Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

8 May 2008

"Grow a community around the compost heap"

Community composting is becoming more popular in Gloucestershire and beyond. Local communities are getting together to compost their garden waste and create wonderful locally made compost. The benefits of community composting include: -

• Garden waste is dealt with locally, reducing the environmental impact of transporting it. Local gardens will have fertile and healthy soils as the compost is returned to members.
• Community compost groups can normally deal with woody waste and weeds, as they often have use of a shredder and have large compost heaps that heat up to considerable temperatures.
• Creates a sense of community and a great outdoor activity, which will help keep you fit and healthy. All members of the community can be involved.
• Community compost groups can claim recycling credits for every tonne of garden waste they compost - a useful income.
• The need to buy compost is greatly reduced, thus preventing further damage to our precious peat bogs.

The Wildlife Trust offers support and guidance to groups wanting to set up a scheme. There are several groups already up and running in the county, including Bisley, Lower Slaughter and Alderton, which opened in April, and Hidcote Gardens, whose scheme began in May. There are several others under development. Community composts are most often sited on allotments and are run by volunteers. Groups will need to find suitable site (may need planning permission), a license from the Environment Agency and usually some start up funding, for initial costs. However with a Compost officer in each district of Gloucestershire there will be someone local who can advise and support your group. Would you like to see community compost near you?

To find out more call the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Compost Hotline on 01452 313761 or compost@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk

For more information about HOME COMPOSTING, click here to visit the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust web site

28 January 2008

"DON’T WASTE WILDLIFE" - COMPOST OFFICERS

In April 2007, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust recruited 7 new compost officers to its ‘Don’t Waste Wildlife’ team. The officers have been working in each of the council districts to encourage and support anyone starting to compost and offer help and advice to those who already do.

Over the last 9 months, the officers have come up with some creative ways to inspire Gloucestershire to go compost crazy at a local level. 2008 promises to be an exciting mix of events, workshops and presentations to an even wider audience. Topics covered include the different kinds of compost bin available, frequently asked questions, troubleshooting your composting and the dizzying selection of wildlife in compost from microscopic bacteria through to mammals and amphibians.

The team are available to give talks and presentations and help with any local composting support you and your community might need.

If you are a group, organisation, school or business that would like to know more about composting and how it benefits wildlife, you can contact your local officer via the Compost Hotline on compost@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk or 01452 313761.

26 January 2008

BIO-DEGRADABLES IN LANDFILL

It’s easy! We put it in the bin, the bin men take it away, its put into a big hole in the ground, miles away, we can forget about it! But what happens in the big hole in the ground? Will it fill up? Will the next one be in my back yard?

All the waste is mixed up and squashed down by massive bulldozers. The biodegradable fraction, about half, breaks down without any oxygen, this anaerobic process produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. In fact 1kg of food waste produces the equivalent of 1kg of C02. This is about the equivalent of driving 5 miles.

The other product of this process is a liquid called leachate. This unstable liquid requires a large amount of oxygen in order to become stable. If it is allowed to drain into our water courses it sucks all the oxygen out of the water thereby killing anything that was living in it, fish, insects and plants, affecting the whole food chain of the area. A huge amount of money has to be spent to catch and treat this leachate before releasing it in order to protect our wildlife and habitats.

The other problem with sending our waste to holes in the ground is that they keep filling up because we keep producing more and more waste per capita. We live on a densely populated island, we will run out of space. Gloucestershire County Council has 10 years of landfill space left at current rate of waste production.

These are three good reasons, three very good reasons, to make compost, not waste.

If you think you might like to have a go at composting, the Don’t Waste Wildlife Team can help individuals or groups in Gloucestershire who would like find out how to do it. Where ever you live in house or flat it is possible to make the most of your kitchen and garden waste instead of sending it to land fill.

If you would like to find out more please call us on 01452 313761 or email us at compost@gloucswt.cix.co.uk.