Composting for Resilient Cities
- Alex Montgomery
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
Rethinking Waste in the Urban Age
Cities have always been engines of innovation, yet when it comes to waste, most still run on 19th-century logic.
Our waste systems were designed to move material out of sight, out of mind, not to nourish life. In an age of climate disruption, resource scarcity, and fragile supply chains, this mindset is no longer sustainable.
Composting offers a low-tech, high-impact way to make cities more resilient, reconnecting people, soil, and systems that have been separated for over a century.
The Linear City Problem
The modern urban metabolism is largely linear:
1️⃣ Extract resources
2️⃣ Consume and discard
3️⃣ Manage waste through distant, centralised systems
This model creates dependency and fragility. When global supply chains falter, as seen during the pandemic and ongoing food price shocks, cities face growing pressure to secure their own resources.
Organic waste is the most abundant local resource we ignore. Up to 40% of household waste in UK cities is compostable material, food scraps, garden clippings, and biodegradable packaging, yet most of it still ends up burned or landfilled.
That’s not just waste; it’s lost resilience.
Composting as Urban Infrastructure
Resilient cities treat composting not as a side project, but as essential infrastructure.
At Generation Soil, we see compost hubs as living systems that:
Close nutrient loops, returning fertility to local soils
Reduce emissions, by cutting methane from landfill
Improve food security, by enriching urban agriculture
Strengthen community bonds, through shared purpose and stewardship
Every litre of compost produced in Bristol through the Bristol Living Compost Project represents carbon retained, waste diverted, and soil regenerated.
Learning from Global Leaders
Bristol isn’t alone in reimagining waste. Around the world, cities are proving that composting can be a cornerstone of urban resilience.
Surabaya, Indonesia
Surabaya achieved a 20% household participation rate in composting by distributing low-cost compost bins and rewarding residents with reduced waste fees.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen’s localised compost collection integrates with district heating and energy systems, creating a closed-loop city metabolism.
Santiago, Chile
Neighbourhood composting hubs feed urban farms and public gardens, fostering community engagement and food access.
Learn more: From Surabaya to Bristol: What the UK Can Learn from Community Composting Success Stories
Building Compost Infrastructure Locally
Urban composting doesn’t require a massive investment, just coordination and imagination.
At Generation Soil, our hubs follow an innovative three-stage composting process:
1️⃣ Collection. Households and businesses separate food scraps locally.
2️⃣ Fermentation (Bokashi method). Waste is pre-treated with beneficial microbes to prevent odours and speed decomposition.
3️⃣ Composting and curing. The material transforms into nutrient-rich soil at our market garden sites.
This process not only keeps nutrients local but also makes composting accessible in dense urban areas, from flats to food businesses.
Explore how you can join: Bristol Living Compost Project Membership
Why Composting Builds Climate Resilience
Healthy soils are water banks, carbon stores, and biodiversity hotspots, all essential for climate adaptation.
Living compost improves:
Water retention, reducing urban flood risk
Carbon sequestration, locking CO₂ into stable soil carbon
Biodiversity, by supporting microbial and pollinator life
Food system resilience, by rebuilding soil fertility locally
When composting becomes a civic habit, resilience becomes cultural, not just technical.
Integrating Compost into City Policy
Cities like Bristol already have ambitious sustainability plans, yet composting often remains overlooked.
To integrate compost into city planning, we need to:
1️⃣ Recognise it as critical infrastructure
2️⃣ Embed composting in waste contracts and procurement policies
3️⃣ Support community-scale composting alongside municipal systems
4️⃣ Connect compost data to wider food, soil, and climate indicators
Our current system rewards waste removal, not nutrient return. True resilience means reversing that incentive.
Composting as a Civic Movement
Composting isn’t just science, it’s citizenship. It gives people a tangible way to act on climate, right where they live.
That’s why Generation Soil runs workshops, school programs, and community composting hubs that make regeneration real.
Each bin filled, each litre returned, is part of a larger cultural shift, one that values soil as a shared commons, not an afterthought.
Get involved: Workshops and Events
The Future of Resilient Cities
In the 19th century, Britain built sewers to save cities from disease.
In the 21st century, we must build circular food systems to save them from decline.
Composting for resilient cities isn’t about nostalgia; it’s about redesigning the urban metabolism around life, not waste.
And if Bristol can do it, so can any city.
Key Takeaway
Composting is not just waste management. It’s climate adaptation, community regeneration, and ecological repair in one act.
When we compost, we don’t just feed the soil, we feed our future.
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