40% of home composters drop out though lack of support

That was the warning from the London Community Recycling Network, as the major part of the UK's largest-ever home composting initiative is getting underway.

Backed by multi-million pound funding from WRAP – the Waste and Resources Action Programme – logistics company Exel is starting a two-year contract to deliver up to a million new home composting bins to UK households by the end of 2006.

London CRN is using a “100% biodegradable” logo to publicise its free support service for household composters

Exel is expecting to deliver 400,000 home composting bins to UK households this year on behalf of WRAP, with a further 500,000 in 2006. An eight-month trial has already seen 164,000 home composting bins ordered by householders through Excel's Leeds call centre. WRAP is aiming to divert 400,000 tonnes of organic material from landfill by April 2006 through the home composting scheme

London
London CRN, an umbrella group for over 120 community recycling groups in London, has said without providing advice on how to use home composting bins successfully, more than a third of home composters drop out.

The organisation has already been running a free support and advice service for households in 11 London boroughs, and has just learned it has won nearly 60,000 from Defra to expand the support service into three more boroughs.

The “Composting Networks” service offers support to home composters “from the moment they receive the new bin”, with the use of trained “master composters”, who provide advice by email or telephone.

A 32,902 grant from Defra's Waste Partnership Fund will help expand the home composting support service into the boroughs of Redbridge and Havering. A 24,447 grant will allow the project to run in Tower Hamlets, where the support service extends to the use of communal home composting schemes because of the high level of households in flats.

” I am sure we can make a significant impact to the amount of waste that Havering, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets are currently sending to landfill.“
– Philippa Roberts, London CRN
Publicity
A new “100% biodegradable” logo is being deployed by London CRN to raise awareness of the composting service among householders. The Network said publicising its new Compost Networks scheme is “vital to its success”. A series of events will be run throughout the Spring and Summer to promote the scheme.

Philippa Roberts, project manager, said: “By providing support to home and community composters, I am sure we can make a significant impact to the amount of waste that Havering, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets are currently sending to landfill.”

Partnerships
London CRN, which was set up in 1997, has also been given a Defra grant of 42,009 to continue its Building Partnerships programme, which helps build relationships between councils and community recyclers.

• London's online waste and recycling database, CapitalWasteFacts, run by London Remade, has been expanded to offer better comparisons of recycling rates between boroughs. The site offers waste management and recycling figures on all 33 London boroughs.