Your questions, our answers

Yes, in practice, but the rule that applies to you depends on your jurisdiction. The United Kingdom no longer follows the EU waste framework, and its four nations each run their own regime, with their own dates, thresholds and penalties. Wherever there is a kitchen, a canteen, a tea point or unsold food, the question is worth asking. What applies where is set out on our food waste rules page.

That depends on your jurisdiction, and the amounts vary widely: administrative fines once a formal notice has gone unanswered, and criminal liability where waste has been handled improperly. The consequences that bite first are usually more mundane: a higher waste bill, a finding in an audit, a blocking point in a tender.

Four things: proof that a scheme is in place (a contract, or treatment on your own site), a log of quantities and destinations, a record for each removal, and evidence that your teams have been trained. Composting on site covers the first. You keep the log yourself; and if you have the compost taken away, the operator you contract issues the removal records. The remote training session comes with the composter.

Article 22 of the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) has required food waste to be either collected separately or recycled at source since 31 December 2023: those are the two routes the text provides. The composter recycles at source: it treats the food waste on the site that produces it and takes 65% of the mass out of the stream. The United Kingdom sits outside the directive and runs four regimes: Simpler Recycling in England, the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012, Workplace Recycling in Wales and Northern Ireland’s own rules; Ireland is in the EU and applies the directive. Where the compost then goes (your own grounds, a community garden, a neighbouring farm) and what you record about it are set by the law of your country.

Prep waste and plate scrapings, coffee grounds, kitchen paper… including meat, fish and citrus in reasonable amounts: the mixing and the bulking material absorb what a home compost heap handles badly. The full list is covered in the training session.

No, not at the volumes of an office, a restaurant or a care home. Permitting thresholds are set nationally, and they sit far above what one 450 L composter handles, a few kilos a day. If you want certainty, the text to check is the one in your own country; in practice, no filing is required.

No. Bad smells come from material fermenting without air: the perforated aeration chimney provides continuous aeration, the mixing screw does the mixing, and the bulking material balances the moisture. Composters are in fact installed in front of head-office entrances and in hotel courtyards.

The vessel is closed by design: solid walls, a rotating loading hatch, removal from below with no permanent opening. There is no way in and no room for a nest: it is one of the things that set the ABC apart from a garden composter.

Two minutes on the crank a week, on top of the day-to-day sorting. The maintenance and the bulking material are covered by the rent: there is nothing else for your teams to manage but emptying the vessel when it is full.

450 litres, which absorbs roughly 1,500 kg of food waste a year. Above that, a second unit is added; above 3 tonnes a year, composting on site is no longer the right answer, and we will tell you so.

Less than a square metre of floor space for the composter alone (a cylinder 810 mm across), on firm level ground, with no works and no connections. The garden composter, with its planted bed, needs 5 to 6 m².

The same ABC composter, ringed by a circular 2,000-litre planter: the compost liquid feeds the soil of the bed directly. Same mechanics, same capacity; it reads as street furniture, not as a technical enclosure. Its own page.

Five lacquered colours, baked in our workshop in Albert. The configurator shows them all at the same scale.

The ABC composter delivered assembled and already loaded, the bulking material, the awareness kit (posters, stickers, digital kit), the training by video call and the maintenance. No up-front investment. The garden composter is 129 € excl. VAT a month. The rental in detail.

Nothing to us: the removal of the mature compost is contracted by you. You empty the composter into a 120 L bin and the compost goes wherever you decide: your own grounds, a community garden, a neighbouring farm. If you would rather have it taken away, you contract a local operator at the local price, and we help you scope the brief. As a cost benchmark, the same service is billed in France at 10 € excl. VAT a month per annual collection. The online quote tells you how often emptying will be needed.

The reference term is 48 months: that is the term the monthly figures are built on. It can be shortened, in which case the monthly figure goes up. The exact terms are on the quote.

Two ways, same result. The online quote prices your installation in five questions (volumes, number of units, emptying frequency) and you send us the result; or you book a video call and we put the quote together with you. Either way it is our team that issues it.

One composter absorbs around 1,500 kg a year, two cover up to 3,000 kg. The online sizing tool estimates your volumes from a few markers of your business (meals served, staff, beds…) and recommends the right number of units.

Schemes exist in most countries, but they open and close fast and differ from one region to the next, so a published list would be out of date within months. Your national or regional waste authority is the right starting point, and your accountant will know which investment allowances apply to you.

Yes, both are possible. You can rent the composter over 48 months, which is our reference offer: the rent covers the bulking material, the maintenance, the replacement parts and the training, and it guarantees you a machine that is always in working order. Buying is open too: tell us about the project and we will price it with you.

Once your order is confirmed, we agree the spot with you in a video call. Delivery then depends on the destination and on the shipping terms, which are set out on your quote: the composter leaves the workshop on a pallet, assembled and already loaded with its bulking material, ready to use.

None of that. The composter stands on firm level ground and runs on a crank: no connections, no civil works, no highways consent when it is on your own land.

You do. It arrives on a pallet, ready to use: two people or a pallet truck are enough to move it to the agreed spot. For the garden composter, the surrounding bed is built and planted on site: we go through the layering with you in the training call, and what ships with it is set out on your quote.

One video session, open to anyone who wants to sit in, plus the digital kit: sorting posters for the break room, labels for the caddies and visuals for your internal channels, to print or circulate as you see fit.

With caddies at the points where the waste arises (kitchen, break room), emptied into the composter as you go. A sorting poster above each caddy is a reminder of what goes where.

Every 1 to 12 months, depending on your volumes: the composter reduces and stabilises the material, so what comes out is mature compost, not fresh waste. That is exactly the point of composting on site: you take out a bin of finished compost a few times a year, instead of putting bins out every week.

A contractor you choose: the removal of the mature compost is arranged with the local operator of your choice, and we help you scope the brief. The composter has already taken most of the mass out of the stream, so there is little left to move, and what leaves is a finished compost rather than fresh waste. Organising local collection.

From us, the delivery documents and the training record. The rest is a log you keep yourself: what goes in, what comes out and where it goes. A page a month is enough, and it is what an inspector will ask for. If you have the compost taken away, the operator you contract issues the removal record. The same figures feed your CSR reporting.

Yes, and it is the usual arrangement: you empty the vessel and the compost goes wherever you want, your own grounds, a kitchen garden, a community plot or a neighbouring farm. It is the simplest route whenever the compost has a use on your own site.

We do. The composter arrives loaded with it, and the bulking material is part of the rental and shipped as you need it: you never have to think about it, or buy any.

Yes: sealed storage in caddies, a closed vessel outside the preparation areas, documented traceability. It fits within HACCP requirements and within the hygiene audits carried out in healthcare settings.

Yes. The ABC composter is built in our own workshop in Albert, in Picardy, and ships on a pallet to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Poland and the Czech Republic. Everything after delivery is done remotely with you: positioning, start-up and training, with replacement parts shipped as needed. Where we deliver.

One team, one order, one set of figures, wherever your sites are, including across several countries. That is how our multi-site customers work, from retail chains to local authorities.

The equipment, the delivery, the maintenance, the replacement parts and the bulking material reach all fourteen countries on the same terms: to buy, or to rent over 48 months at 79 € excl. VAT a month, 129 € for the garden composter. The removal of the mature compost is the one thing contracted locally: you use the compost on your own site, or a local operator takes it away, and we help you scope the brief. A group with sites in several countries deals with the same contact throughout.

In our own workshop in Albert, France: cutting, welding, lacquering and assembly. Made in France, French steel and Douglas fir, finished by hand. The machines leave the workshop on pallets.

Decathlon, Leroy Merlin, Mercure, BlaBlaCar and the Seine-Eure authority, plus hundreds of quieter sites: offices, care homes, campuses, town councils. The case studies give the figures; the sites are French, which is where the machine was proven.