Overview of Living Soil and our work pioneering EM and Bokashi in the UK
"One of the most effective natural ways of
diverting food waste from landfill"
The Observer on Sunday on Living Soil
Introduction to Living Soil
Living Soil is the pioneer of EM in the UK, incorporating methods of home food waste composting, waste minimization strategies for councils, and sustainable agriculture.
The Living Soil ‘Kitchen Waste Digester’, the first product of its kind in the UK, is an evolution in kitchen waste recycling, turning food scraps into fuel for plants, creating beautiful and bountiful gardens, and reducing the pollution of landfill sites.
EM used across the World with success
The domestic Kitchen Waste Digester, as well as the large scale applications of EM to food-waste treatment and agriculture have been thoroughly tried and tested across over 110 countries where quality of life and food production have been greatly enhanced.
It is time for the UK to avail itself of the cost-saving and ecologically enhancing benefits of EM methods. Living Soil is happy to reveal this natural technology to the UK and help the translation from inefficient and unnatural methods, to a new, sustainable and ecologically centered infrastructure.
Because the applications of EM are diverse, we present this booklet to give an overview of the products and consultation we can provide, so homes, farms, businesses and local governments can understand how they can apply EM.
Living Soil 18 litre Kitchen Waste Digester
™
with handy tap for draining off microbial-rich plant food!
Daily Mail Recommended Garden Product of the Month
Observer on Sunday : Living Soil System “Best for
recycling food waste”
Reduce household organic waste by 100 %
Makes extremely beneficial organic compost in just 2 weeks.
A New dimension in Composting - Kyusei (Earth Saving) nature farming
for the home. Be part of an Earth Saving Revolution by lowering
your homes environmental impact. Used in over 2 million households
worldwide.
Benefits:
• No smells because friendly and safe bacteria is used
• No fruit flies
• Small & compact for the kitchen
• Composts cooked and uncooked food, meat, fish, fruit and
vegetables
• Will rebuild the soil in your garden on a microbial level
• Will decontaminate soil from harmful pathogens and pollutants
• Watch your garden bloom with new life as you bury your fermented
food waste directly under the soil
• Be part of an organic solution by directing food waste away
from the landfill.
Fully airtight, 18 litre food waste digester specially designed
in Japan for use with Bokashi.
Creates powerfully beneficial compost for growing extremely vibrant
and healthy plants, flowers and vegetables.
Perfect for the home vegetable patch and flowerbeds.
Features a tap for draining off a liquid rich with nutrients from
the food waste and beneficial microbe rich juice which can be used
for :
The garden : To fertilize existing garden and house plants use a
teaspoon to 5 liters of water and apply directly to the soil.
The house : Pour liquid directly into your kitchen and bathroom
drains, toilets and septic system. EM helps prevent algae build-up
and limit pathogenic bacteria.
The Kitchen Waste Digester includes :
• Full Instructions
• 3 bags of Bokashi (6 month supply of compost starter)
• 1 kitchen waste digester (420x315x315mm)
Local Councils and Living Soil – Here to Help
Helping Local Councils create sustainable infrastructure, thus fulfilling
Local Agenda 21, The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) and the recently
ratified Kyoto Protocol.
EM (pro-biotic) food-waste treatment has been shown to be the solution
to the landfill problem in many parts of the world.
Living Soil has catalyzed all the UK trials in this system for both domestic and centralized EM composting schemes, and results indicate an easy adoption and high success rate.
Due to the experience living soil has gained over the years we can design and tailor the fermentation composting to the need of councils, local authorities, catering in hospitals, prisons, and schools.
We can tailor make documentation, design educational material so this new technology can be rolled out in the easiest way for adoption and easy uptake by many different sectors.
Living Soil are able to provide products at special rates for councils:
• Consultation, education, and presentations
• High-volume supply of the tried and tested ‘Kitchen
Waste Digesters’
• EM-liquid culture and EM-bokashi
An expensive problem with a cost-effective solution
Around 30% UK domestic waste is organic matter. Currently, the
majority of food waste is land-filled. This represents one of the
most difficult and expensive waste problems due to explosive greenhouse
gas (methane) and leachate, a toxic cocktail which can cause serious
groundwater and surface water pollution. Because of these problems,
food waste is one of the most expensive substance to landfill:
• Food and organic waste is charged at the higher rate of
£11 per tonne
• Inactive waste has a lower charge of £2 per tonne.
Some 17m tonnes of food worth up to £20bn a year are being put into landfill, even though approximately 25% of it could be safely eaten by people or animals, or turned into compost and energy. The cost of transporting it and throwing it into landfills is thought to be more than £175m a year.
Land-filling of green waste and food waste also involves the loss of an important resource. If treated properly it constitutes a powerful regenerative energy for parks, gardens, and agriculture. Councils can save a great amount of money with employing an EM composting system to deal with the catering waste from public utilities.
The UK ranks far behind Europe in vigorously initiating much needed changes to infrastructure. Although composting increased through the 1990s, less than 4% of organic house-hold waste in the UK is treated by this method, compared to 44% in Germany.
Because of this sluggishness for the UK to modernize its infrastructure, legislation now indicates that councils must initiate real-world solutions. The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) seeks to reduce biodegradable waste sent to landfill to 35% of 1995 figures, to be achieved by 2016.
Living Soil has the experience and knowledge to help progressive councils design sustainable and cost-effective infrastructure for handling food and organic wastes that will meet both the Environment Agency and DEFRA (SVS) requirements.
Read on to find out about Living Soil initiated UK projects.
UK Trials and Pioneering Projects
If councils and communities are to meet their recycling and composting targets the issue of food waste needs to be addressed throughout the entire country.
Living Soil have helped initiate and pioneer several large scale EM-composting projects within communities, schools and national events, vastly reducing their environmental impact and transforming food waste into a valuable compost for community and ecological development.
The Coach House Trust
The Coach House Trust in central Glasgow works to help reintegrate
people into their community and help them fulfill their potential.
As part of their activities, the CHT actively promote composting
in the local community. Spearheading CHT is Rita Winters, who endorses
the EM method. The occupants of more than 100 Glasgow flats are
using bokashi bins which are dug into the local community ornamental
beds. Tests have found that pathogenic bacteria, such as E. coli,
are not found in bokashi bins. This, coupled with the lack of foul
smells makes it an ideal technique for dealing with kitchen waste.
The CHT scheme indicates how use of EM, combined with connectivity
and integration between urban neighborhoods and local fallow land,
allotments, parks and gardens, is the key to solving the expensive
food-waste problem.
ELCRP : Showing the Way
Winner of Best Community Project at the National Recycling Awards
2004
“An example of good practice” - The Environmental Agency
With Living Soil’s consultation, East London Community Recycling
Project, spearheaded by Cam Matheson developed a food waste collection
system that meets both EA and DEFRA requirements and is reaching
5,000 households.
Because it meets the Animal By-Products Regulations it doesn't require
separation of meat and fish from the rest of the organic waste.
The system, using EM Bokashi, stops putrefaction, smells, flies
and maggots. With good participations rates of up to 84.7% this
scheme is going a long way to benefit inner city estates and relieve
the pollution and cost associated with food waste.
Collecting, sorting and storage of recyclable materials and composting
of biodegradable waste (food waste included) is regulated by the
- Environmental Protection Act 1990-Part ll; Waste Management Licensing
Regulations 1994; Regulations 17 & 18 and Schedule 3; Register
of Exemptions from Waste Management Licensing.
ELCRP was inspected by the Environment Agency (EA) and was approved
for the Sorting and Storage of Recyclables as well as the Composting
of Biodegradable Waste, and is used as an example of good practice.
Agriculture
EM works to nurture soil health, from which the plants derive strong
immune systems and nutrients. Not only does using EM help efficiency
thus raise profit margins, in many cases it substantially adds to
the lifespan and sustainability of soil, plant and animal health
– the bedrocks of agriculture in all its forms.
Silage Feed with EM-Silage
• A ready made product, requiring only dilution with water.
• Acceleration of pH- decline and creation of nutrients
• Proven in the field, works for grass, maize and whole crop
silages.
• Safe/pleasant to handle, and non-corrosive to machinery
• Improves milk yield
Soil regeneration through inoculation with EM-Liquid Culture
• EM-liquid culture can be diluted and drip fed or sprayed
onto crops and soil.
• Reduces risk of crop blights by re-introducing natural,
beneficial soil microbes
• Completely non-toxic to organisms
• Pro-biotics work to anti-oxidize (protect) plant roots and
spoon-feed nutrients to plants
Composting with EM-Bokashi
• EM can be used as a means of processing organic waste to
create a rich compost to facilitate crop growth.
• 1 litre of EM can produce 204 kg of Bokashi, which can process
7530kg/7.5 tons of organic food waste, rich in beneficial microbes,
nutrients and antioxidants.
• The compost is pleasant smelling, safe to handle and non-corrosive
to machinery.
Animal Husbandry with EM-Liquid Culture
• removal of malodors from animals and manure (works by increasing
general health, excluding pathogenic bacteria, and decreasing ammonia
levels in manure)
• maintaining hygienic conditions (sprayed EM helps to exclude
pathogenic bacteria and beneficially ferment any organic matter
instead of it putrefying)
• Increases amino-acid content of feed by 28% after inoculation
and fermentation with EM.
About the author :
Daniel Woodward is trained in Advanced Environmental and Energy
Studies at C.A.T (The Centre for Alternative Technology), and has
written for ‘Building For A Future’ and ‘Permaculture
Magazine’ as an independent journalist and researcher.
