Up to 1200 Northland households are to join a regional composting scheme thanks to a $400,000 Government grant and a Kaitaia-based social enterprise.
Environment Minister David Parker announced the grant, to Community Business and Environment Centre (CBEC) EcoSolutions, on Friday.
It's part of a wider drive to reduce food waste by diverting surplus food to charities feeding the needy and turning food scraps into compost instead of trucking them to landfills.
EcoSolutions manager Jo Shanks said 40 per cent of the waste sent to landfill by Northland households was organic, such as food scraps, which would be better used to improve soils and ''feed the land''.
Composting was also the most valuable action individuals could take to combat climate change and drought because compostables dumped in landfills created methane, a powerful greenhouse gas but composting secured carbon in the soil and improved water retention.