Guide makes sense of garden chemical disposal

The website includes campaign resources for councils to inform residents about garden chemicals

The 'Garden Chemicals Campaign Guide' has been commissioned by the Pesticides Safety Directorate, and was launched at the Forum's summer seminar in Oxford last week.

The guide came following the “panic-stricken dumping” of garden chemicals seen after the European-wide banning of hazardous pesticides and chemicals like creosote (see letsrecycle.com story).

Research from consultancy Save Waste and Prosper Ltd (SWAP) suggested local authorities had found it hard to cope with garden chemical disposal.

Available online, the new guide includes information on frequently asked questions, a timetable about forthcoming withdrawals by the EC pesticides review programme and resources to help local authorities design communications campaigns.

The website also includes 'green shopper cards', which can be displayed in garden centres.

“Co-ordinated”
Debbie Hussey, an environment and policy adviser at the Pesticides Safety Directorate, explained: “The site will help local authorities gear up to withdrawals in a sustained and co-ordinated manner, and keep residents informed.”

The guide allows the public to log on and locate their nearest garden chemical disposal unit by simply typing in their postcode.

Local authorities are being encouraged to fill in an online form so their details can be added to the resource.

David Evans at the Crop Protection Association, which also sponsored the guide, said: “We hope more local authorities will fill in their service details to the chemical disposal locator to allow the public easy, on-line access to find their nearest drop-off or collection services.”