Tackling carbon footprint through community composting

The Hidden Gardens and GALLANT is engaging with communities and supporting people to adopt sustainable practices through hands-on composting experience, helping to manage food waste and contribute to reducing the city’s carbon footprint.

Participants learn about the composting process from the Hidden Garden's staff

Words and Photos by Samar Jamal 

For many, composting can seem like a daunting task to get right, requiring specialised knowledge as well as space. This is particularly true for those living in tenements in and around Govanhill with little to no garden space

The Hidden Gardens and GALLANT (Glasgow as a Living Laboratory Accelerating Novel Transformation) is working with people to change that. GALLANT is a five-year project from the University of Glasgow which aims to treat the city ‘as a living lab to trial new sustainable solutions.’ Through their Compost Co-Lab project, participants gain hands-on experience and the confidence to adopt sustainable eco-friendly alternative practices for food waste in their homes. 

This project is one of many launched by GALLANT Since 2022, which is working to address environmental challenges within the city. Their current focus is addressing flood risk, halting biodiversity loss, regenerating derelict and polluted land, promoting active travel and inclusive mobility and implementing sustainable energy. 

We previously covered their participatory photography project mapping the Southside’s sustainability solutions and the composting project kicked off with a meeting in The Community Newsroom.

Getting my hands dirty 

I went along to The Hidden Gardens one Friday morning to learn more about the project, where a compost installation had been set up for the five participants and where composting is already an integral part of the garden and is used throughout the year to replenish the soil.

Florence Halstead, one of the project co-ordinators whose research focuses on the intersection between society, climate change, and education, said:

“We know that composting helps the environment. We know that it contributes to a more sustainable planet. But our key target audience were people who were on the brink of doing it but not quite confident enough.” 

While some participants had more composting experience than others, everyone got hands-on experience of the composting process, to deepen their understanding of the process practically, with the support of the Hidden Garden’s volunteer Pauline Slaven and Mo Odling, the community programme manager. 

We started by rolling up our sleeves and getting ready to mix the material in the box. The smell of damp leaves and fresh grass filled the air as we layered the compost with leaves, cardboard and twigs before eventually mixing it. Various bugs emerged from the compost, a natural and essential part of the composting process. Finally we logged the soil temperature, PH level and took note of which bugs were in the soil, allowing us to measure the condition of the soil. 

Whilst the compost is installed in a public part of the garden, it will be monitored by the participants over the next two months, some of who are local to the area and others living in the wider city. By logging the condition of the compost they will learn about optimal composting conditions and use this knowledge to manage composting of garden or food waste at home through sustainable practices and techniques, which they will put into action at home with GALLANT-supplied compost bins. 

Southside resident and project participant, Jenny felt motivated to join to make an impact locally: “I've always said that I think we need to start at the bottom and the project is encouraging me to make small changes and I feel as if I’m making some impact. If you do a little bit, you've got some knowledge and then you can pass it on.” 

The added bonus of handling the soil has been reported by the Sustainable Soils Alliance to improve mental wellbeing as touching the soil can trigger the release of serotonin. 

Community input into science and science input into communities

There’s also a citizen science element to this project – through participation, GALLANT, will be able to record important research on sustainability and how it can be applied to other cities and support Glasgow's aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Florence added: “This project's important because it comes from the community first and foremost. It’s with community input into science and science input into communities, working together rather than separately. By doing it through a localised place-based approach, we can not only encourage different types of people to get involved but also I think scientists can learn a lot from the people who are living in these spaces.”

Tackling our carbon footprint

The 2021-2023 report on Waste Composition Analysis of Households found food waste remains the largest waste item found in household waste. Despite a small reduction of 2,000 tonnes since 2013, a staggering 330,000 tonnes of food waste is still collected each year. This remains a significant issue, as research shows that tackling food waste is one of the most effective actions we can take to reduce the carbon footprint of Scotland's waste – a goal that can be supported through composting and the use of food waste recycling bins.

In 2016, grey food waste bins were introduced to the Southside’s tenement back courts. Five years later the bins were removed due to them being contaminated with non-food waste items, leading to high council costs, according to Glasgow City Council. To alleviate the problem 50 public food waste recycling bins were installed across the Southside to continue encouraging households to recycle. Residents can check where to find food waste bins, as well as other recycling bins online. 

Residents can now also receive a food caddy and liners from their local library, however, for some, there is still confusion about where to take their food waste afterwards. One of the participants said: "They’re really encouraging us to use the food caddy and to do something and start the process, but we don’t know where to take food waste."

By actively engaging in composting, participants are not only learning valuable skills and how to compost their food waste at home but also directly contributing to reducing Glasgow’s carbon footprint. Each step – whether logging soil temperature or using food waste bins at home – makes a measurable difference. 

Even for those living in tenement buildings with limited space, the project makes composting feel more achievable and grants people knowledge that they can share with their neighbours. By separating food waste and putting it in compost, residents can make an environmental impact on a local level. 

For those who aren’t able to compost but don’t want to put their food scraps in the general waste bin, there are apps like Share Waste which connect people who want to recycle their food waste with neighbours who are already composting, worm-farming or keeping farm animals.

Jenny, is already excited to revisit the gardens, conveniently located just a short walk from her home and on her daily route to the Gurdwara for lunch at the langar:

“I went back this week to record the temperatures and was really excited, I felt a little nervous at first but Pauline from the Hidden Gardens was there to help. I got the highest temperature that day which was much higher than earlier in the day and I took some photos of some bugs and woodlice. I really enjoyed it.” 

For updates and more information about GALLANT project visit the website or get in touch with the project co-ordinator, Florence at florence.Halstead@glasgow.ac.uk.