Food waste
Throwing out food costs our pockets, wastes resources and is a massive contributor to the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
Avoiding food waste is easily done with a few tips and tricks and any waste that's leftover can be composted into a new resource.
£1bn
worth of food is wasted by UK households each year.
26%
of the waste in Highland household refuse bins is food waste that could have been eaten or composted.
10%
of the world's carbon emissions come from food that is lost or wasted
HCWP Legacy
On this page, learn more about our activity and impact over the HCWP period, including case studies and links to further resources.
Our impact
Food waste & composting webinar
Hear directly from partners about their work on this topic, from delivering workshops and resources, to setting up local projects including a range of community/larger-scale composting projects. Featuring Broadford & Strath Community Company, Highland Good Food Partnership, Lochaber Environmental Group, Lochbroom & Ullapool Community Trust, Transition Black Isle and Velocity Café & Bicycle Workshop.
Recorded in March 2025.
Case studies
Jump to: Events & workshops | Community initiatives | Business initiatives
Events & Workshops
Lochaber Environmental Group was one of the lead partners for home composting. In addition to composting workshops, they collaborated with the local Men’s Shed to build and distribute a total of 249 composters to households across the Lochaber area, diverting an estimated 73 tonnes of food waste from landfill.
The Zero Waste Food Challenge, led by Transition Black Isle is a modular course designed to prevent food waste at key stages from planning and shopping, to storing, cooking and finally composting. This was made available both as an online resource and through local, in-person workshops, reaching 99 people. The resource is also available as a delivery pack for anyone wishing to run it in their community.
Community initiatives
The Plantation Community Larder, set up with support from Lochaber Environmental Group, served 147 customers and diverted over 540 kg of food waste from landfill between August – December 2024
Velocity Café and Bicycle Workshop collaborated with Highland Council on a local project to encourage uptake of the council’s food waste recycling service in the Crown Hill neighbourhood of Inverness. Though door knocking and other engagement they achieved a 10% increase in uptake and gathered valuable feedback for improving access to the service. Read more here
Kilmallie Community Fridge and Garden, in collaboration with Lochaber Environmental Group, where 10 local households funnelled their food waste into the local community garden. Through this project we diverted a total of 585 kg of food waste from landfill, over the course of 12 months. Read more here
The Zero Waste Food Challenge, led by Transition Black Isle is a modular course designed to prevent food waste at key stages from planning and shopping, to storing, cooking and finally composting. This was made available both as an online resource and through local, in-person workshops, reaching 99 people. The resource is also available as a delivery pack for anyone wishing to run it in their community.
Business initiatives
Engaging with hospitality businesses is a challenge anywhere, and especially in the Highlands. Drawing on their experience from this work, engaging over 200 hospitality businesses to reduce their food waste, Highland Good Food Partnership have compiled some of their learning and tips here.
The Old Forge Inn in Knoydart gained valuable insights into some key sources of food waste, including spoilage, which accounted for 42% of waste and hinged on seasonal factors.
Stramash Nursery achieved a slight decrease in their food waste from 212 grams/cover, costing an estimated £901 per year, to 190 grams/cover, after understanding some of the main sources of food waste and some of the challenges around addressing it.
From an initial objective to rehome a Rocket in-vessel composter, Lochaber Environmental Group, in collaboration with the Highland Good Food Partnership, navigated the challenges of larger-scale, local composting solutions in the Highlands, giving rise to the Ardtornish and Knoydart projects below, and In-vessel Composting Group for the Highlands, as well as the community composting projects outlined in the section above.
At Ardtornish Estate, food waste was collected from 10 holiday cottages and 6 holiday apartments to be composted in a refurbished Rocket composter, diverting 814 Kg of food waste from landfill in 8 months and producing 65 kg of compost.
At Knoydart Farm, kitchen waste from The Old Forge CBS was diverted to a Jora JK800 manual composter, saving 180 Kg of food waste from landfill over 10 weeks and with lots of learning generated as to how to best go about this.
Resources and learning
Highland Community Composting Toolkit
Co-developed with highland communities, this resource is designed to help you navigate the jounrey towards setting up a community composting project.
If it seems daunting, make sure to check out our community composting case studies above!
Zero Waste Scotland bitesize food waste course
A 15 minute bitesize course with small, easy changes you can make to the way you shop, plan, cook and eat to save reduce food waste and save money.
