The right answer for every role in your business.
The 2027 deadline affects your kitchen, your costs, your ESG report and your staff. Select your role below to see exactly what the Bokashi Bran system means for you.
WHY BOKASHI BRAN
Solutions tailored to every role. Value across your organisation.
A system that runs itself.
Once trained, your team runs it. We handle the rest.
- System runs itself once trained.
- SCHWAS team framework embeds accountability in existing staff.
- Training videos available on protal24/7.
- Collections managed and reported.
The challenge you face
As a GM or Operations Manager, you know that adding a new environmental programme to an already stretched kitchen team is a significant ask. Staff turnover is high, shift patterns are complex, and anything that requires sustained management attention tends to drift. You need a solution that embeds itself into the operation — not one that depends on you to keep it alive.
How the Bokashi Bran® system works operationally
The system is designed around your existing kitchen structure. Food waste drums sit next to every dustbin in the kitchen. Staff separate food waste at source — all cooked and uncooked food, meat, dairy, bones — into the blue drum. A measured dose of Bokashi Bran® inoculant is added every 7cm of food waste; dosing lines inside the drum make this task simple. The drum is sealed. That is the entirety of the daily task. No double handling of food waste.
Collections are managed by Bokashi Bran — 1 to 3 times per week, depending on your volume. Drums are weighed and recorded on the Bokashi Bran app at collection. Monthly reports are generated automatically. An annual IEMA-certified carbon certificate is issued. Nothing falls through the cracks.
Cost-neutral or better.
One hotel saved R18,516 in year one. Here’s how the numbers work.
- Anonymous hotel case study: switched from R18,059/month (signs contractor) to lower blended cost with full compliance.
- Up to 40% reduction in general waste bins (food waste is typically 40% of kitchen waste).
- Future penalties for non-compliance avoided.
- Cost neutral in many cases – T&Cs apply.
- Carbon certificate supports ESG reporting (no additional consultant cost).
The questions you’re asking
Is this an added cost or a manageable one? Can the savings on general waste disposal offset the cost of the Bokashi Bran service? What happens if we don’t comply with the 2027 deadline — what does that exposure look like financially? These are the right questions, and we have verified answers to all of them.
The cost case – a real example
A hotel in KwaZulu-Natal had been contracting a single general waste management company for all waste at R18,059 per month. After implementing Bokashi Bran, waste streams were separated: general waste moved to a specialist contractor, food waste moved to Bokashi Bran, and a municipal organics levy was absorbed as a new line item. The total monthly cost dropped. Compliance was achieved. The carbon certificate arrived without any additional effort.
COST COMPARISON — ANONYMISED KZN HOTEL
Cost line | Pre-Bokashi | Post-Bokashi | Change |
General waste contractor | R18,059/month | R10,295/month | ▼ R7,764/month |
Municipal organics levy | Included above | R3,000/month | New line item |
Bokashi Bran service | — | R3,221/month (avg) | New line item |
TOTAL MONTHLY COST | R18,059 | R16,516 | ▼ R1,543/month |
ANNUALISED SAVING | R18,516/year |
The general waste reduction effect
Food waste typically represents 40% of commercial kitchen waste by volume. When you remove food waste from your general waste stream, the volume of general waste drops significantly — which means fewer skip lifts, fewer bin collections, and lower general waste contractor costs. This is the mechanism that makes the Bokashi Bran system cost-neutral or better at most properties.
For a group of 20 properties, we estimate the combined annual general waste cost reduction at between R400,000 and R600,000 — depending on prior contract rates. The Bokashi Bran service cost is typically recovered within the general waste savings alone.
The cost of non-compliance
In September 2019 the liquid ban came into effect banning any waste with a moisture content of more than 40% or a pH of less than 6. Food waste meets both these criteria. Enforcement mechanisms under NEMA include compliance notices, administrative fines, and ultimately criminal liability for the holder of waste. The cost of a compliance notice, legal response, and operational disruption is substantially higher than the cost of a Bokashi Bran contract.
There is also the question of Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019. As carbon pricing mechanisms mature in South Africa, the financial case for documented, certified emissions reduction only strengthens. Your IEMA-certified carbon certificate is a financial asset, not just an environmental one.
What you pay
Bokashi Bran pricing is transparent and volume-based. There are one-off setup fees for drums and training, with no lock-in contracts and no hidden charges.
Certified, auditable impact.
IEMA-certified. DEFRA 2026 methodology. Ready for your integrated report.
- IEMA-certified carbon footprint certificates.
- DEFRA carbon factors 2026 used.
- Annual certificate ready for integrated reporting.
- 98% GHG saving vs landfill.
- Supports NWMS 2020 and Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019
What you need from a food waste programme
You need data that is defensible, methodology that is recognised, and a certificate that your auditor will accept. You need the numbers to be accurate, because your credibility depends on not overstating impact. Bokashi Bran® was built around exactly these requirements.
The carbon certificate
Every Bokashi Bran® client receives an annual Certificate of Environmental Stewardship, issued by Bokashi Bran and certified by IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment). The certificate states:
- Total food waste diverted from landfill (kg/tonnes) for the reporting period
- Greenhouse gas emissions avoided, calculated in kg/tonnes CO²-equivalent
- Trees-planted equivalent for stakeholder communications
- The carbon factor methodology used: DEFRA 2026 — 700.20961 kg CO²e per tonne of organic food and drink waste to landfill
- The reporting period (property-level certificates aligned to calendar or fiscal year on request)
- IEMA certification mark
The certificate is generated from actual collected weights recorded on the Bokashi Bran® app at the point of collection — not estimated, not interpolated. Every kilogram that goes into the certificate has been weighed, timestamped and recorded.
Methodology
Bokashi Bran® uses the DEFRA 2026 greenhouse gas conversion factors for company reporting. The applicable factor for organic food and drink waste diverted from landfill is 700.33263 kg CO²e per tonne. This is the same methodology applied across Bokashi Bran’s full client base, ensuring year-on-year comparability and consistency across multi-site groups.
When food waste breaks down anaerobically in landfill, it generates methane — a greenhouse gas approximately 28 times more potent than CO² over a 100-year period (84 times over 20 years). Diverting food waste to the Bokashi Bran® fermentation process virtually eliminates this methane generation, and converts the organic material into nutrient-rich compost for agricultural use. Composting food using the DEFRA 2026 factors is 9.00687kg CO²e per tonne. The methodology we use to determine the CO²e saving is by finding the difference between these two calculations. i.e what the CO²e would have been if the food waste was landfilled less the actual CO²e for composting.
What the numbers look like at scale
738,714 kg diverted by one hotel group in FY2026 | ~510t CO²e avoided by one group in one fiscal year | 23,211 trees equivalent for one group, one year | ~222t compost returned to agriculture |
These figures are from a single anonymised hotel group across 20 properties in one fiscal year. Group-level certificates consolidate all properties under a single document, with property-level breakdown available for internal reporting.
ESG reporting frameworks
The Bokashi Bran® carbon certificate and underlying weight data are accepted for disclosure under:
- GRI Standards (Global Reporting Initiative) — waste and emissions disclosures
- CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) — scope 3 waste-related emissions
- JSE Sustainability and Climate Disclosure Guidance
- National Waste Management Strategy 2020 reporting obligations
- Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019 compliance documentation
The data is presented in a format your sustainability auditor can work with directly.
What you receive and when
Monthly report | Collection details, drum counts, contamination flags, food waste kg by property. Available within the first week of the following month. |
Annual certificate | IEMA-certified Certificate of Environmental Stewardship. Issued annually, aligned to your reporting period on request. |
Group dashboard | Multi-site clients access a group-level portal view with brand, site and fiscal year filters. Export to PDF or CSV for board reporting. |
Safe disposal certificate | Available monthly for regulatory compliance documentation. |
No odour. No vermin. No surprises.
The Bokashi Bran® system is designed to make your waste area cleaner, not more complicated.
- No odour – bokashi ferments, doesn’t rot.
- No flies or vermin.
- Drums sealed at all times.
- Collection managed externally – not your problem.
- Drum washing is your only responsibility .
The practical reality of food waste
When food waste sits in a general waste bin, it rots. Rotting food waste produces methane, attracts flies and vermin, and contaminates everything around it — recyclables, packaging, cardboard. It makes the waste area unpleasant for staff, creates hygiene risks, and makes effective waste separation almost impossible. This is not a sustainability problem. It is a facilities management problem.
Why bokashi is different
Bokashi is not composting. Bokashi is fermentation before the composting process. The Bokashi Bran® inoculant contains effective microorganisms (EM® technology) that pickle the food waste in an anaerobic environment. The result is a sealed drum of fermented food waste that:
- Does not rot
- Does not produce odour when properly sealed
- Does not attract flies or vermin
- Accepts all food waste including meat, dairy, cooked food and bones — materials that conventional composting cannot handle
- Is safe to transport and handle
The active ingredient in Bokashi Bran® has been laboratory proven to eliminate the Listeria Monocytogenes pathogen. All microbes used are South African microbes. Nothing is imported from Japan.
What the system looks like in your waste area
Drums | 50-litre sealed blue HDPE drums. Lines marked inside. Drum lids must be kept closed with the steel clamp at all times. Drums remain sealed until emptied by the Bokashi Bran collection team. |
Waste area footprint | Drums occupy the same footprint as standard waste bins. No additional infrastructure required. No compactor needed. |
Odour control | Properly sealed drums with sufficient Bokashi Bran inoculant produce no unpleasant odour. Bad smell is a diagnostic: insufficient bokashi, rotten food added, or drum not properly sealed. |
Flies and vermin | Sealed drums eliminate the conditions that attract flies and vermin. |
Drum washing | Drum washing is your site’s responsibility, assigned to the Waste Area in the SCHWAS framework. Drums are washed on-site before returning to the kitchen. This takes approximately 3 minutes per drum. |
Contamination | No plastic, tin, glass, cloth or excessive liquids in the drum. These items prevent composting and proper fermentation and are flagged in your monthly drum health report. |
What can go wrong — and how to fix it
The monthly drum health report flags contaminated drums and drums under 20kg (indicating under-use). These are early-warning indicators that allow you to address training gaps before they become compliance problems. If drums are producing bad smells, the cause is almost always one of four things:
- Not enough bokashi inoculant applied
- Food waste that had already gone rotten before going into the drum
- Taking too long to get food waste sprinkled with bokashi after filling
- Drum not kept properly sealed between additions
All four are training issues, not system failures. Your Bokashi Bran® contact can arrange a refresher training visit if drum health scores indicate a problem.
One system. Every property. One report.
Group-level compliance, reporting and certification — across any number of sites.
- Group-level reporting dashboard on portal.
- Filter by brand, site, fiscal year.
- Compare performance across properties.
- One certificate per site, consolidated view at group level.
The challenge at group level
Managing food waste compliance across a portfolio of properties is not a single problem — it is many. Different volumes, different kitchen configurations, different staff structures, different municipalities with different levy structures, different levels of management buy-in at property level. And at the end of it all, head office needs a single, consolidated picture for sustainability reporting, board packs and procurement reviews.
Bokashi Bran® is a specialist food waste service provider in South Africa with a national collection footprint, operational infrastructure, and reporting capability to service a multi-site group under a single contract structure, with consolidated ESG output.
National collection coverage
Active collection agents across:
- Gauteng (Johannesburg, Sandton, Midrand, Pretoria, East Rand, West Rand)
- Cape Town
- Durban (including Pietermaritzburg and Umhlanga)
- Port Elizabeth / Gqeberha
- East London
- Polokwane
- Rustenburg
- Mbombela
- George
Remote and self-managed properties — such as safari lodges or rural resorts — can be onboarded on an onsite composting model, where bokashi-treated food waste is composted on the property rather than collected. This model is currently operating at several properties within our existing group accounts.
The group reporting dashboard
Head office users access the Bokashi Bran® customer portal with a group-level view. The dashboard allows you to:
- Filter by brand and property — select individual sites or view all
- Toggle between fiscal years for year-on-year comparison
- View total nett food waste collected (kg) by month across the group
- Drill into individual property performance in the site-level view
- Export group data to PDF or CSV for board or sustainability reporting
- Download individual property Certificates of Environmental Stewardship
The dashboard is built on actual collected weight data from the Bokashi Bran app. There is no manual data entry, no spreadsheet reconciliation, and no lag. The data you see is the data from the last collection.
How group onboarding works
Site assessment | We visit or remotely assess each property to determine volumes, kitchen configuration, drum requirements and collection frequency. |
SCHWAS setup | A SCHWAS Team Form is completed for each property, assigning named contacts to each of the six roles. This gives us a direct communication pathway at property level from day one. |
Training | On-site induction training at each property. Digital training videos available on the portal for ongoing staff onboarding as team members change. |
Staged rollout | For large groups, we recommend a phased onboarding approach — piloting at 3–5 properties, refining the model, then rolling out to the full portfolio. |
Consolidated reporting | Once all properties are live, group-level reporting is activated on the portal. Head office receives a single group certificate annually and can access property-level detail at any time. |
Our group clients
We currently manage food waste compliance for multiple national hotel groups. Our largest active group account covers 21 properties across 5 hotel brands, diverting 738,714 kg from landfill in a single fiscal year. Our broadest group account spans 46+ properties across 4 hotel brands, with national coverage from Cape Town to Polokwane and diverted 194 Tonnes of food waste in 2025.
We also manage group accounts for corporate canteen operators including Nedbank, Investec, Roche Diagnostics and Liberty Life — where the challenge is compliance and ESG reporting rather than room-night volumes, but the system and reporting model is identical.
Trusted by leading organisations.
14 years. Over 100 commercial kitchens. We have implemented this system in hotels, casinos, corporate canteens, schools, hospitals, lodges and restaurants. Whatever your kitchen configuration, we have seen it before. Getting your team compliant takes days, not months.
