Compost Awareness Week lines up “dirty weekend”

Members of the public will see first hand the transformation that turns green garden clippings into top quality compost from May 7 to May 13.

Gardeners will be encouraged to produce their own compost with discounts on home composting equipment. And, they will be shown the benefits of purchasing compost made from recycled green waste – with this year's theme being “Compost… Add power to your flowers!”

Organisers at the Composting Association aiming to publicise the week as a fun experience this year, while highlighting the benefits of compost and composting. Jane Gilbert, chief executive of the Association, said: “Making compost is fun and an important way to recycle.”

Tips
The Association has assembled some top tips for home composters, with advice including how to generate the best results by mixing certain kinds of household waste, how to add air to the process with scrunched up paper and how to speed up the composting process with “accelerators” such as a handful of soil, finished compost or young nettles.

The national “Recycle Now” campaign will be throwing its weight behind Compost Awareness Week this year, with celebrities in the form of TV presenter Philippa Forrester and TV gardener Chris Beardshaw will take part in events.

A “compost bus” will be on tour throughout England to further publicise composting activities.

Councils
Meanwhile hundreds of local authorities and garden centres will be staging special events publicising recycled compost and home composting.

Suffolk county council, one of the authorities taking part, will be running workshops for residents to find out how best to use their home composting bins. As with many other local authorities, the county council will also be giving out free compost at its household waste recycling centres.

Cllr Eddy Alsock, portfolio holder for environment, waste and economic development at Suffolk, said: “Although Suffolk is one of the leading authorities in the country for recycling and composting, we have to do even better. I believe by promoting Compost Awareness Week we can try to achieve this.”