Tuesday 30 August 2011

Ludlow Green Fayre 2011

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters spent this weekend at the Ludlow Green Fayre helping to raise awareness of home composting and recycling.   This is an annual event which brings together much of the environmental community in Shropshire and highlights the work which is going on to help keep the place clean and green.

The whole town square was packed out with market stalls displaying everything from photo-voltaic cells to bicycle paneers and local food.  There was willow weaving, music, belly dancing, and even a live 'Grand Designs' style show where local expert Colin Richards, a small building in the Square out of recycled plastic bottles and rubber tyres.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers who gave up their time to make the day possible and hopefully its helped to get the message out to the wider public, we need you to recycle and compost more, for the sake of our economy and the planet.

Friday 26 August 2011

Waste Collections - Aug Bank Holiday 2011

Due to the bank holiday on Monday, 29th August 2011 the bin men will have a day off - so there will be no waste collections made on this day.  As a result all the garden waste, recycling and rubbish collections across the whole of Shropshire are a day later than usual all week. 

All this is made clear on the calendars you get from the Council, but if you're not sure check out this link to check out when your next waste collection takes place   http://shropshire.gov.uk/waste/binday/

Monday 22 August 2011

Reusing plastic bottle tops!

We often get asked about plastic - its the bane of a waste managers life! Thankfully the Council are now collecting plastic bottles for recycling in Shropshire, but they dont want the lids! This means literally MILLIONS of plastic lids have to go landfill every year.


Well I’ve just been sent this useful tip for re-using the lids from plastic bottles – it saves them from going in your bin and gives them another life, it will also save you from having to buy bag clips …


Make an incision and using a pair of scissors cut the plastic bottle RIGHT AT the NECK.



Then you just simply have to stick a plastic bag through the NECK of the bottle which you have just cut off.  Screw cap back on for a perfect seal!



Clever hey?

The rest of the plastic bottle can be recycled as normal with your plastic bottles, its just the lids they wont collect.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Composting Safety Video

Waste Management experts Viridor have launched a new film to help improve health and safety at composting sites.


Designed for people who work on either in-vessel or windrow composting facilities, the film provides the information needed to comply with Health and Safety Executive guidelines and manage the risks of working with these processes. The film covers areas such as personal protective equipment; working with machinery, confined spaces and workplace transport in a composting environment.


Alan Cook, Viridor's health and safety advisor in the South East, said: "We have also developed a multi-choice test to reaffirm the key learning points from the film to ensure operatives have understood the information. The test and marking guide are available to download for use or to use as templates to create your own. We're really pleased to have support from the Association for Organics Recycling (AfoR) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the film, and to be able to share health and safety advice across the sector.”


You can access the film and tests at www.viridor.co.uk/compostingsafety

Sunday 14 August 2011

Bowbrook allotments wins award





Volunteers from Bowbrook Allotments in Shrewsbury have been invited to the Shrewsbury Flower Show to receive an award for the allotment site. Chris Beardshaw, author, broadcaster and TV gardener presented me, on behalf of our allotment site, with the award for “Shropshire’s Best Community Garden”.

The site is an exemplar for composting with every plot supplied with a free compost bin by the local Council to encourage people to reduce waste and practice organic gardening techniques. 

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Clun Carnival 2011



Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters attended the Clun Carnival this weekend to promote home composting. This was the first time we have attended this particular event but I think we would definately consider going again in future years as (partly due to lovely weather) the turnout was very high and everyone seemed in good spirits and interested to find out more about composting and particularly wormeries seemed to generate alot of queries. A big thanks to Mike and Sue, two new volunteers from south shropshire who organised and attended this show for us.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Burwarton Show 2011

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been out and about promoting composting and recycling at this years Burwarton Show near Bridgnorth.

Despite the inclement weather, thousands turned out to see the show and we spoke to almost 300 people about how they could be greener with their waste. A big thanks to all the volunteers and staff from Shropshire Council and Veolia who helped to make the whole day such a success.

Shropshire Matress recycling firm expanding

A Shropshire company which describes itself as the ‘largest independent national mattress recycler in the UK’ has announced plans to significantly expand its network of mattress recycling centres in response to growing demand for the service.


Shropshire-based JBS Fibre Recovery Ltd - which is part of the JBS Group which also includes JBS Waste Management - opened its first mattress recycling facility earlier this year in Telford. And, over the last three months, the company says it has recycled 14,000 mattresses at the site, diverting 600 tonnes of waste from landfill. It counts the likes of the John Lewis Partnership, IKEA and local authorities among its customers.


The team at Shropshire-based JBS Fibre RecoveryNow, the company has opened another mattress recycling centre in Milton Keynes with the capacity to handle 300,000 mattresses a year and is planning to open another in Bradford in October, followed by even more plants in future months.


John Neill, director of JBS Fibre Recovery Ltd, explained: “We are absolutely delighted with our recent round of successes. Thanks to our Telford centre, over 600 tonnes of waste have already been diverted from landfill in the last three months, an achievement that surpassed even our own high expectations. The massive growth of the Telford site highlighted the need for a much greater number of dedicated mattress recycling plants across the country, and urged us to bring forward our plans for new regional hubs UK-wide.


It is estimated in the UK over six million mattresses are disposed of per year with the figure in the USA exceeding 30 million. Many recycling centres are unable to process waste mattresses because they are made from a range of components including metal, fabrics, and foam, meaning that they are often sent to landfill.


JBS Fibre Recovery Ltd’s claims to recycle, reuse or send to energy recovery all materials extracted from the mattresses it handles.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Wem Sweet Pea Show 2011

 
Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been spreading the word about waste prevention in north Shropshire. 

Wem is known as the place where the Sweet Peas come from because of local man Henry Eckford, who first cross bred and developed the Sweet Pea.  Henry Eckford was a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society and for his efforts in developing one of the most wonderful garden plants he was given the Victoria Medal of Honour of the society.

The National Sweet Pea Society joins the Eckford Sweet Pea Society in celebrating its Annual Sweet Pea Festival.  The festival in July 2011 was held at The Thomas Adams Stanier Hall and in a large marquee on High Street, Wem and was attended by several hundred people.  Over the course of the day the volunteers spoke to people about how composting can improve crop yields and complement growing schemes by providing you with a free supply of soil improver.