Pickled Compost

13/10/2026

Since the start of this year, Good Lives Wairarapa have been expanding their organic waste collection service - collecting a wider variety of food scraps from local retirement villages, schools and other community sites in Masterton and Carterton. 🌱

And they can do it with the help of bokashi fermentation - or, as we like to call it, Pickled Compost!

Why bokashi? Rather than adding food scraps straight to the compost, bokashi fermentation helps prepare them for decomposition, making it possible to compost a much wider range of food waste - including the tricky stuff like meat, seafood, bones, shells, dairy, bread and cooked food.

Bokashi can help turn these scraps into a resource for healthy soil, rather than sending them to landfill.

And it can all be fermented or ‘pickled’ in a retrofitted wheelie bin like the orange ones pictured 🧡🧡

So far they have diverted 400 kg from Masterton sites since May and 1000kg from Carterton in the last 12 months!

And yep… we genuinely think it smells good! Sweet, sour and pickled odours beats rotting food any day. 🥒🌱♻️

28/09/2026

Thank you Wellington City Council for the shout out and support! Wouldn't have been possible without the dedication of our trial participants who were mainly apartment dwellers; as well as Te Aro Zero Waste for providing the workshop space and He Puāwai Trust for your vegetable seedlings. Here's to continual learning on how to keep kai out of landfill, and growing kai no matter where you live 🏘️🧡

26/09/2026

It’s happening - a weekly food scrap collection service for Greytowners!

We’ll be doing our first bucket 🪣 drop on a Tuesday 29th September for those already subscribed. There’s still an opportunity to sign up before 5pm Monday 28th September to get two weeks free!

You fill the bucket (10 litre or 20 litre). We pick it up. We do the composting.

🪣 10L — $5/week (suits small households 1-3 ppl or small offices)
🪣 20L — $8.50/week (suits 4+ households, cafes and restaurants)

All food scraps welcome — including meat, bones, seafood, dairy and raw+cooked food.

We collect every Tuesday and process your scraps locally, turning them into living compost and returning valuable nutrients to our soils. 🌱

24/09/2026

Made it into this weeks mid week thanks to Kate Judson Journalist 🧡

For those who don’t have the capacity to compost and would love to have the option to not have to throw food scraps in the rubbish; AND you’re in Greytown visit the link for details.

☺️ https://pickledcompost.com/products/pickled-compost-collection

We start dropping buckets off on Tuesday 29th September so if you’d like to join this first collection sign up before Monday 28th!

A Greytown businesswoman is expanding her next venture with the launch of a weekly food scrap collection service for households and businesses 🫑

Link to story in comments ⬇

17/09/2026

Did you know general waste from the Wairarapa is trucked hundreds of kilometres away to landfill? 🚛

And food scraps make up a huge proportion of what goes in our rubbish — more than 50% in some cases.

So when food scraps go in the rubbish, not only can your bin fill up faster and start to smell — but valuable nutrients are lost to landfill.

Greytown, we want you to feel good about where your food scraps are going — where they can be used to make quality compost instead. 🌱

Sign up to our weekly food scrap collection service pilot by Monday 28 September and get your first 2 weeks FREE!🎉

You fill the bucket (10 litre or 20 litre). We pick it up. We do the composting.

🪣 10L — $5/week
🪣 20L — $8.50/week

📅 First collection: Tuesday 6 October 2026

📍 Outside of Greytown? Please enquire if you want this collection service in another area of Wairarapa or fill in this form: https://forms.gle/a1q81Cqw8QYCB7ke8)

🌱 Limited pilot places available

14/09/2026

PSA: We are piloting a weekly food scrap collection in Greytown! Starting Tuesday 6th October 🗓️

For households and businesses who don’t have the capacity to compost, but feel guilty throwing valuable food scraps in the bin… this is for you 🧡

We provide either a 10 litre or a 20 litre bucket a week before collection starts (first collection Tuesday 6th October), and on collection replace your bucket of scraps with a clean bucket. We then compost these scraps using our ‘pickling’ Bokashi method into compost here in South Wairarapa.

The best part is you can add all food scraps - including meat, bones, seafood and dairy products - making life that much easier.

Feel good about where your food scraps end up and sign up at https://pickledcompost.com/products/pickled-compost-collection before Monday 28th October to get 2 weeks free! 🙌

07/09/2026

Got food scraps GREYTOWN? You can now get Pickled to pick them up!

🎉 FIRST 2 WEEKS FREE

We’re piloting a weekly food scrap collection service for Greytown households and businesses.

No time, space or inclination to compost? No worries - you no longer have to feel guilty about food scraps going in the rubbish. We’ve got you.

You fill the bucket. We pick it up. We do the composting.
🪣 10L — $5/week
🪣 20L — $8.50/week

All food scraps welcome — including meat, bones, seafood, dairy and raw+cooked food.

We collect every Tuesday and process your scraps locally, turning them into living compost and returning valuable nutrients to our soils. 🌱

Sign up by Monday 28 September 2026 and get your first 2 weeks FREE. For details and to sign up go to https://pickledcompost.com/products/pickled-compost-collection

📅 First collection: Tuesday 6 October 2026
📍 Greytown (but please enquire if you want this collection service in another area of Wairarapa by filling in this form https://forms.gle/tH8d3yyHanynzdmB7)
🌱 Limited pilot places available

04/08/2026

If you’re feeling a bit dissatisfied with the volume of compost you’re generating using an outdoor compost bin like these black bins, or an open compost pile - do I have news for you! 🗞️

Now this is not to cast shade on this type of setup. Composting using what you have is better than throwing scraps in your general waste bin any day! ♻️ This post is merely about how you can get more out of your composting efforts 🙌

Because the thing is, these systems are actually harder to manage well than people realise to generate a substantial volume of compost / soil. To break down the materials properly, they need the right carbon-to-nitrogen balance, moisture levels and manual turning to stay aerobic. Ideally you’d fill the bin all at once too because this helps get the correct ratios - esp. if you’ve just got one bin. Scraps added bit by bit over weeks tales way longer to mature - and with the balance off can mean full of half-broken-down scraps and barely any usable soil to show for it.

If you want a faster, simpler more guaranteed return - a soil factory approach is worth trying alongside your bin. Using Bokashi or pickled scraps mixed with soil in a heavy duty storage tote container mean roughly what goes in comes out, it’s fully sealed (so bye rats 🐀), no turning is required and you get usable enriched soil in 6-8 weeks! 💨

Think of it as not a replacement — just a better return on effort if you want one. Comment “SOIL” and I’ll send you a link to the latest blog on ‘How to make a soil factory’.

03/08/2026

21/06/2026

There are multiple reasons for using a bokashi but the one that’s sticking out for me lately is the odour. I still can’t get over how throwing all sorts of food scraps into the same bucket — including meat and seafood — ends up smelling like pickles. 🥒🤯

I already love eating lacto-fermented foods: sauerkraut, pickles, you name it. Not just for the taste but because the gut health benefits are huge. Turns out bokashi works the same way: it’s full of lactic acid bacteria, and once it breaks down fast in your garden soil, it supports soil health the same way fermented food supports gut health.

The other thing I can’t get over? Our general waste has shrunk so much my compost caddy is now bigger than my rubbish bin — and there’s no more gross bin juice. 🤢

So if you love pickles and hate throwing food scraps in the bin, I suggest following your nose and give Pickled Compost a try!! 😜🥒👃