing into rich and flourishing social and agricultural spaces; To nurture self respect and well-being, by offering meaningful training and employment for residents in their immediate community.
