Grammar School students mix wood with their leftovers to turn them into useful garden compost

When it comes to unwanted food, it’s chips with everything at Colyton Grammar School.

Green students are adding slivers of wood to their leftovers to help turn them into garden compost.

They are using a clever machine which churns food waste, mixing it with woodchips to aerate it and prepare it for the natural process of decomposition.

The Ridan Composter is being operated by students in the school’s Green Society, keen to turn the 15 to 20 kilograms of food waste produced there every day into something useful – rather than sending it to landfill.

Teacher and society head Rex Stidwell said: “What makes any composter useful, of course, is the way in which it deals with food waste. Food is left to decompose naturally and, after a few months, it produces rich compost which will be used to fertilise the school grounds.

“This has been a long process, but with funding from a Devon grant and school funds we now have in place an excellent and sustainable system, that in the long term will help reduce the school’s ecological footprint and save the school money.”