Sustainable Landscaping & Organic Waste Management Solutions

Life & Earth implements and manages successful and sustainable landscaping and Organic Waste Solutions for our clients. Our organic waste management solutions assist our clients in achieving their zero waste to landfill goals, minimise their carbon footprint, and enable them to minimise risks associated with new waste legislation.

In line with our sustainable landscaping, Life & Earth provides scalable solutions appropriate to the volume of organic waste being generated by specific sites.

  • New legislation banning organic waste from landfill will impact on how food waste is classified and managed.
  • Food waste has a high carbon footprint of 627kg/tonne.
  • Waste management costs are increasing as landfills reach end of life and new space is built further and further away from our towns and cities.
  • The Rand’s depreciation against major currencies has also driven up waste management costs.

Our on-site sustainable landscaping solutions allow food waste risks to be mitigated and controlled at predictable cost.

In South Africa, a third of all food produced annually (around 10 million tonnes) ends up in a landfill. The water and energy costs to produce food means the wastage comes at a very high cost to the economy and environment.

  • The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has valued this loss to the economy at R61.5 billion. The water wasted would fill over 600 000 Olympic size swimming pools.
  • The energy used for food that is wasted, is enough to power the City of JHB for nearly 16 weeks.

Yet the impact of recycling food waste and utilising this waste stream for good has many benefits for gardens and in particular soil.

All the nutrients taken up by food plants during their growth stays can be recycled back to soil through composting.

How We Do It

We have 3 solutions for recycling food waste which is dependent on quantity of food waste generated.

1. Scalable In-Vessel composting options:

  • The Earth Bokashi solution uses indigenous micro-organisms to pre-treat food waste in anaerobic collection bins. Treated food waste can be stored indefinitely and then composted, trenched, or fed to composting worms. Easy to use and train, Earth Bokashi is an ideal solution for waste volumes of less than 2,000kg/month.
  • The Earth Cycler is fully automated, data connected in-vessel composting machine. Using minimum energy, the Earth Cycler can be accessed and remotely managed from anywhere in the world. A flow-through continuous process solution, the Earth Cycler can process up to 3,500kg food waste per month PLUS a carbon input including waste cardboard, egg cartons and compostable packaging.
  • The IVC can process up to 60,000kg food waste per month. Fully automated and remotely accessible, the IVC is an ideal solution for shopping malls, food production facilities and food markets. Built to order the IVC can be scaled to manage smaller or larger waste volumes (20,000kg to 60,000kg per month). All food waste as well as waste cardboard and compostable packaging can be processed through this solution.

2. Waste traceability monitoring and reporting

Life & Earth’s on-site organic waste solutions measure all inputs and outputs. Using this data, Life & Earth can calculate your:

  • Carbon footprint reduction vs. landfill.
  • Landfill airspace saving.

3. Industrial Waste management and composting

4. Water Treatment Solutions

5. Composting of Green Waste

All green (garden) waste generated at Life Landscapes sites is composted by Life & Earth. While eliminating the carbon emissions from green waste, Life Landscapes is building rich organic soil and sequestering carbon, thus promoting our sustainable landscaping solutions.

Life & Earth’s compost is 100% organic and, due to its food waste component, has an exceptionally high nutrient value.

Why compost organic waste on-site:
  • Making your own compost saves money, improves soil and plant health, saves water, and reduces carbon emissions.
  • On-site solutions reduce risks associated with logistic and labour disruptions.
  • Composting your food waste on-site enables you to measure your waste and thus implement waste reduction strategies.
  • On-site solutions enables you to control and manage waste management costs.