Government gives its support to Composting Awareness Week

During the week, which runs from April 28 – May 4, over 300 events will be taking place to raise awareness about the benefits of making and using soil enriching composts. Local authorities and composters will be organising compost-related events including launch of local authority home composting initiatives, composting equipment sales, compost promotions and composting workshops.

Despite recent concerns about composting as a result of Foot and Mouth and the Animal By-Products order, Environment Minister Michael Meacher has always said that composting is vital if local authorities are to meet their recycling targets. Supporting the week, he said: “I hope composting will have a major role to play in achieving the government’s goal of sustainable waste management.

“We have tough targets to meet under the EU Landfill Directive, and we have set a target to recycle or compost at least 25% of household waste by 2005. To achieve this it is vital that we raise awareness of the value of compost, as a soil conditioner and a growing medium. The use of compost reduces harmful emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from landfills, it reduces the need for scarce resources such as peat and it returns organic matter to the soil.”

To promote the 2002 campaign, The Composting Association has joined forces with Alan Titchmarsh and over two million “Alan Titchmarsh Guides to Home Composting” have been distributed to composters and local authorities across the UK.

Mr Titchmarsh said: “I've made and used soil enriching composts for as long as I can remember. Every garden and home has enough waste to produce a rich garden compost that helps provide organic matter and nutrients essential for healthy plant growth. What’s more, provided you follow a few simple guidelines it’s easy to do, environmentally friendly and best of all, completely free.”

Composting Awareness Week is being officially launched on April 29 at an open day being held to promote best practice in composting. The day is being held at the Waste Recycling Group composting facility in Gowy, Cheshire and is one of a series of days being held at similar sites across the UK. The sites have been designated ‘Best Practice’ status by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) under its standards for composts programme.

For more information visit:

www.compost.org.uk