Vital Earth is on an eco-mission to turn food waste into environmentally friendly peat-free compost - and to get it listed in the major grocery retailers. Alex Black reports


Most of us are so focused on reducing food waste, we forget the other two parts of the green mantra reuse and recycle. Not Vital Earth.

For the past eight years, the company has been taking household food and garden waste, mixing it with bark, soil from brownfield sites and recycled aggregate (such as bricks) and transforming it into compost. A year ago it launched the first comprehensive range of 100%-recycled peat-free composts to be listed nationally. The Vital Earth range (rsp: £3.49 to £7.99), is now stocked by Sainsbury's as well as garden centres and other specialist retailers.

And the company, which was shortlisted in the Green Supplier of the Year category at this year's Grocer Gold Awards in May, isn't just doing the environment good, it is also making money its turnover from compost sales is expected to exceed £1m this year. There's more to come, promises MD Steve Harper.

Having got one of the big four on board, he is now eyeing broader distribution. "The growing season is from February to August, so we are in discussions with supermarkets about next year. I am aiming to double our compost turnover in 2010."

The company's two sites can take 90,000 tonnes of food and garden waste a year, which gives it the potential to produce between three million and four million bags of compost. This year it is on target to sell 677,000 bags, 40,000 of which will be sold in Sainsbury's.

This may not look like much when compared with the 6.7 million tonnes of food waste generated in the UK each year, but the fact that its products are peat-free will be giving its larger rivals something to think about. Digging up peat bogs releases large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere and the government has pledged to make 90% of compost peat-free by next year. Harper reckons the UK is unlikely to be more than 55% peat free by 2010. While the big compost suppliers have small peat-free ranges, Vital Earth is the only one to supply a full range including bulb, seed and vegetable compost that is entirely recycled and peat-free.

Vital Earth takes waste from councils in Derbyshire, Shropshire and South Wales. Harper has plans to open more sites over the next few years and expand capacity. The company is currently only licensed to process household waste, but Harper has an eye on the millions of tonnes of food waste thrown out by retailers. The stumbling block is packaging. "We have the technology to remove small amounts of contaminates from the waste, but at the moment we wouldn't be able to remove large quantities of packaging."

Not that this has stopped Vital Earth making tentative steps towards using commercial by-products. A recent pilot project has seen the company team up with a florist that supplies cut flowers to supermarkets. Vital Earth takes the florist's waste, turns it into compost and sells it back to the florist to use on its flower beds.

For now though, Harper's focus is on getting enough listings to ensure he hits his sales target of £2m by the end of the 2010 growing season. Going green can make money as well as save it, it seems.