Apex compost partnership wins praise from Meacher

The partnership, known as Apex, sees three waste companies, Cleanaway, Onyx and SITA, teaming up to produce a high quality compost for sale across the UK.

Speaking at the launch of Apex yesterday, Environment Minister Michael Meacher said: “I very warmly congratulate Apex on developing the market for this product.

“This is an extremely important part of the government's waste strategy. We need to reduce reliance on landfill and we also need to reduce the use of peat – it's a non-renewable resource and to find a renewable resource which is equally effective is a win-win situation.”

The government target for peat reduction is to increase the use of peat alternatives from 27% to 40% of UK growing media by 2005, while local authorities have been told to compost or recycle 25% of household waste by the same year.

The waste management companies are working with distributor Freeland Horticulture to supply brands including William Sinclair Horticulture, who supply J. Arthur Bower's compost and Ireland's Bord na Mona, who supply B&Q.;

Symbol

The compost is marked with the quality symbol of the HDRA and will gain the Composting Association standard this August, while the Apex logo itself is intended as a quality standard. Mr Meacher commented: “We think the accreditation of an industry standard will increase compost's attractiveness in comparison to peat.”

The guest speaker at the launch in Basingstoke Dr Tony Kendle, director of the Eden Foundation, said the vibrant growth of the Eden Project's plants was a remarkable testimony to the 85,000 tonnes of organic material they made themselves from green waste. “You want to say to people, 'look, we can do spectacular things with this product!'” he said.

SITA composting manager Dr Stephen Wise commented: “It’s a bit unusual for the big waste companies to work together, but in terms of the compost industry it works.

“The three companies have composting contracts in different geographical areas, but no one company could supply a product nationwide. Collaboratively, we have got the volume to supply outlets nationwide and we have got sites all over England.”