Published on:
14
April 2005
International Compost Awareness Week runs from 1st to 7th May and there are lots of things we can all do to take part.
To help you compost at home, Clackmannanshire Council together with WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) are providing compost bins at a reduced price of £3.
All compost bins come with a home composting guide, a kitchen caddy for compostable food waste and a pack of compostable caddy liners.
Composting is the art of turning organic waste such as a pile of leaves into a rich 'black gold' compost called humus.
It is easy to do at home and is full of benefits for you and the environment. Organic wastes that can be composted include fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds and tea bags, grass clippings and leaves.
By composting you will reduce the amount of waste you put in your bin while producing your own beneficial soil additive and improving your local environment.
To order a compost bin, please call 0845 077 0756.
As part of Compost Awareness Week, The Compost Association Scotland is holding an awareness roadshow. The roadshow will be visiting Stirling on Wednesday 4th May at the Smith Gallery between 1-4pm.
There will be a range of workshops and demonstrations to take part in, ranging from composting in schools, community composting and home composting. There will also be a chance to pick up a reduced priced compost bin.
If you don't wish to compost at home, you can still make a contribution using your brown bin. Waste including grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, flowers and plants, weeds, leaves, wood shavings and clean cardboard can be placed in the brown bin which is collected and taken to the central composting facility at Lower Polmaise to be composted.
Clackmannanshire Council asks all local householders to make sure they do not put any plastic bags or polystyrene in their brown bin. These materials do not decompose but break down into smaller pieces when they pass through the shredder and look unsightly in the finished compost. The finished product is freely available for Clackmannanshire residents to take away from Glenochil Nursery, Menstrie Road, and Forthbank Recycling Centre, Bowhouse Road, Alloa .
Glass bottles and textiles are also a common contaminant. Glass is particularly problematic as the shredding process breaks it up resulting in shards, which could injure anyone who handles the compost. Textiles catch in the machinery and can also cause a lot of damage. Both glass and textiles can be recycled, by using the kerbside recycling scheme or by using glass and textile Recycling Points around Clackmannanshire.
For more information about garden waste collections, or composting in Clackmannanshire, please call the helpline on 0500 545 540.