Concerns about the health affects of composting featured on the radio and in the national press last week casting a shadow over the aims of Composting Awareness Week. But on the ground, a visit by letsrecycle.com to a composting site found a positive view that provided that the composting process is well-managed there is no need for concern.
Brighton-based TJ Composting held an open day at one of its composting sites near Lewes, East Sussex last week as part of Composting Awareness Week. TJ Composting has a sub-contract with waste management firm SITA to compost the green waste collected at East Sussex’s civic amenity CA sites including Seaford, Newhaven and Lewes. SITA has the contract with East Sussex County Council to manage the CA sites.
The site is one of a number that TJ Composting runs in the south east and is located on disused farmland, away from housing, near Viridor’s East Sussex landfill site. The site is exempt from planning consent because the compost is used for landfill restoration, but it is still regulated by the Environment Agency. TJ Composting leases the land from Viridor and Viridor takes the compost for landfill restoration when it needs to.
Kitchen waste
The day aimed to show East Sussex and Brighton & Hove recycling officers what happens to the green waste once it leaves the CA sites, partly because the past year has been something of a nightmare for composting as, prompted by Foot and Mouth concerns, the government and the Environment Agency restricted the use of compost which might contain kitchen waste. As a result, many councils toned down their composting activities and stopped their kitchen and green waste kerbside collections or ended kitchen waste schemes altogether.
TJ Composting is owned and run by Charlie Trousdell and Petra Johnston and Mr Trousdell told letsrecycle. “Like any practice, there are people that do it well and people that don’t. But with composting there is more of a risk if it goes wrong. “Odour, noise and dust can all be over come good operational practices,” he said.
Uncertainty
Composting experts say that common sense is starting to prevail with the realisation that if composting is carried out sensibly there is no problem – even Environment Minister Michael Meacher has reiterated that composting is vital to meeting government recycling targets. But the industry is still in a state of uncertainty and is waiting for DEFRA’s announcement on June 7 concerning composting, when it is expected that there will be a move to in-vessel composting.
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