Food scrap composting offers Wellington businesses an easy way to take climate action

Kaicycle Composting is in growth mode, opening up its collection and composting service to 100 more CBD businesses

The team at Kaicycle have a dream: to see local compost hubs and urban farms in every suburb in Pōneke. Compost hubs collect food scraps from nearby homes and businesses and turn them into rich living compost to grow healthy kai and build community wellbeing. It’s a powerful climate action with good examples overseas (e.g. in Besancon (France), New York and Brisbane) and which is continuing to grow in Aotearoa. 

When food scraps end up in landfill, they produce methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more damaging than CO2. Worse still, we lose all the vital carbon and nutrients they contain, which should be recycled into our soils through composting, improving soil health and resilience to drought and flooding, and reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers in our food system.

Kaicycle Composting currently collects food scraps from 90 Wellington CBD businesses via their team of e-bike collectors. In the last year, their impact included 40.4 tons of food scraps diverted from landfill and 28 tons CO2-e estimated avoided landfill emissions, plus 18 cubic metres of living compost donated to community gardens, māra kai, marae and schools. They are proud to pay their hardworking team at or above the Living Wage.

Now in growth mode, they have expanded to a second composting site: a warehouse base in Rongotai with a new in-vessel composting machine that will raise their total processing capacity to over 100 tonnes per year. The in-vessel system is designed to be odour-free.

Those food scraps have to come from somewhere, and that’s where local businesses come in. Kaicycle urgently needs 100 more businesses to join their food scraps collection service - and join them in taking real climate action by keeping valuable organics out of landfills. 

Kaicycle’s current composting customers are a mix of consultants, Government departments, creative agencies, legal firms, small cafes, workshops and more. 

For the team at Wellington consultancy, MartinJenkins, it was easy to say yes: “It’s often hard to find ways for an office to take real action on our commitment to sustainability, but Kaicycle offers us something we could easily take part in and makes a real difference to our local community.”

For the team at two/fiftyseven, an impact-focused coworking space on Willis St, the community importance was paramount. “We compost with Kaicycle as it's a critical part of reducing our emissions to remain Climate Positive. Our kaupapa is also all about sharing with and uplifting our community, so why not do that with our food scraps that go on to help luscious soil for tasty kai to grow in, just down the road?”

It’s become common in the business world to talk about caring for the environment and being sustainable. Diverting your organic waste from landfill is a real opportunity to walk that talk and make a genuine difference.

This was a key driver for seed-to-garment clothing brand, Kowtow. “We take responsibility for what we produce, how we operate our business and are actively working on solutions to reduce our footprint. Having the Kaicycle compost bin readily available makes composting straightforward for our team. Kowtow and Kaicycle share a reverence for nature and a belief that small actions make a big impact. Kaicycle’s service makes choosing ways of living that protect and regenerate the planet simple.” 

Kaicycle is helping prove the viability of the local composting model by scaling up its service, paving the way for more hubs to spring up all over NZ and build food resilience in our cities and towns. 

To help Kaicycle succeed in this mission, they need Wellington businesses to join them and help make sustainability more than a buzzword. We can all be part of the solution.

For more information and to sign up, visit kaicycle.org.nz/our-services

About Kaicycle:

Established in 2015, Kaicycle Incorporated is an urban farming, composting and community education nonprofit. The heart of Kaicycle is its urban farm on Hospital Rd, Newtown. Kaicycle’s purpose is building local food resilience, to support the wellbeing of our communities and ecosystem into the future. They do this through providing composting services, growing food following regenerative and Hua Parakore principles, and hosting volunteers, visitors and learners of all ages. Kaicycle is a registered charity (CC58759).

https://kaicycle.org.nz/ Instagram and Facebook: @kaicyclewgtn