Composting legislation - myth busting

For those sites that compost on a large scale such as the farmers who deal with the garden waste collected by Councils and anyone who deals with community composting you could be forgiven for thinking that the legislation can seem like a bit of a headache! You need to consider planning, Animal By-Product Regulations, waste carriers licence, and whether you need a T23, U10, or U11 exemption certificates to name but a few.  It all seems like too much for any sane person to manage and surely beyond the wit of a small not-for-profit group?  

Well not neccessarily, because there are groups in Shropshire and across the UK who run community composting sites and manage to navigate this maze.  It can be done and there is a good case economically and environmentally for having lots of small scale composters rather than trucking organic waste around the country to large centralised sites.   And there is a lot of support out there for this - there is a whole network of composters; The Community Composting Network (CCN) as well as experts at local charities like Garden Organic to guide you through the process.  Also you can contact the Waste Management Department at your local authority and most will be keen to encourage anything which reduces the amount of waste they have to deal with after all!  So dont be put off, the legislation just aims to keep everyone safe and its mostly applicable to animal health, aimed at avoiding another outbreak of foot and mouth etc, so tends to be more concerned with food waste, if you are just processing green waste that alone makes it alot more simple, so dont give up, it can be done.

The good news is that for home composting you dont need to even consider this at all, the legislation is simple. But if you are a community group such as an allotment, a church yard, a parish council or anyone who wants to involve the local community in managing their own garden waste then drop Jane an email jgriffiths@gardenorganic.org.uk who is a leading national expert on community composting and can point you in the right direction.