'Green up your garden' by home composting
News release dated 30 April 2008 about home composting.
Residents are being urged to ‘Green up their garden’ by home composting. Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is using Compost Awareness Week (4-10 May 2008) to encourage more residents to recycle their kitchen, household and garden waste by composting at home.
"One third of the contents of the average household rubbish bin can be composted, in addition to trimmings from the garden." (Cllr Julian Ellacott, Executive Member for Environment)
Cut-price compost bins
To help you get started, Reigate & Banstead residents can purchase cut-price compost bins from as little as £12.00, thanks to a special arrangement between the Council and WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme).
Composting advice
The Council is also holding a series of composting roadshows during Compost Awareness Week so residents can get their composting and other recycling questions answered. Officers will be on hand at:
Woodmansterne Mayday Fete on Monday 5 May
Banstead High Street on Friday 9 May.
Free compost
Cllr Julian Ellacott, Executive Member for Environment, said: "I was amazed to learn that one third of the contents of the average household rubbish bin can be composted, in addition to trimmings from the garden.
"Home composting is an easy and sensible way of reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, and it obviously also produces a free supply of nutrient rich, home made compost that will make your garden flourish.
"The great thing about composting at home is that it requires relatively little effort, and is suitable whether you are a seasoned gardener or a novice, have a large garden or a small urban space."
Recipe for success
Fruit and vegetable peelings, dead flowers, grass cuttings, egg shells, pet hair, coffee grounds and tea bags, toilet roll innards, the contents of your hoover and even old shredded bank statements and bills can be added to your home compost bin.
The recipe for creating good compost is getting a good mix of nitrogen rich materials like grass and kitchen waste (known as ‘greens’) and carbon rich matter found in woody substances like straw, dead leaves and newspapers (known as ‘browns’). Around 50 per cent of each is ideal.
Compost bins should be placed on a wire mesh base over bare soil (to prevent vermin) and you should stick a garden fork in the compost now and then to aerate it, then simply wait for a fantastic supply of compost to appear, as if by magic
Special offer
The special compost bin offer enables Reigate & Banstead residents to purchase a 220 litre compost converter for £12.00, a 330 litre bin for £15.00 and the 250 litre Komp costs £35.00. What’s more, delivery of the composters is free of charge.
To order your bin or find out more log on to the Recycle Now website (opens in new window) or call 0845 077 0757 quoting reference HCA2 The offer runs until 31 March 2009, subject to availability.
For more information on composting see the home composting page.
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Town Hall
Castlefield Road
Reigate
RH2 0SH
01737 276000
customer.services@reigate-banstead.gov.uk
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