Swapping rubbish for compost with Dev and Dave

As Compost Awareness Week comes to an end, I thought I'd take the opportunity to partake in a spot of awareness-raising of my own ....and well...show you some of my compost.

And here's a closer look....starting with the new bed I planted up this afternoon with some fantastic soil improver, courtesy of three chickens who love to poop and a compost bin called Plastic Dev that can take it!   After a year of breaking down, it's lost all its fragrance and simply looks like good quality compost, which I mixed with earth from the garden and spread onto the bed, ready to transplant some day-lilies from an overgrown part of the garden.

 

And on the subject of poop, here's our first wormery compost, thanks to our first batch of worms who have munched on all sorts of crud such as  pasta, mashed potato, rice and Weetabix leftovers, which I began diverting from landfill just over two years ago at the beginning of the blog.

It's been put to great use around the garden, mixed up with horticultural sand and earth to create a potting compost for seedlings, including the courgettes that you can see in the centre of this picture, which are now beginning to flourish.

In fact the corner of the garden that you see here, is our postage stamp veg patch, which is also packed with "home-grown" compost produced by the double act affectionately known as Plastic Dave and his Bokashi Side-kick, which sorts out the meaty chunks of waste that Dave can't possibly touch, for fear of being surrounded by vermin.  To keep the mix in good order, Dave sometimes gets Dev's portion of chicken poop and Dev gets the veg peelings in return,.  This has indeed sorted out Dave's sloppy ways and put an end to Dev's dry wit!

I just hope that after a good start to the growing season, they get on with converting all the "rubbish" we put in there into even more lovely compost, because the pressure's on....especially as the images you've seen here are not of a beautiful suburban garden.  Indeed no!  They are simply snapshots of a garden makeover that's currently in progress.  

We're busy replacing part of our dead lawn with a small central paved area, surrounded by lots of interlinking beds, which will triple our growing area and help upgrade our "snacking garden" to one with more edible substance!

So Dave and Dev had better get on with it, especially as the landscaping will be finished soon and I'll be itching to get on with more planting.

Well, that's my contribution to Compost Awareness Week. If you fancy a crack at composting, vermiculture (wormeries to you and me) or using a Bokashi, have a peek at Week 5 of the Rubbish Diet Challenge, where you'll find much more info as well as links to a whole range of useful resources.  And if you're already making good use of your own crumbly stuff around your garden, do share any links to your photos or blogposts in the comments below.  As you can see, this garden is very much a work in progress and I need all the inspiration I can get.

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Compost Awareness Week is an annual event, promoted by Recycle Now and whether you're new to composting or an experienced composter, it's always worth checking at this time of year if your local authority has launched any offers on composting equipment.  For example Suffolk residents can take advantage of the deal offered by The Suffolk Waste Partnership and Evengreener.  For more information see: www.suffolk.getcomposting.com.

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Compost 'n' Toilet Seats

"Just so you know, I've bunged the old toilet seat in the bin."




Bloody hell, you'd think he'd have learned by now wouldn't you! It's been sixteen months since Mr A's bin-filling activities have been under close surveillance. However the King of Declutter has been let off for good behaviour in recent months thanks to a reduced propensity for landfilling all and sundry. Things are normally so good these days that Bin-watch Status in the Almost Average household has been reduced from Severe to Low.

Well it looks like I've got to be on my guard again.

You see Mr A took the trouble to replace our broken wooden loo seat last week and as he said - only in passing - that he'd bunged the old one in the rubbish bin.

At least he had the decency to warn me even if I don't take things lightly when it comes to landfilling our rubbish. He hadn't checked the recycling options so I thought I should and consequently researched the council's website. I couldn't find any information so I decided to call the Waste Department, a far cry from when we last changed our loo seats four years ago when I wouldn't have given it a second thought.

A lady answered.

"Can you recycle wooden loo seats?" I asked.

"Yes you can at the HWRC" she replied. "Just put it in the wood skip."

"Even if it's got metal fittings still attached?" I probed a little further, hardly believing my luck.

"Hang on - I'll just put you through to Dan. He'll confirm matters."

A brief moment of silence filled the phone line as I was put on hold to talk to the Strategy and Policy Manager, the man in charge of last year's zero waste week and with whom I have since given a joint presentation and enjoyed several meetings about waste reducing initiatives.

You get the picture! I wasn't sure whether I should be talking toilet seat strategy with the man in charge, especially when risking my professional dignity!

Why do I always ask more questions? Why didn't I just accept "Yes" as the answer. How embarrassing was this conversation going to be? Feeling a bit of a prude, I wondered whether I should hang up.

But it was too late, Dan quickly answered and confirmed the positive news before I rapidly changed the subject to a less personal and more tasteful matter, hoping that this conversation would never ever come back to bite me on the bum, so to speak.

And on the topic of changing the subject....(notice how I swiftly did that)....I have some great news.

While I was conducting my intensive research, not only did I find out that we can recycle our old wooden loo seats in Bury St Edmunds' recycling centre (even with their metal fittings), but I also discovered the recycling centre was giving away free soil improver.

So with offers of free compost on the agenda, we quickly headed off to the recycling centre with our toilet seat and took a couple of garden tubs to fill up with some of the advertised soil improver.

And who better to fill 'em up than Mr A. Yes the perfect opportunity to dig himself out of the hole he'd created with his rubbish antics, especially as we've used up all the compost that we've made in our own bins at home.




Ah revenge is so sweet....and definitely far sweeter than the smell of that compost.

How it ponged!

Yet despite its smell it will be good for the rest of the veggies that I'm planning on planting this week.

Meanwhile, it's back to Severe Bin-watch status. And if he's not careful, that Mr A will be getting more than a compost digging session at the recycling centre. I might have to go as far as threaten him with his very own compost loo in the garden. Never mind recycling the toilet seat!

With measures like that I'm sure he won't be automatically feeding the bin with any more loo seats or much else for that matter.

But we'll just have to wait and see.... because Mr A I'm now watching your every move - well almost!

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The free soil improver offer is to promote Compost Awareness Week, which is jointly organised by WRAP and Organics Recycling (formerly known as The Compost Association) to encourage the use of compost for growing fruit and vegetables at home. Over the next seven days a whole host of events are taking place across the UK, including opportunities to purchase a low-cost compost bin.

If you live in the St Edmundsbury area, the soil improver will also be available at the HWRC at Rougham Hill on 9th and 10th May. Please remember to take along your own bags and containers.

However as I've aready discovered, composting at home is remarkably easy. We've had a compost bin for over ten years and have been amazed by the results that even novices like us can achieve.

So the good news is as part of Compost Awareness Week, Suffolk residents have the opportunity to buy Compost Converters for just £12 (+£5 delivery) available from Recycle Now. (Just remember to quote the reference SHOE9 when ordering). If you live outside Suffolk, please check with your own council for details of local offers, as you too might be in luck. Further advice can be found at Recycle Now's Home Composting website.

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Slimming the Beaufoix Bin

Meet the Beaufoix Bin. Sounds posh doesn't it? It's even green, but don't let that fool you. It's not a recycling bin but a good old-fashioned (and overflowing) rubbish bin.


It's a real pleasure to have made its acquaintance, not because of its swank sounding name, but because it belongs to the lovely Jo Beaufoix, a fellow blogger and writer, who has volunteered her bin for The Rubbish Diet treatment.

And you can see why.



Despite its 240 litre capacity, there's no room for manoeuvre by bin day.

Just imagine if the Beaufoix household missed its fortnightly collection, especially as they often have an extra three or four carrier bags of rubbish that can't fit into the bin and are consequently taken directly to the tip.

Anyway, you've met the overweight bin, and it's now time to meet its owner, Jo Beaufoix herself.


Jo lives in the old mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, with her husband, two young children, a gerbil, a lorry-load of slugs and a fictional ostrich called Babs.

Jo wants to slim her bin mainly because she wants to help the environment, but is also hoping that the experience will help her and her family lead a healthier lifestyle and save some money along the way.

The Beaufoix household recycles whatever they can including card, paper and tin cans in their blue bin, which is provided by Mansfield District Council and they take glass to the bottle bank and clothes to the clothes bank, charity shops or carboot sales, so they are already pretty organised. They also have a brown bin collection for garden waste.

So the challenge is to work on the rest of the rubbish that goes in their landfill bin, which includes Aerosols, Batteries, Chocolate and Snack Bar Wrappers, Cleaning Waste, Cooked Food and Fruit and Vegetable Peelings. On top of that there are also the Gerbil's Bedding, Nappies, Meat Packaging Trays, Tea Bags & Coffee Grounds, Tetra Pak Cartons and Sanitary Products.

The key task for Jo and her family is to reduce all this by 50% and they are committed to doing this over the next few months.

It's great news that the Beaufoix household is also keen to start composting straight away, which means that they will be able to cut out some major things such as fruit and vegetable peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds and the gerbil's bedding, which is mainly shredded paper.

For Jo, there is no better time to start composting, as this week is Compost Awareness Week, which is being promoted by WRAP and the Compost Awareness Association and is supported by major garden centres, DIY stores and local authorities.

The good news is that living in Nottinghamshire, she will be able to take advantage of the cheap deals offered by Nottinghamshire County Council, which is running compost awareness events on 10th and 11th May, where compost bins will be available from as little as £17.

There are other composting events running across the country this week and you can find more details about local events at www.compostawarenessweek.org.uk. Further inspiration can also be found at the Recycle Now website, where you can see a video of celebrity garden designer Diarmuid Gavin indulging in the subject.

So while I am busy working on her Rubbish Diet plan this week, why not pop over and visit Jo at www.jobeaufoix.com, where you'll receive a warm welcome and an insight into her fun character... oh and I mustn't forget... the adventurous antics of her ostrich Babs.

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