Get your hands dirty for Compost Awareness Week

5 May 2008

Waste Awareness Wales urged people to get their hands dirty during bank holiday Monday for Compost Awareness Week.

To mark Compost Awareness Week (4 -10 May) a home composting event was held at the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne in Carmarthenshire to encourage visitors to get rotting and reduce the amount of waste we throw away.

The demonstrations included advice on how to get started composting and featured hints and top tips as well as hosting interactive displays which took place in the garden’s Millennium Square.

Known as ‘nature’s way of recycling’, composting items such as fruit and vegetable peelings, teabags and eggshells helps to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill as well as creating rich compost to perk up our gardens.

Waste Awareness Wales’ development officer Gwyndaf Parry said:

"There’s a responsibility for all of us to try and reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill each year. Composting organic kitchen and garden waste is one of the most effective things people can do to reduce the amount of waste we throw away."

"Amazingly, around one third of our waste can be easily composted at home – from garden clippings to cardboard, tea bags to paper. By composting instead of putting everything in the rubbish bin we can greatly reduce the amount we send to landfill sites, which are filling up fast."

"No garden is too small to compost, and it is a quick and simple way to reduce the amount we throw away, as well as giving back rich, free soil conditioner to get gardens looking great."

Waste Awareness Wales’ guide to composting:

Step 1 – Where?

Ideally, put your bin on a level, well-drained spot in your garden, which will let water drain away and allow worms and other helpful creatures in.  A sunny spot will speed up the composting process.

Step 2 – What?

Getting the right ingredients from your kitchen and garden will make the best compost – and make sure you have a mix of ‘fast rotters’ and ‘slow rotters’:

• Things that rot quickly are soft, wet and high in nitrogen. These include fruit/vegetable peelings and cores, tea and coffee, grass cuttings and plant prunings
  
• Things that rot slowly are hard, dry and high in carbon. These include cardboard egg boxes, scrap paper, fallen leaves, twigs and branches
  
• Your compost needs to be moist – but not wet - with air pockets. So, if you notice it becomes too wet add more ‘slow rotters’, and if it’s too dry add ‘fast rotters’!  Every now and then add more scrunched bits of card or lift with a fork. Worms like broken egg shells too – as they create pockets to hide in!
  
• Things to keep out of your composting bin include cooked vegetables, meat and dairy products, diseased plants, weeds and animal faeces
  

Step 3 – When?

Your new, spongy compost could be ready in less than a year; look for a very dark brown, soil-like layer at the bottom of your bin, which is rich in nutrients.  Some bins have a small hatch at the bottom that you can remove to get at the finished product but  it’s just as easy to lift the bin or tip it over.  Use it on your plants as a nutritious  fertiliser or to improve the quality of your soil as a mulch or lawn dressing.