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Compost Awareness Week gets underway

Compost Awareness Week gets underway

Composters and councils across the country have started promoting the ninth annual Compost Awareness Week (CAW) under the banner Food for Thought.

Celebrity chef Arthur Potts Dawson is helping to promote this year's Compost Awareness Week
Celebrity chef Arthur Potts Dawson is helping to promote this year’s Compost Awareness Week
From Sunday (May 3) until Saturday (May 9), the campaign is this year aimed at promoting the use of compost for growing fruit and vegetables at home.

A spokesman for the Association for Organics Recycling (AFOR), which organises the event alongside the WRAP, explained: “This year, we will be encouraging people to put their compost to good use by trying their hand at growing their own fruit and vegetables as a way to go green and save money.”

The aim of CAW is to raise awareness of compost and highlight the number of applications available for quality compost. It is also an opportunity for compost producers to promote compost made from garden and food waste and develop a dialogue with end users.

This year AFOR and WRAP have teamed up with celebrity eco chef Arthur Potts Dawson to help promote the message that using compost at home to grow vegetables is a great way to go green and also save money.

Mr Potts Dawson is executive chef at London-based eco restaurant Acorn House, which aims to recycle 80% of its waste. The restaurant has its own site for storage of dry recyclables, a compostor and a wormery, which provide soil for the restaurant. The roof of the storage area, which is in King's Cross, is used to grow herbs.

Mr Potts Dawson said: “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.

Nationwide

Poster promoting Compost Awareness Week in Rhondda
Poster promoting Compost Awareness Week in Rhondda
A number of events are taking place nationwide to promote the week and encourage people to use compost on their gardens.

In Sheffield, waste management company Veolia is set to visit a different supermarket each day in order to spread the word about just how easy composting actually can be. It is aiming to help Sheffield residents reduce the amount of waste that goes into their residual bin and start home composting instead.

And, along with Sheffield City Council, it is providing “low-cost home composting solutions” with compost bins available from

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