News

Compost Awareness Week

This feature was added on 5th May 2009

Help save millions of tonnes of waste from landfill this Compost Awareness Week

Millions of tonnes of household waste could be saved from landfill each year if we all made the most of our compost, according to the Recycle Now campaign, launching this year’s Compost Awareness Week which runs from 3-9 May.

Compost Awareness Week aims to encourage us all to compost our household and garden waste at home, as well as using greener, peat-free composts, in order to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill each year. This Compost Awareness Week, Recycle Now has teamed up with TV chef Arthur Potts Dawson and the Hertfordshire WasteAware Partnership to encourage people to give composting a go.

Recycle Now research shows households in England throw away four million tonnes of waste each year that could have been composted, which could save 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions every year. This is the equivalent to taking more than 450,000 cars off the road. Recycle Now estimates that around a quarter of this waste could be easily composted at home. Anything from tea bags and egg shells to vegetable peelings can be composted– and it couldn’t be simpler to start.

Arthur Potts Dawson, Executive Chef at top eco-friendly restaurant Acorn House said: “Composting is one of the easiest and most fulfilling things you can do to help the environment, but many people are unaware of the impact it can have or think it is too complicated to do. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“At Acorn House we compost 100 percent of our suitable waste on site and use the compost we make to grow herbs and other vegetables to serve in the restaurant. I also ensure that any compost I buy is peat-free, as I’m fully aware of the damage caused to peat bogs and their wildlife through peat extraction for garden compost. It gets great results, and needn’t cost the earth.”

What’s more, many of us are unaware of the environmental benefits of using peat-free compost. Fifty one percent of people 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 savingⁱ. 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 survivalⁱⁱ.

Since 2007, Recycle Now has sold an amazing 13,500 compost bins across Hertfordshire, as more and more people are getting the home composting bug – and it seems awareness is increasing. Recycle Now researchⁱⁱⁱ shows that we are more aware of how our gardening behaviour affects the environment than we were a year ago and have taken steps to ‘green-up’ our gardening habits:

One in ten (9%) of those questioned say they are now home composting their garden waste when they weren’t a year ago
One in six (16%) said they have recently started using peat-free compost
Almost 60 percent of people are now growing their own fruit and vegetables, with 16 percent having started in the last year

Carl Nichols, Head of Home Composting at Recycle Now, said: “There has been a dramatic increase in home composting over the past year as people have got the grow your own vegetables bug to help beat the recession. However even regular home composters still send on average nearly 70Kg of compostable food waste to landfill each year - that’s the weight of a medium sized adult. Simple steps such as composting at home and switching to peat-free compost containing recycled materials can make a huge difference.”

As an additional incentive for people to start composting, Recycle Now, WasteAware and DHL who deliver the compost bins, are launching a ‘Golden Bin’ competition. Anyone who buys a compost bin through WasteAware’s Home Composting scheme is in with the chance of winning £50 of garden centre vouchers. To be in with a chance, people should simply visit www.wasteaware.org.uk/compost.cfm to find out how to order a bin at a great value price. This offer runs from 3-17 May 2009.

i) ICM research, March 2009 and Exodus Market Research, November 2008

ii) Tallis J.H. (1995), Blanket mires in the upland landscape. In "Restoration of temperate wetlands" ed. Wheeler et al., John Wiley & Sons, Chichester

iii) ICM Research, March 2009