Bokashi Innovation Project, Cork City Council

Erin O’Brien, Policy Planner

I work in the Planning Department, but I spent some time last year collecting food scraps from the Council canteen and storing them in a wheelie bin tucked away in a small closet under the stairs at City Hall. Half-eaten chicken wraps, leftover rashers, stale chips, banana peels, and coffee grounds all made their way into the bin. Why? Because food scraps are a valuable resource that can help regenerate the city’s soil.

Right now, you may be thinking, ‘Sounds disgusting. And anyway, shouldn’t you be at your desk writing policies and plans?’ While policies are a fundamental starting point, in this instance, they are already in place. Our City Development Plan states that Cork City Council will work with stakeholders to support initiatives that restore degraded soils. The Development Plan further recognises that healthy soil is necessary for achieving many other plan objectives. For example, healthy soil can hold significant amounts of carbon which means it ‘sequesters’ or stores greenhouse gases and this supports Cork City’s Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities Mission. It helps reduce flooding by acting like a sponge that absorbs excess water and then releases it slowly. Healthy soil is the key to healthy trees and plants, supporting our ‘green and blue infrastructure’ and local food policies. It also contributes to water quality, helping filter out pollutants before they reach our rivers.

These policies help guide the way but our ultimate aim is not developing policies; it is physical changes that improve our city. When we want to change how things are done, we need to move beyond ideas and into action.  We ourselves must start creating the path if we wish for others to follow it.

Back to those food scraps in the closet. Now, you may be thinking. ‘I accept that food scraps are a resource to restore soil. But if they are sitting in an indoor closet, are they not also a rotting, stinking, E. coli-laden mess?’ No…through the power of bokashi.

‘Bo-what?’ Bokashi, which rhymes with toe-GOSH-ee, is a Japanese term related to fermentation. The bokashi process is like making sauerkraut or silage. Bokashi fermented. Or you could say’ pickled, our canteen food scraps.

While bokashi is not widely used in Europe, it holds considerable promise. Studies indicate that bokashi has many benefits for the environment and the user.

• It may retain more nutrients than traditional composting
• Produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and
• Sequester more carbon than standard composting techniques.
• Can process meat and dairy food scraps, which are not recommended for inclusion in standard at-home composting
• Those living in tight spaces with no space for composting can use bokashi and there are no unpleasant odours.

If bokashi has so many potential benefits, why is it not more widely used? Many people have never heard of it and are unaware that it is an option. In addition, because bokashi is a relatively new technology in Europe, Ireland currently has no specific legislation or guidelines for businesses or institutions who may wish to use it.

Given bokashi’s potential to support climate action and so many other objectives in our Development Plan, I hope to see its use increase and further policies and regulations developed in Ireland to support this. It’s a great solution for those with limited space, such as those living in a the city centre. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the potential of bokashi, the details of Cork City Council’s bokashi experiment (including step-by-step instructions for setting up your own bokashi bin and resources for further action) are available in my report: Bokashi for Urban Soil Regeneration.