Help

Open the Peels map and look for a nearby host or community garden that accepts food scraps. Select a listing to see what they accept, where they are, and how to contact them.

Yes. Peels is designed for people who have food scraps but nowhere practical to compost them. You can use Peels to find someone nearby who already composts and is open to receiving scraps.

Yes! We encourage folks with residential listings to ‘roughen’ their location to a nearby street corner or similar, and use a pseudonym if they feel more comfortable doing so.

Even if you choose to use your real name and upload a photo, only signed in Peels members can see those details.

Peels sends account and message emails that are necessary to keep the service working, including sign-in emails and notifications when another member messages you.

The newsletter is separate and optional. You can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time from your Profile page.

If you host a listing, message notifications are required so prospective donors can reach you. You can stop new enquiries by hiding your listing from the map or deleting it.

You can also report or block individual Peels members via the messaging system.

Peels is a community composting map that helps people find nearby places to drop off food scraps, or create a listing if they can accept scraps from neighbours. It’s a free, non-commercial, community project to connect folks with food scraps to those who compost.

Yes. Cafes, restaurants, offices, grocers, and other businesses can use Peels if they have food scraps that nearby composters could collect. Create a business listing so people can see what you have, where you are, and how to arrange pickup.

ShareWaste shut down at the end of 2024 but helped popularise a similar idea: connect people with food scraps to nearby people who compost. Peels carries that idea forward as an actively maintained, open-source platform.

You can still find compost hosts on a map, create a listing, and arrange food-scrap drop-offs or pickups with nearby members.

Yes. Community composting means food scraps are composted by neighbours, community gardens, local businesses, or other local projects, not industrial processes or landfill. Many people still don’t have access to reliable food-scrap collection, and community composting can also be more local, social, and educational than a council or city-wide service. Peels is designed to support both the places that already have collection and the places still building it.

Peels is a non-commercial, community-led project. We may incorporate as a not-for-profit in the future and accept grant funding or sponsorships for further development, but we never intend to start charging for the service.

Peels is maintained by volunteers and contributors who want to help more food scraps become compost instead of landfill.

The project was started by Danny White, who helped begin the composting program at Pocket City Farms. Peels is open source, and contributions are welcome.

You’re awesome. Thank you.

If you’re inclined to help on the technical side, check out our GitHub repo. It has information on how to contribute, plus some existing issues that could do with your eyes.

Community organising is also a big part of getting Peels off the ground. Please don’t hesistate to email us if that’s something you could help with.

First off, thank you! Peels only works with a thriving map of listings, so getting the word out is crucial.

Head to our Share page for social tiles, printable posters, and copy examples you can adapt for your community. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need something more specific.

We’re keen to work with public-sector teams, community organisations, and educators anywhere Peels can help more people keep food scraps out of landfill. Our Partners page shows how other councils mention Peels, and our Share page has copy and assets you can adapt.

Please email us if you need something more specific for your community.