Make a difference with compost

August 10, 2009 by Mumstop
Filed under House/Garden

Now is a great time to get out in the garden and enjoy the sunshine. It is also a great time to take up home composting.

A staggering one third of a household’s waste can be composted at home, and that can make a huge difference to the amount of waste which is sent to landfill sites each year. When organic waste is sent to landfill it gets buried under other waste and decomposes without oxygen, producing a harmful greenhouse gas, methane.

: Image by Joi via Flickr

However, when the same waste is composted at home it breaks down with oxygen and no methane is emitted. By composting at home you also cut down on the amount of energy used annually on transporting domestic waste to landfill sites all over the country, and you get a free fertilser for use on plants and gardens.

All you need to start composting at home is a compost bin – discounted bins are available from www.recyclenow.com/compost to residents of Essex County Council. Just input your postcode to see which compost bins are available to you. Once you’ve purchased a bin, you need to site it somewhere easily accessible in the garden, preferably directly on the earth so worms can find their way into the bin.

Filling up the bin is simple. Many people who already home compost are unaware of the variety of items that can be recycled by home composting. Uncooked fruit and vegetable peelings from the kitchen can go straight into the compost bin, as well as dead flowers and plant prunings.

In order to create a balanced compost, you need to ensure that you mix these ‘greens’ with equal amounts of fibrous ‘browns’ like scrunched up cereal boxes, the insides of toilet rolls or shredded paper. The perfect mix of green and brown items create an environment where microbes can break down the mix of organic waste naturally into a rich dark compost for use on plants and gardens. Other items you might not have thought you could compost include:

Tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells, dog hair, hamster bedding, the contents of your vacuum cleaner.
Home compost is a product that will help your garden and the environment as a whole – putting valuable nutrients back into the soil and helping gardens to look healthier and more beautiful. For tips on how to compost and use your finished compost check

: Image by bunchofpants via Flickr

outwww.recyclenow.com/compost.

If you can’t find what you want to know email your query to compost@wrap.org.uk. It takes between nine and 12 months to produce your own compost – so if you can’t wait that long, peat free composts, made from recycled green materials collected through garden waste collections and Recycling Centres can be purchased from all of Essex County Council’s Recycling Centres, seewww.essex.gov.uk/recyclingcentre for more information. The compost is competitively priced, great for the garden, providing the key nutrients that plants need to thrive and is great for the environment.