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<\/a><\/p>\nThe scheme is the brainchild of Anthea Rossouw, a community- and social development practitioner, who noticed when she was living at Housing 21\u2019s Walstead Court in Crawley that all of the waste was going to landfill. Having signed up to a West Sussex County Council Waste Prevention Advisor course with the University of Brighton, Anthea engaged the residents to provide the skills and knowledge to reduce their waste going to landfill. She also introduced a simple Swedish product called the Green Johanna, which converts garden and food waste into high-grade compost. Unlike conventional composters it is an enclosed vessel, making it vermin proof, and it accepts all types of food, including raw and cooked meat, fish and bones.<\/p>\n
Based on Anthea\u2019s unique people-based approach, optimising partnerships and lessons learned in these trials, a unique partnership between the various stakeholders gave rise to a new approach to tackle waste in communities. Says Anthea Rossouw: \u201cI am elated by the success of this project and the promise it holds for the future of waste management in counties across the country. Facilitating the partners, to work together with the residents, is a rewarding experience and a solution to sustainability\u201d.<\/p>\n
David Grayson, chairman of Housing 21 said: \u201cHousing 21 is keen to improve the quality of life for our elderly residents as well as ticking sustainability boxes. This pilot has met our goals of getting them more involved in the running of their schemes. It has helped to keep them mentally alert and more physically active as well as providing an added reason for neighbours to chat to each other.<\/p>\n In partnership with the University of Brighton and East Sussex County Council Housing 21, ARA extended the project to a number of other sheltered housing schemes in Sussex and West Sussex. By March 2011, residents have composted over a tonne of food over a period of 3 months, waste removal services and the amount and quality of recycling has improved significantly. Some residents will soon be using the compost to fertilise their gardens as some have started to grow their own food.<\/p>\n<\/a>Anthea recently revisited Walstead Court to share with residents some very good news about their waste recycling efforts. On average the use of black bin bags has gone down from three to one per flat per week. Daily weighing, over a six-month period alone, showed that 280 kg of food waste was diverted from landfill and whilst residual waste has dropped significantly, recycling has quadrupled.<\/p>\n