Saturday 28 April 2012

Master Composters in action

Local volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been helping to promote the Councils new home compost bin scheme.  As part of a new contract all residents in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin can now get compost bins from just £16!  There is also a special Buy One Get One Half Price offer at present.  Just go to www.shropshire.getcomposting.com to buy one.  Or ask your local Master Composter for more detailed information.

Compost Cakes

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been thanked for all their hard work and commitment in giving up their time for free to get people in Shropshire to waste less.  We went along to Garden Organic's West Midlands HQ to be served some special tea and cake and meet up with other volunteers from all over the rest of the midlands who do the same work as us in their community.

A big thanks to Veolia Shropshire who sponsored our mini-bus so we could get their with minimal carbon impact and of course to Garden Organic and their chefs for the wonderful organic cake!






The main point of course, was to say a big thank you to us, the volunteers, who make this all happen by giving up our time to help our communities learn about composting. THANK YOU!

Wormery Workshop

Wormeries are exciting.  Wormeries make composting more sexy, they are the Ferrari Testarossa of the composting world. 

But are wormeries really all they're cracked up to be? Well we thought we'd ask someone in the know, so we took a wormery masterclass with Compost Gwen, an environmental consultant from the Midlands who is also a volunteer Master Composter in her spare time too.


The workshop was sponsered by local farmers Wiggly Wigglers. It was fascinating to learn all about how to get the best out of the wormeries and we hope that we can now answer more of the publics questions when we are out and about promoting home composting with Shropshire Master Composters.

The problem with Peat

Carbon emissions from peat extraction are a massive issue facing the planet. By one estimate, the bogs of Europe, Siberia and North America hold the equivalent of 70 years of global industrial carbon emissions!

And whilst it my be easy to rile against big corporations and blame big business the reality is quite different.  Three quarters, yes that's right, 3/4, of all the peat used in the UK is used by amateur gardeners.  That's me and you, in our back gardens.  So the problem is of individuals making.  

Therefore this problem can be solved by individuals too.  It requires education but we can change peoples behaviour getting them to buy (or ideally even MAKE) sustainable peat free composts instead.  Its complicated. But it can be done.  

Some of the volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been keen to find out more about this problem so we went along to the national composting conference to lean all about it. This new model developed by boffins at DEFRA demonstrates the relationship between peat extraction and CO2 emissions. What the model proves overwhelmingly is that the best thing to do in terms of carbon, is to keep peat in the ground where it acts as a sink for CO2.


We heard from Garden Organic the national charity about their plans .  Their CEO Myles Bremner explained about their twin track approach, both radically protesting against the peat industry, whilst also sitting down face to face in meetings with some of these guys and trying to engage proactively with them to deliver real genuine solutions and alternatives.



On the subject of alternatives we heard from the expert soil scientists at the Royal Horticultural Society.  What they explained is that its complicated.  Their research and trials show that its not impossible to make alternatives which perform just as well as peat in horticultural terms but sadly they generally will always cost alot more.  There is also increasingly difficulty in getting hold of the right input materials, namely wood chippings, bark and sawdust because they are in direct competition with the recycling and the sustainable energy industry.

So ironically our demand for higher recycled content in furniture and panels and our demand for lower carbon electricity is making it harder to provide alternatives to peat.  So you can see its not a simple issue to resolve, but we can all help reduce peat use by home composting and getting others to home compost too. 

For more information on how to get started with home composting go to www.shropshire.getcomposting.com 

Spring Fayre 2012

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been helping to reduce waste in the county by educating the public about home composting.  Over the course of the day we had five volunteers attending the Shropshire Wildlife Trust Centre in Shrewsbury (opposite the Abbey).  It was all part of their brilliant annual Spring Fair on Saturday 26th April 2012.


Despite the dark clouds overhead we were really lucky with the weather and the rain held off so hundreds of people turned our in their droves to buy plants. Volunteer Master Composters were exhibiting the range of home compost bins which are currently available at discount prices for residents in Shropshire and also providing advice about how to produce quality compost.


As well as thousands of plants for sale, there was also an exhibition by local wildlife artists which provided the main overall backdrop for the event. There was also live falconry display, willow weaving and green woodworking demonstrations and several activities for children including a garden bug hunt and wildlife mask making.  Numerous other stalls were there too with the Master Composters including plants from the Cottage Garden Society, Shropshire Beekeepers Association, and very small local businesses selling all manner of plant pots, peat-free compost, garden trugs, garden furniture and planters, home made food, decorative walking sticks, handmade clothes, bags and jewellery.

Friday 27 April 2012

Bishops Castle Green Day 2012

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been helping to promote home composting at the Bishops Castle College Green Day.  For a whole day the whole school was transformed into a sustainable education seminar, with wildlife walks, displays on re-use, scrap art classes, wind turbines, talks about geography and citizenship, paper making and of course we used it as a chance to help young people learn about how to make good compost at home.

Bishops Castle Schools Work

We have been working in partnership with the Councils Waste Education team to try and get schools in Shropshire area to recycle and compost more.  One of the activities recently organised included an eco-education day in Bishops Castle where school children got to learn all about sustainability issues for the day.

The Waste Education Officer offers a great practical session on paper making for schools which the kids really enjoyed.  By making their own sheet of paper from recycled paper, they learn just how much energy and water goes into the process and how much waste comes out as sludge at the end.  This in itself will hopefully make them take care to use less paper and to recycle or compost their paper.

The paper making process is relatively simple.  Firstly torn and shredded paper is soaked in warm water overnight to make a porridge like mixture.  The children then pass this mix through a fine seive.


This is then turned out onto a dry surface and tamped down with sponges to squeeze out and absorb as much moisture as possible.  Obviously in an industrial paper mill this process is done on a vast scale with rollers and machinery, but its basically quite similar.


After about 10 minutes of tamping down this leaves us with a nice but still quite damp sheet of paper.  So removing the frame and turning it out onto a drier surface like a fresh sheet of paper of a J cloth completes the process.


The end product has to be left to dry for 48 hours but once its ready it makes really beautiful paper.  Some of the children even thought to decorate them nicely so that they can be used for birthday and Christmas cards in the future.  Here is one of the best efforts from the day.



Well done to all the children in Bishops Castle and the waste education officer at the Council for a great day which hopefully in the long term will encourage more people to reduce, reuse and recycle. 

Bag a bargain bin

Shropshire residents are being urged to bag a bargain home compost bin. The Council has just signed up to a new contract with UK manufacturer Straight to provide discount compost bins to people across the whole of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin.



Bins are available from just £16 (half the RRP). There is also currently a special offer of Buy One Get One Half Priced, which makes them even better value. There is a wide selection of products available including plastic and wooden compost bins, wormeries, kitchen digesters, water butts and other accessories. All products are delivered direct to your door.


To order a bin visit http://www.shropshire.getcomposting.com/ or call 0844 571 4444.


If more people to compost their waste at home it reduces the need for waste collection and treatment, cuts CO2 emissions, and saves taxpayers money.


Earthworm surveys 2012

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been learning all about worms.  Its all part of a National Lottery funded project called OPAL which stands for Open Air Laboratories.  The OPAL project aims to get people out into nature to undertake basic research and gather data which can improve our scientific understanding of the environment.

The OPAL Earthworm project is run by the Natural History Museum in London with technical support from Imperial College.  We were very lucky to have a session let by one of the UK's premier worm experts Dr. David Jones who did his PhD specifically on worms.

We invited Dr Jones along to Shrewsbury, the birthplace of Charles Darwin, who himself was a big fan of worms to help increase our volunteers awareness of the role worms play in the garden and in the composting process too.  The day was supported by Shropshire Council, Garden Organic and Veolia who hosted the day at the Education Centre of the Councils Household Recycling Centre on Battlefield Industrial Estate in north Shrewsbury, and kindly provided us with lunch.

For the first part of this day we learned all about worms in the UK and abroad.  We were all amazed by these amazing animals who plough our soils for us and are completely essential for global food supply, soil structure, water retention and biodiversity.   We then went on to complete the OPAL Activity pack which is a free resource which you can use to identify worms.  It comes with full instructions and everything you need including a brilliant identification chart allowing you to identify the species.  Did you know there are 27 species of worms in the UK alone!

So we went out to explore the greenspace around Battlefield Household Recycling Centre with spades and worm ID cards.  We were suprised to find actually that even amongst all this concrete and development there were plenty of green spaces and plenty of worms. 



Hopefully some of us will be passing this knowledge on to local groups and school children.  Its a great activity to do in a group, but also something anyone can just do in their own back garden just out of interest to find email your details to opalsoil@imperial.ac.uk and they'll send you a free survey pack. Dr. Jones has also offered to come and speak to other groups in Shropshire if you are interested.


For the second half of the day we went back to the classroom for some biology lessons.  We looked at preserved specimens under microscopes which is truly amazing to see all that detail.  You can make a much more accurate identification of the species type with a microscope, mainly by counting the segments of the worms body and looking at where certain parts of the worm are located such as the male bits.  

We learned all sorts of new technical terms for worms and though it was quite tricky to begin with, we were soon able to successfully identify several species.



All in all it was a great day, so thanks to all the staff who helped arrange it and all the volunteers who came along.  We all felt inspired by the day to help conserve worms and make sure we garden in a way which is sympathetic to them because they are so vital.  Now we all just want to get out there and spread this knowledge and pass it on to others. 

So next time you want some advice about worms in the garden and using wormeries for composting your food waste, come and speak to a Shropshire Master Composter, we are now officially experts!  Also Dr. Jones is happy to come back to Shropshire and speak to other groups, so if anyone is interested just get in touch.  As Darwin said "never in the field of human horticulture, has so much be owed by so few to so many"... something like that...

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Dont dump it donate it

Local charities Shropshire Housing Alliance and South Shropshire Furniture Scheme are trying to encourage residents to donate household items like furniture, white goods, small electrical items, crockery, cutlery and bedding.

This helps provide people with affordable essential everyday items, whilst at the same time reducing the amount of waste which has to be managed.

For Shropshire residents, donating couldn’t be easier – you can save yourself a trip to the tip because they can collect it for you - just call Shropshire Housing Alliance on 01691 679817 or South Shropshire Furniture Scheme on 01584 877788, who can arrange for a local scheme to come and collect items from people’s homes.

Jean Jarvis MBE, CEO of South Shropshire Furniture Scheme, added:
“Something that you don’t want anymore can still be used by someone else.  If you contact your local furniture scheme we can arrange a collection for your items, restore them and make them available to others at affordable prices.  As a social enterprise, any income we generate goes back into the scheme support our charitable work.”


For more information on re-use and recycling in Shropshire, and other ideas on how to waste less, people can visit www.recycleforshropshire.com.

Get Composting!

Residents in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin are being reminded to despite these April Showers its time to Get Composting! To help get you started the councils in Shropshire are doing a scheme to get bargain compost bins from just £16! They are available direct from www.shropshire.getcomposting.com

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Compost Awareness Week 2012

Compost Awareness Week 2012
6th-12th May
Image
Compost Cottage
This year Garden Organic are running TWO competitions to raise awareness of the benefits of composting your organic waste and using compost in the garden.Firstly a poster competition; be imaginative and creative to produce an A4 sized poster which advertises compost awareness week and the painted bin competition.
Secondly a painted bin competition; hold your own competition amongst friends, family, community groups, allotment associations or schools.  Be creative and make sure you send us a picture of your bin.


Entry to both competitions is open to all ages and abilities.  Please send entries either by email or post to the address below stating your name, age, address and contact telephone number (include school/organisation if sending as a group).

Deadlines for entry to the competitions are 31st March for the Poster Competition and 12th May for the Painted Bin Competition.  Garden Organic experts along with a team of Master Composters will judge entries to both competitions.
Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in both competitions.

To enter by post send entries to : Composting Competition, Sustainable Waste Team, Garden Organic, Ryton, Coventry, CV8 3LG.
To enter by email send Pdf posters and jpeg images where possible to : dgarrett@gardenorganic.org.uk
Good Luck!

Volunteers clean up in South Shropshire

Craven Arms Volunteers for the Environment (CAVE) arranged to pick up litter around Craven Arms as part of the national Big Tidy Up campaign on Monday 16 April 2012.

In total five bags of litter were collected from around the town, including glass bottles (which were recycled), lots of discarded cigarettes and even a trainer.
The Big Tidy Up campaign is a national initiative encouraging residents, voluntary groups and organisations to carry out litter picks in their area.  For further information on the Big Tidy Up campaign visit their website at www.thebigtidyup.org

CAVE are a group of local volunteers who undertake various seasonal tasks around the town to care for the local environment and keep Craven Arms neat and tidy. 

If you would like to be kept informed of opportunities to volunteer with CAVE, please contact Merinda Essex, group leader, by emailing merindaessex@yahoo.co.uk.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Easter 2012 waste collections

Dont forget that all your refuse, recycling and garden waste collections are changing due to the Easter Bank Holidays.

However, no waste collections will take place on Easter Monday (Monday 9 April 2012), and throughout that week collections will take place a day later than normal.

All crews are working as normal on Good Friday (Friday 6 April 2012), so there will no changes to that collection.

To check your dates there is a handy app on www.shropshire.gov.uk/binday