Composting garden waste in Shropshire

Shropshire On-farm Composting

In most areas garden waste which is collected from your garden waste bins gets taken for composting on local farms in Shropshire. We use three main sub-contractors for this;

• Oswestry Green Waste in Whittington, near Oswestry
• Agripost in Ford, near Shrewsbury
• Greenacres Farm in Shifnal, near Bridgnorth

What happens to the waste?

The material arrives at the farms and is screened to remove any unwanted contamination. It then gets put through a huge industrial shredder. The shredded material then gets bulked up into large pyramid shaped mounds called "windrows".

These piles get turned on a regular basis to keep them well oxygenated. The process works through the 'aerobic biological degradation of organic materials' i.e. rotting.

Because of the sheer scale of the piles, they get very hot and steamy and the composting process takes place very quickly. Even by the end of the first week of composting, the windrow height reduces significantly. The active composting stage generally lasts for a couple of months.

Because this process takes place on a farm, its very important that no kitchen waste gets added to the process. This would be against the Animal By-Product Regulations and it may make the farm animals poorly.

What happens to the finished product?

The end product is a high quality earthy brown soil like substance which makes an excellent soil improver. All of the finished produce is spread on agricultural land. This helps improve the soil and reduces the need for man made fertilisers. The product is generally not available for sale to the public from these sites.