Mayor Livingstone calls on Londoners to get composting

London has almost 100,000 acres of gardens and allotments, and the Recycle for London campaign is encouraging Londoners to use grass cuttings and prunings to nourish the capital's gardens rather than putting it in bins to be sent to landfill.

” I would like to see more of London’s gardeners and allotment owners composting. It is not only garden waste that can be composted but some kitchen waste too. “
– Ken Livingstone
Mayor Livingstone said: “I would like to see more of London’s gardeners and allotment owners composting. It is not only garden waste that can be composted but some kitchen waste too. This will mean less rubbish going to landfill and will benefit London’s gardens as the compost provides essential nutrients.”

Tips
The Mayor is providing gardeners with some top tips for composting, including:

• Placing compost bins on a level, well-drained, sunny area.
• Including vegetable peelings, fruit, teabags, plant prunings and grass cuttings in compost.
• Other things that can be composted include cardboard egg boxes, scrunched up paper and fallen leaves, but these are slower to rot.
• A good balance of quick and slow-rotting materials is best for home-composting.
• Things to avoid in composting include cooked vegetables, meat, dairy products, diseased plants, cat litter, nappies and weeds.
• Compost should be ready after six to nine months – finished compost is a dark brown, almost black soil-like layer at the bottom of the compost bin. It can be spread on soil to improve its quality by helping it retain moisture and suppressing weeds.

Campaign
The 3.5 million Recycle for London campaign was launched in 2003, aiming to remind Londoners they can recycle more than they think, not just glass and paper (see letsrecycle.com story). The campaign uses the strap line “London, let’s recycle more” to make Londoners more aware of the services that are available to them and of the full range of items they can recycle.

London recycled about 13.2% of its waste in 2003/04, and while home composting does not currently count against government recycling targets for household waste, it does help reduce the 3% growth in waste produced by householders each year.

International Compost Awareness Week is being run in the UK by the Composting Association, and takes place from May 1 to May 7. The fifth such event in the UK, it will include a range of events and publicity across the country to highlight composting for householders.