On-farm operations and legislation threaten stability of compost prices

Growing Demand

The Government-produced Waste Strategy 2000 has buoyed up business by setting local authorities the target of composting or recycling 30% household waste by 2010. Peter Mills, composting manager for Onyx, said: “It's a fantastic market at the moment. It has been for some time. We can't keep up with demand.”

As the composting market grows, competition becomes rife. Paddy Johnston of TJ Composting Services said: “The results of the increasing popularity of large-scale composting is a more competitive market.”

The Landfill Directive has other targets for the UK with regard to compostable waste. By 2013, we must reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste landfilled to 50% of that produced in 1995, so there is plenty of room for more players in the market. But many smaller operators may be bought out by larger companies in the process of achieving this, Mr Johnston predicted.

“Some of the larger waste management companies are starting to realise the benefits of composting and waking up to the fact that their prime resource, landfill, is diminishing. They're slowly realising that there's other things they should be doing, while local authorities are asking the suppliers of their waste services to provide composting services too.”

Awareness

Efforts to establish compost as a quality product are opening up the retail market. This will add to compost's usual scope of agriculture and landscaping. “There is a growing awareness of green waste compost by end users,” said Mr Mills. This has been aided by its promotion on television gardening shows and the new Apex compost brand produced for garden centres across the UK by SITA, Onyx and Cleanaway.

For the moment, compost is competing with peat as a soil improving product. Because peat is light and easy to transport, it is relatively cheap – around 3 for a 50l bag sold in a garden centre. In order to compete, compost prices are forced to stay at a comparably low level, despite the material's higher transportation and processing costs.