Julia Miriam Brenner is a soil scientist. She graduated with a master’s degree in environmental and resource science from the University of Iceland in 2016, where she studied the effects of organic fertilizers in land reclamation. She completed a research position at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA in 2020, where she studied the nutrient cycle in rainforest ecosystem.

Björk Brynjarsdóttir is a process designer and facilitator. She graduated from Kaospilot School in Denmark in 2018 and has since worked as a team coach, in service and studio design and various facilitation projects.

Their goal is to build a healthy natural and social ecosystem in Iceland. They do this by using Bokashi composting. Bokashi is a process that converts food waste and other organic raw materials into soil amendment which adds nutrients and improves soil texture. It differs from traditional composting methods in several respects. The most important are: the input matter is fermented by special bacteria, not decomposed and also the fermented matter is fed directly to field or garden soil without requiring much time to mature. As a result virtually all input carbon, energy and nutrients enter the soil food web without having been emitted in greenhouse gases nor leached out.

Björk and Julia are doing this with a humane and societal approach with an user-centered design. Sorting and recycling is first and foremost a human process, and they believe that a new attitude and practice in household sorting requires an approach with empathy and cooperation as a guiding principle. The Composting Company have workshops on regular basis were they educate people on how to do the Bokashi process at home. People can also purchase special Bokashi bins from the company, but it is not necessary to have one to follow the method. The Composting Company have started a Facebook group which has over 2,000 members where people discuss their ideas and experience with the Bokashi method. The community of Bokashi users is fast growing in Iceland and if you are interested in learning more about process or the works of the Composting Company you can find out more info on their website or sign up for their workshop if you are in Reykjavik.