The day begins at home. We end up in the kitchen — the place where many shared moments and many meals are created. The place where family and friends gather and socialize, over a coffee, cooking or simply sitting at the dining table and having conversations. 

The kitchen is also where food is cooked. A place filled with aromas, pots, plates, glasses and food products of all kinds. Each house is unique compared to the other. You truly won’t find the same kitchen anywhere. Each one is as unique as the people who use it.

However, every kitchen has one thing in common — the need for food, so that the meals we eat every day can be cooked. Without food there is no life. We all eat something, and this process starts from the kitchen — this consumption will go on forever. We go to the market or store to buy food, then either eat it or bring it home to cook and enjoy together.

But what is the connection between food and the community? Anyone can come to a conclusion just by thinking about these two terms, and I want to share a personal story about food.

The journey of the food we eat

First, let’s talk a little about the journey that food makes to arrive in our kitchen, to be prepared, cut, boiled and cooked. 

Once cooked, not all food ends up in our stomachs. Many scraps and leftovers are thrown in the trash because we consider them useless. This includes peels from fruits or vegetables, food that goes to waste and leftovers.

In my house, on average, around 40% of food ends up as waste, often considered useless.

This was the starting point for my family’s initiative.

That food should not be thrown into garbage for several reasons.

It ends up in landfills, decomposes and produces methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The uncontrolled release of these gasses, due to human activities, creates a layer in the atmosphere that traps heat from the sun, resulting in global warming and climate change.

If food waste is properly processed, it can contribute to the creation of essential nutrients for many organisms and microorganisms. Instead of producing greenhouse gasses, it ends up in the soil and acts as a natural fertilizer and a carbon sink. The process of carbon sink or carbon absorption removes carbon from the atmosphere and helps to control the levels of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide. This process ensures that instead of these gasses being released into the atmosphere, they are absorbed into organic materials through processes like photosynthesis, where they are used as nutrients for living organisms.

I believe most of you now understand what my point is. I want to talk about the composting process.

In my family, we have a garden where we built a wooden box, something very simple. The very process of building the box itself can be a very exciting process, especially for young people in schools. We built this box to serve as a place to collect food waste generated by our family of four.

We didn’t need much to get started.

We collect the food waste in a plastic box that will last a long time. And in that one-square-meter box, we throw the food waste.

Composting has to be done carefully. It’s not just about tossing food somewhere, because it will rot and smell. You need to add additional carbon-rich material such as leaves, straw, grass and colorless cardboard.

Microorganisms feed on carbon and nitrogen, which comes from food, fruit, vegetables, coffee, where they reproduce. They require oxygen for respiration, making it an aerobic process. They also need water for digestion.

So we learned to throw away the food waste, add carbon, give it moisture — preferably from rainwater — and stir it often to allow it to breathe. By doing so we successfully composted and created a natural fertilizer. The resulting natural fertilizer provides nutrition for other plants, meaning there is no need to purchase industrial fertilizer. This helps avoid environmental damage caused by extracting industrial fertilizer and reduces the depletion of natural resources.

Let me tell you about the damage caused by industrial fertilizer. Industrial fertilizer is used to supplement plants with the nutritional components needed for healthy growth, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK). To meet the huge demands of human and agricultural food consumption, these are extracted from the earth and atmosphere in the form of minerals. However, these extraction processes often harm habitats by destroying existing biodiversity. They also require a lot of energy to be extracted and processed, degrade the soil, create an imbalance in its composition and pollute the air.  

Instead of using industrial fertilizer, plants can be supplied with NPK through composted food waste. This creates a cycle where fertilization is done using the food waste we ourselves generate, rather than relying on industrially extracted substances. Compost is beneficial because it contains microbiomes such as fungi, microbes, microorganisms and insects. These enhance soil vitality, improve nutrient circulation and increase soil porosity. By composting, materials that would otherwise end up in landfills become valuable resources for plants and other living organisms.

By harnessing biological and natural processes, we can repurpose waste and transform it into nutrient-rich substances containing essential elements for plant growth. This approach not only encourages the creation of biodiverse environments but also reduces our reliance on the mass extraction of resources from the earth, thereby mitigating the environmental damage caused by these processes. 

After testing the compost and successfully obtaining the end product, our family feels a sense of satisfaction seeing the results of our efforts. The composting process takes six months to a year to complete. Once finished, we put the compost in bags, which can be as much as 500 kilograms of nutrient-rich compost. This way, we transform organic waste into natural fertilizer for our garden.

Using this compost ensures that the flowers, trees, fruits, and vegetables we plant receive all the necessary nutrients for healthy growth. Any surplus compost can be used for indoor plants, enhancing the aesthetics and ambiance of our home. If we still have more compost than we need, we can share it with our neighbors, promoting positive ecological practices.

So, what is the impact of composting?

What does this simple process address? What is necessary to make this process more widespread and change could it bring to society?

To begin with, the impact of composting is immediate. Rather than food waste ending up in landfills, it continues its lifecycle, serving as a medium to promote biodiversity, which is essential for sustaining life on Earth. The Gaia Theory, developed by scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, elaborates on this concept, explaining how organisms contribute to the development of life on our planet. According to their theory, the evolution of life is facilitated by living organisms and their interactions with the environment. For instance, algae, trees and plankton harness the sun’s energy through photosynthesis, utilizing carbon for growth and energy.

Photosynthesis, which we’ve all learned about at school, is a prime example of how living organisms interact with physical materials. According to the Gaia Theory, these relationships create conditions conducive to sustaining life on Earth. This theory shows how scientific concepts are beautifully connected with everyday processes that anyone can engage in, with the potential of having a significant impact. It directly involves individuals in a living system that can thrive if people alter their approach and mindset toward food waste.

Everyone can start composting at home. The different necessary materials can be found at home, as well as a suitable compost box. However, neighborhoods and residential areas are united by the community, so why not establish a neighborhood community composting center? With enough capacities and institutional support, which is the municipality in many cases, this could be a feasible solution. Why not create composting areas, where neighborhood residents can take on this responsibility together. To learn together and to take care of the environment together. This would be a healthy activity for everyone, especially these days, when we spend more time indoors than outdoors.

It’s a really interactive process and any age can do it. It can start today, tomorrow or after tomorrow. All it takes is some initiative and planning, whether it’s driven by one person, 1,000 people or more.

Municipal support is needed for this to happen on a larger scale, but that is another discussion. For now, I can say that for my family it has been a successful initiative and we have managed to reduce our waste by up to 40%. Why shouldn’t this be practiced in schools and restaurants? It is not difficult, it is quite easily accessible. The process is carried out by nature. All we have to do is add the food waste, carbon and give it a little care and attention.

A new moment is being added to the kitchen. A moment when people in the kitchen separate the food waste and compost it. Thus, the kitchen becomes the starting point of our ecological relationship with the world. This journey can lead us to a life that is more in harmony with the nature we love and that loves us in return.

Feature Image: Engjëll Rodiqi.