Sisonke Compost
Welcome to the home of Sisonke Compost, a company established in Durban to address the need to divert the 40 percent organic ‘waste’ fraction (typically food and garden waste resource) from landfill, to reduce the carbon footprint of organic waste. Not only are greenhouse gas emissions reduced by composting and not sending organic waste to landfill with its consequent transport emissions, micro-enterprise opportunity is created in new business potential like food growing, compost making and increased recycling, to make a living planet where both people and Nature thrive. Soil regeneration is one of the solutions to creating a resilient future, as is recognising the need to create new social, environmental and economic paradigms where there is collaboration across sectors to tackle climate change, build resilience and regenerate the living systems of Planet Earth on which we depend.
Sisonke’s Vision & Mission
Our Vision
to make our City a better place by making local compost, diverting organic waste resource from landfill to regenerate local soils for food growing and Nature place making.
Our Mission
to create a network of urban compost sites, food gardens and natural areas, ideally keeping waste in situ / as close to where it is produced, as possible. This not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions by keeping organic waste out of landfill but reduces transport emissions as waste is not transported far.
Sisonke means…
‘we are together’, in the isiZulu language. Our City faces a complex set of challenges which include poverty, unemployment, crime, inequality, climate change and the need for economic development. Our wish is to promote a model that creates resilience and contributes to building thriving local enterprise to begin addressing some of these complexities.
About Sisonke Compost
Sisonke Compost was borne out of the work of sustainability NPO Bioregional South Africa which since 2021 supported an existing food garden started by homeless men during lock down on a municipally owned piece of land behind Southern Sun’s Elangeni Hotel in North Beach, Durban. The garden, originally known as the Elangeni Green Zone, started degenerating as the original growers left; that was when Bioregional stepped in to support. Funding was raised to provide permaculture mentoring to the new growers and collaboration was fostered between the private sector, funders, civil society and the municipality. As a garden needs ongoing organic input to yield productively, a composting pilot was initiated by Bioregional SA who approached the nearby Elangeni Hotel to ask if they would trial the use of Bokashi Bran to treat their food waste which then could be combined with garden waste – leaves from street trees and surplus from a municipal sports complex opposite – to make a complete compost product. The Hotel was keen to participate, as parent group Southern Sun is mandating a zero waste policy at its hotels. Bioregional assisted with SA Food Lab’s analysis of food waste in eThekwini in 2021 which shows the food waste average from Durban Hotels can be anything up to 38T per month per hotel; calculations by the same state that if composted to avoid this waste going to landfill, a minimum of 5T of compost per month, per hotel, could be created. Bioregional worked closely with Bokashi Bran over the period and Director Sarah Alsen founded Sisonke Compost to enrol more businesses to use Bokashi Bran to treat their food waste and so divert it from landfill. Bokashi fermentation means that all food from commercial kitchens, even cooked food, meat products and dairy, can be composted. When combined with garden waste resource, the resulting compost is extremely valuable as a soil conditioner.
Sisonke Durban Garden is open for business today – and also strives to be zero waste, not using plastic bags where possible, in favour of using reusable containers and bags. Remember to bring your own reusable bags if you visit the garden to purchase produce. See Sisonke_Durban_Garden on Instagram.
The Imperatives
- From September 2017 all waste streams with a moisture content above 40% were banned from South African landfills. Since food waste typically has a moisture content of 77%, food waste is technically already banned.
- The National Environmental Management: Waste Act: National Norms and Standards for the Disposal of Waste in Landfills, prohibits all waste with a pH of less than six or greater than twelve. Food waste typically has a pH between 5 and 6.
- The National Waste Minimisation Strategy sets a goal of diverting 50% of all organic waste from landfills by 2022 in preparation for a complete ban in 2027.
Apart from the greenhouse gas implications caused by food waste in landfills, airspace in landfills is becoming increasingly scarce in South Africa, so diverting food and organic waste is the obvious solution.
Benefits of Food Waste Recycling
Awareness Raising + reduced GHG’s
– the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by minimising transport and keeping organic waste out of landfill
– 40% of the waste stream that is organic waste, is used to recycle nutrients for the good of soil regeneration.
– awareness raising, that these waste streams, are valuable
Circular Economy Potential
– the Circular Economy potential of food waste resource being used to grow ‘new’ seasonal fresh produce that is accessible, encourages healthy eating and can be bought back by the very kitchens who provide the food waste resource
– with up to 80% of people globally thought to be living in cities by 2050, urban food gardens will be important in providing fresh food and local employment
Recycling Increase
– increase in recycling rates of other materials (glass, plastics, paper, cardboard, tins and cans) by up to 25% as they are not contaminated with food waste
Wildlife + Natural Environment Improvement
– composting brings so many benefits to gardens. It improves soil structure, helps to increase water retention and provides food for decomposers (soil invertebrates and plants, such as fungi, that specialise in breaking down plant material), which in turn attracts birds and mammals
Sisonke Compost Services
- Sales of Bokashi Bran to enable food waste from any kitchen – your own home, or commercial kitchen e.g. hotel, canteen, or restaurant – to be treated in kitchen and so diverted from the normal waste stream.
- Regular collections of treated food waste from commercial kitchens, to make it easy for you to implement food waste separation at source, and
- Compost training and making, in collaboration with anyone who is keen to compost – to produce the ‘black gold’ that is wonderful for local soil regeneration.
Compost Musings
New year, new website, new beginnings …..
One of the questions always lingering in a new business start up’s mind (if not just me), is ‘am I going to make it, with this business’? I feel so passionate about striving for a zero waste world, am so happy creating lovely compost windrows that smell so good when nearing completion and are going to add goodness to the soil, quite apart from the good news of diversion of valuable resource, from landfill. But can the business be profitable?
In the first year of operation we have diverted over 60T of treated food waste alone, from landfill. And at least twice this amount, of garden waste resource. There is plenty more where this came from, so we continue into year 2 – the main hurdle being to find localised sites on which to compost on, multiple different sites all around Durban, being the vision. Then to get the relevant permissions in place from government who is supposed to be encouraging the decentralisation of composting. I await anxiously to hear if funding applications may have been successful to purchase a chipper as would usefully help to chop some of the larger garden waste. New partnerships are always a possibility, new employment offerings if this works, new markets to break into – and I’ll say it again, we need more sites on which to compost.
Sisonke – together – we are stronger, please be in touch if you think you there is a site near you that may be suitable for composting. Perhaps we can make this work, together?
The first week of May marked the beginning of International Compost Awareness Week, celebrated annually to promote the benefits of composting and compost for effective resource management, soil health and plant growth. Overseas in the UK, US and Canada, it unites the composting industry under a common banner. It is a unique opportunity allowing individual organisations involved in composting to benefit from a wider campaign and to form partnerships with organisations within a community. The goals are as follows:
1. to increase the diversion of organics from the main waste stream through increasing awareness of, and participation in organics diversion initiatives (centralized composting, curbside, home composting, community composting), and
2. to increase awareness of, and advocate the proper use of, ‘soil-improving composts’.
Here in SA, composting is a relatively young industry in terms of innovation such as curbside, home and community composting – all of which are most appropriate to our African context. Centralised composting, while necessary to cope with the sheer volume of food waste (some 10.3 million tonnes per annum, in SA), brings challenges in terms of scale, odour control, quality of compost produced and the distances [and consequent travel costs] the waste has to travel to larger sites which usually, in terms of space, necessitate being further from the source of food waste production.
No easy answers but ‘local production for local needs’ is a saying that has always rung true for me, particularly when it comes to bulky natural resources which can cost a lot to transport around, as well as the transport emissions involved too. Keeping them as close to where they are produced, is a win-win all around. And the local microenterprise opportunity that can be created in localising compost making / potentially linking to local food garden development as it is expected by 2050 up to some 80% of people will be living in cities. Food growing has got to localise too, where practical.
We are always at one of our sites on a Tuesday or Wednesday each week, so if you would like to come and learn some more about Bokashi treated food waste composting, please do reach out and we would be delighted to show you around.
Happy week of composting! and if you haven’t started composting yet, now’s the time! Every little bit helps.
Some of our clients include
