Compost Awareness Week 2011 in full swing

International Compost Awareness Week 2011 has kicked off under the banner of passing on composting and gardening knowledge.

The event, whichrepresents the 11th year of the international campaign designed to promote composting, began on Sunday May 1 and will run to Saturday May 7.

In the UK, the Week involves councils, retailers and community groups across the country holding initiatives and campaigns around issues such as home composting and the use of peat-free compost.

At its core, the concept of passing on aims to involve those who have never composted before by offering advice on how to get started or provide additional information on compostable items to those that have already undertaken some composting.

And, other efforts such as using peat-free compost for the first time, as well as providing more background for gardeners, particularly those with no green waste or minimal space, looking to use wormeries.

The 2010 International Compost Awareness Week was run with the theme of Give It a Grow, with main focus being the promotion of home composting (see letsrecycle.com story).

Information for councils, retailers and community groups is available through the WRAP Recycle Now Partners website.

Focus

A new addition for Compost Awareness Week 2011 is also the onus being placed on the use of social media.

Supporting documents published by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) encourage participants to make use of Facebook and Twitter to update residents of composting initiatives over the course of the week. For example, using the Twitter hashtag #caw2011.

The supporting documents also present Worcestershire county council as a case study and draw attention to its composting clinics, which it has run for the last few years.

For the 2011 Compost Awareness Week, Worcestershire is pushing the message of home composting and encouraging residents to purchase home composting bins. It claims that 90,000 residents have already taken advantage of the councils subsidy on bins and is continuing to offer bins at a discounted rate.

Christopher Atkinson, senior waste prevention officer at Worcestershire, said: “Homemade compost will produce great results in your garden, you can use it to top up pots, feed trees and shrubs, or help grow award winning flowers and vegetables.

You can even feed your lawn. By composting your garden waste at home you can also save yourself a trip to the household recycling centre too.”

Information

Worcestershire, as with other local authorities, such as Central Bedfordshire council, will also be holding road shows during the week to enable residents to meet and discuss composting with council representatives and like-minded residents.

The Northamptonshire Waste Partnership, which is made up of the district and borough councils and the county council, has recruited 14 volunteers to its Master Composters Scheme in recent months.

These volunteers have been trained up to work across the county and encourage members of the public to start composting at home over the course of Compost Awareness Week.

In Wigan, the borough council is encouraging residents to create their own newspaper plant pot. This involves filling up a pot with compost made from garden waste collected in the local authority area and then planting sunflower seeds in it. The biodegradable pots can then be planted straight into the ground at the residents home.

Elsewhere, waste management and recycling company LondonWaste is holding a compost giveaway at its EcoPark in North London on May 3 and May 4, as well as hosting a compost trail tour at the site.