The Hilary Step: How Pub Cardboard Becomes Community Food

We've got a new partner on board, and our worms are currently living their best lives. The Hilary Step pub – that proper locals' spot in Whalley Range – has started donating all their cardboard to our wormeries, and honestly, we've never seen our composting crew so enthusiastic.

Now, I'll be straight with you. When we first suggested feeding cardboard to worms, even we thought it sounded a bit bonkers. I mean, cardboard? That's what you use for packaging, not worm food. But here's the thing: once it's shredded up and starts to decompose, our worms go absolutely mental for the stuff. It's like watching kids in a sweet shop, except the kids are blind, legless and really into decaying paper products.

The beauty of this partnership is how local it all stays. The Hilary Step's cardboard doesn't need to travel far – it's a short hop from the pub to our site at Forever Fields. No complex logistics, just a quick local delivery that keeps everything nicely circular.

Once it arrives, our Community Payback lads get stuck in. They shred the cardboard, mix it with the food waste and coffee grounds we collect, and feed it to the worm bins. The worms do their thing; munching through the lot, cardboard included, and what comes out the other end is pure black gold. This compost then goes straight into our community garden beds, feeding the soil that's growing fresh vegetables for local food distribution.

It's dead simple when you break it down: pub cardboard becomes worm food, becomes compost, becomes courgettes, becomes dinner for families who need it. The whole loop stays within a few miles of where it started. That's proper local circular economy stuff.

The Hilary Step lot have been dead sound about it all. No fuss, no drama; they just flatten their boxes and leave them ready for collection. Plus, they get to tell their regulars that their empty Guinness boxes are helping grow carrots for the community. Try finding a better pub conversation starter than that.

But here's the bit that really matters: our Community Payback crew are seeing first-hand how this works. They're watching how something that would normally go straight in the bin, cardboard that held delivery boxes, empty cases of beer, the lot, can be transformed into something that literally feeds people. They're part of that transformation, every step of the way.

One of the lads said to us last week: "I never thought I'd see the day where I'm shredding cardboard for worms and feeling good about it." And that's the point, isn't it? He's seeing how generosity; from the pub, from the cycle volunteers, from everyone who donates their food waste, can be repurposed into something that makes a massive difference to people in the community who are struggling.

The Hilary Step's cardboard is doing more than just feeding worms. It's showing everyone involved, the pub staff, the cyclists, the Payback crew, the garden volunteers, that what we think of as waste isn't really waste at all. It's just raw material for something better.

And the worms? They're having a proper feast. We reckon they're the happiest worms in South Manchester right now. Though to be fair, they don't have much to compare it to. They've never had it so good.

If you're a local business with cardboard, food waste, or just fancy being part of this proper decent circular system, give us a shout. We'll show you the worm bins, the garden, and we'll even explain why worms go mad for cardboard. Though to be honest, we're still not entirely sure ourselves – they just do.