Give it a Grow in Compost Awareness Week!

‘Give it a Grow’ is the message being put out by the Trust and Recycle Now to mark the 10th annual Compost Awareness Week, which runs from 2-8 May 2010.

The aim is to encourage all of us to try our hand at new composting activities in order to do our bit for the environment.

Although about a third of us already compost at home, there are lots more things we can try. For example, around 60% of people say they have never tried composting general household waste, such as scrunched up paper or the contents from a vacuum cleaner; and about half have never tried using peat-free compost (ICM research conducted for WRAP in March 2009).

Sara Cundy, Waste Minimisation Officer at the Trust, says: “This Compost Awareness Week we are encouraging everyone to give composting a go. Even those of us who are already composting at home could compost more things more often, or try new things, such as greener, peat free composts.

"However you choose to get involved, there are plenty of new things you can try, which will not only help the environment but also help your garden grow greener.”

Here are just some of the things we could all try this Compost Awareness Week.

• New to composting? Why not give composting a go. Anyone with outside space can compost at home. At the moment Wiltshire Council is offering residents subsidised food waste digesters. For more information contact the Trust or visit www.recycleforwiltshire.com
• Already a compost champion? Think about additional things you could compost, such as eggs shells, tea bags or even coffee grounds and filter paper. Check the list of compostable items at www.recyclenow.com/compost
• Don’t know what to do with your compost? Try using your homemade compost to enrich your borders or to give your potted plants and containers an extra boost.
• Ever tried peat-free compost? It’s made from recycled materials - and that’s good news for the environment because it helps to cut down the amount of organic waste that is sent to landfill.
• 
  Fancy being a wormery wonder? Wormeries are ideal for people who don’t produce garden waste or have limited outside space. Small amounts of garden waste can go into a wormery, together with some cooked food scraps.

Waste such as vegetable peelings or garden waste is sometimes thought to be harmless, but when dumped into landfill they cause powerful greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere.

Home composting is a simple alternative that anyone can manage if they have a garden, allotment, or even a patio or outside space. Many of us are unaware of the environmental benefits of using peat free compost.

Fifty one percent of us have never used it, and twenty four percent say they are not aware of it, despite the fact that it can also make a significant environmental saving (ICM research, March 2009 and Exodus Market Research, November 2008).

It can take anywhere between 500 to 1,000 years to replace every one metre layer of peat extracted in the UK, putting at risk wildlife such as birds, dragonflies and butterflies that depend on its natural habitat for survival (Tallis J.H. (1995),Blanket mires in the upland landscape. In "Restoration of temperate wetlands" ed. Wheeler et al., John Wiley & Sons, Chichester).

For more information about Compost Awareness Week and to check what events are happening in your area, visit www.recyclenow.com/compost. Or contact Sara Cundy or John Sutton at the Trust on (01380) 725670.