Across Ukraine, farmers continue to grow and harvest crops despite the daily realities of war, from air-raid warnings and disrupted supply chains to even finding rocket casings and mines in their fields. With the same determination shown by British farmers during the Second World War, they carry on producing food and protecting their rural communities. Now, British-Ukrainian brand Kompost is helping create a valuable new market for their crops by transforming wonky and damaged potatoes, rejected by traditional food markets, into compostable household food-waste bags.
With weekly food-waste collections now a legal requirement across England, caddy bags have become an important tool to keep kitchens and streets clean and smell free. UK food waste is usually sent for anaerobic digestion and composting. This process produces green energy like biogas and valuable bio fertilisers for UK farmers. It is important that truly compostable bags are used for food waste collection to minimise the risk of persistent microplastics ending up in the beautiful countryside and soils.
“Kompost will produce 130 million compostable food waste bags by the end of 2027. Making compostable food-waste bags from food waste is a no-brainer, it creates the perfect circular cycle,” said Vince Gillingham, Director.
Kompost launches in the UK on 1 September 2026, their food-waste bags are available online through Amazon and the kompost.world website. The concept is simple: food-waste bags made from food waste, and a practical example of the strong and growing relationship between the UK and Ukraine.
Through Central Plains Group’s farming operations in Ukraine, around 100 million potato plants are grown each year. Approximately 6,000 tonnes of potatoes are unsuitable for traditional sale because they are too small, misshapen, damaged or outside market specifications. Rather than allowing all the hard work and cost for this valuable crop to go to waste, Central Plains Group is creating an alternative market for Ukrainian farmers at a time when agricultural communities need resilient new routes to market. The potatoes are transformed into thermoplastic starch and used to produce Kompost’s compostable bags.
Mark Laird, CEO of Central Plains Group, the company behind Kompost, said: “Kompost is much more than a clever compostable bag. It is a practical British-Ukrainian partnership that gives potatoes with no conventional market valuable new purpose. By creating alternative demand for these crops, we are supporting Ukrainian farmers and manufacturers in their hour of need while bringing an innovative, compostable product to UK households. It is a powerful example of what the growing relationship between our two countries can achieve.”
