Restaurants using ceramics made from kitchen waste

A theatre professional who turned to pottery as a form of therapy when she became ill is now supplying top restaurants with bowls and plates – made from their own kitchen waste.

Alice Watkins quit her job as a scenic artist at Bristol Old Vic in 2021 after developing long Covid.

As her love of pottery grew, she started replacing unsustainable materials with waste clay and kitchen waste, including deer bones, oyster shells and charcoal.

"I couldn't have imagined three years ago the situation that I would be in now. It's a really beautiful thing," said Ms Watkins.

"And the fact that it came out of a really painful situation and then it's blossomed into something beautiful, it's amazing," added the ceramicist, who lives in Bristol.

Ms Watkins, a former deputy head of the Royal Shakespeare Company, had worked in theatre for more than 15 years when she was forced to step back due to the fatigue brought on by long Covid.

She said she found comfort in the slow, focused process of making ceramics and has developed it into a career, now hand-making plates, bowls and other items for restaurants.

But she soon became aware of the environmental impact of her new venture.

"I was just so shocked that we're mining the earth for these products, and that's finite," said Ms Watkins.

She was also finding that a lot of the tableware she provided to restaurants was getting broken.

Now, her creations under the brand Wild and Wasted are made from wild clay – meaning it is not industrially mined but found in nature – as well as waste from local construction sites.

Her glazes also incorporate kitchen waste such as eggshells, seashells and animal bones, which help to strengthen the pieces, as well as glass bottles and used charcoal.

She is planning to start reusing broken crockery too.

Jan Ostle, co-owner of Wilsons, a farm-to-table restaurant that has a Michelin Green Star for its sustainability efforts, said it was "natural synergy" for them to work with Ms Watkins.

He said for customers now, sustainability was "a really important part of why they choose to spend their money with you, it's no good just being delicious".

The ceramics Ms Watkins supplies to Wilsons are made with their leftover oyster shells, deer bones and the charcoal the chefs cook over.

Ms Watkins also uses wild clay from Wilsons' market garden.

"If you see it as sort of a circular process with stuff coming back, it doesn't quite hurt so much when they get broken," said Mr Ostle.

Ms Watkins, who has also made ceramics for Bristol's recently closed Michelin starred restaurant Casamia and Birmingham's The Wilderness, is still recovering from her illness, but says she is "much, much better" than she was.

She is now planning to grow a network within the South West for other creatives to find and process waste materials.

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