Rising demand for compost from landscape gardeners

This report and a survey into the amount of green waste currently being produced were released to coincide with the awareness week – an initiative brought to the UK from Canada by The Composting Association, which runs from Sunday, May 6 to May 12.

Demand for compost from landscape gardens has increased

The findings in the report support WRAP-research from last year which found 86% of the landscaping industry had a “positive attitude” towards compost. Factors influencing the attitude shift are said to include greater availability and affordability.

Survey


There was more good news for the compost industry as an online green waste survey of 1,000 people in April, by WRAP, confirmed higher than usual green waste tonnages for this time of year as was also reported by letsrecycle.com (see letsreycle.com story).

Nearly 24% of people said they were producing more green waste through cutting grass or pruning hedges than previous years because of the hotter weather.

Gaynor Faye is the celebrity face of Compost Awareness Week 2007

Around 32% of people said they needed to mow their lawns more frequently as grass seemed to be growing more quickly, while 44% of those surveyed said they needed to start mowing their lawns earlier in the season.

Awareness Week


WRAP and The Composting Association hope Compost Awareness Week will promote the benefits of compost and encourage people to recycle garden waste instead of sending it to landfill.

The Composting Association's chief executive, Jane Gilbert, said: “Composting is going from strength to strength at the moment. Compost Awareness Week is our opportunity to connect with the public and to promote the good work that composters do.”

Initiatives taking place during the week include:

• In-store greeters at Sainsbury’s aiming to raise awareness of compost. Fruit and vegetables will carry stickers saying “compost me”.
• Free compost from West London Composting for Hillingdon residents on Sunday.
• TV actor Gaynor Faye, who is the celebrity face of compost awareness, will be giving TV and radio interviews.

Protocol

The final week-day of Compost Awareness Week is also the date when the Quality Protocol for Compost comes into force – the Protocol which sees compost moving from a waste to a product (see letsrecycle.com story).

In its report WRAP also said that applications for PAS100 (the standard composters are required to achieve in order to comply with the Protocol) have gone up by 36% since the Protocol's publication this March.