Shropshire Master Composters Newsletter
Spring edition
Young children inspired to compost with
Darwin’s Worms project
As part of the Darwin 200 celebrations, nearly 30
wormeries have
been delivered to
nurseries and
playgroups in
Shrewsbury. The
children aged 2 to
5 have enjoyed
handling the worms
before putting them
into their
wormeries. They
have learnt how to
look after them and
are going to feed
them on their own
fruit and vegetable waste.
By interesting these children when they are
really young, we are hopefully setting them up to
accept recycling as a regular daily activity and
help make a genuine reduction in waste. Charles
Darwin himself was fascinated by worms and
would surely have approved of this project.
It is hoped that more Nurseries will take up this
opportunity – the scheme is now being rolled out
across Shropshire, and a similar scheme is
being started in Telford and Wrekin.
For more pictures, see our website
www.shropshirecomposters.co.uk,
Cheryl & Val
Changes to compost bin scheme
WRAP is to stop subsidising home composting
bins altogether to focus on a more advisory role
in the wake of 2008's budget cuts from Defra.
WRAP has been
subsidising home
composting bins since
2004. In 2004, the
organisation was
subsidising around 75% of
the cost of a £30 bin. Over
the years, this has gradually
reduced to a 30% subsidy,
with WRAP currently selling
the bins for around £20.
However, they have now
officially confirmed that from
September 2009, they will withdraw from the
market altogether and provide different support.
Philip Ward, director of local government
services at WRAP stressed: "This is not 'WRAP
abandons its home composting programme' -
that is not what we are doing.
Fortunately the PFI contract requires there to be
a home composting bin scheme in place, so we
are working with Veolia on getting a replacement
scheme organised soon. As a result, we will
very likely see changes to the bins on offer, the
prices and the whole structure of the scheme.
We are talking to other local authorities about a
possible joint scheme and will keep you informed
of progress in sourcing another supplier. We
cant guarentee we’ll get the full range of bins
that WRAP were able to offer, but we’ll try to
arrange a few different types and we would
welcome your input and ideas on this front.
Recycling rates in Shropshire keep growing
With the assimilation of SABC completed in
October 2008, all municipal waste in Shropshire
is now managed by the Shropshire Waste
Partnership through its long term fully integrated
PFI contract with Veolia.
The practical effect of this is that the service now
managed by SWP in a typical quarter:
• Makes around 2.5 million waste collections
• Collects around 10,000 sacks of clinical
waste and over 100 sharps boxes for safe
disposal from householders
• Receives about 200,000 visitors to the
Household Recycling Centres
The main aim of this contract is to achieve high
rates of diversion from landfill and it seems to be
doing the trick! It’s estimated that for the end of
2008/9 financial year, recycling rates in
Shropshire will be 48.2% which well exceed the
contract target for the whole year of 46.7%.
Meeting at Shire Hall: December 2008
As you may know, since Veolia Environmental
Services took over the collection and disposal of
waste in the county, they have also been part
funding the Master Composters. Those of us
from the first 2 groups had a meeting with Veolia
when the change occurred.
VES are very keen to roll out the MC scheme
(they have organised 2 more training weekends
since then!), but also discussed with us whether
we would like to take on a wider role of
promoting recycling/waste min generally.
Most of us were keen to do so, but thought we
should have some training. The meeting in
December brought in someone from WRAP, who
talked about the work they are doing with
manufacturers to reduce the amount of
packaging – this is the subject that we find most
annoys people we speak to! A lot of work is
being done around thinning glass & tins, which
not only reduces the amount of material used,
but the fuel needed to carry them. Personally, I
find it irritating that a lot of the plastic packaging
is used for bottled water or soft drinks – totally
unnecessary, since we’ve got taps full of water!
However, much of the work is also round
redesigning packaging so that it still protects the
product, but uses less material, and/or stacks
better. One example was M&S meat joints,
where the packing is now a sort of deep plastic
tray with a film lid – although the ‘which one
would you buy?’ question fell rather flat – as far
as I could tell, hardly any of us eat meat!
Val
New Co-ordinator for MC group
Sue Jelleyman has got a new job, developing
after school clubs, although she is still working
for SC. And she is still a Master Composter –
and will no doubt spread the message to the
schools she works with.
So now you’ve got James Thompson, who is
Waste Prevention Officer for SWP. Some of you
may know me already from my time as Recycling
officer at S&ABC. You can contact me on 01743
210714, or by emailing
james.thompson@shropshire.gov.uk
What can Master Composters do?
So far, we’ve concentrated on attending fairs,
events etc. This is definitely working in terms of
convincing people to take up composting but
there are plenty of other innovative ways with
some volunteers organising community
composting schemes, press releases,
competitions and quizzes and lots more.
There are many things we can do, many of the
ideas coming from a conference held a couple of
years ago. If you want to see the whole list, and
lots more info, go to
www.homecomposting.org.uk. Log in as shrops,
password shr3dd3r, or log onto the yahoo group
shropshirecomposters, where it is one of the
files.
Yahoo group and composthelpline
This is a private group, no-one can look at it if
they’re not a member, and you can only be a
member if you’re invited.
It contains a calendar, which you can update
yourself, with space for information about venue,
who is going etc. It means we always have the
most up-to-
date
information –
assuming
you’re on
email. If
you’re not,
then you can
get a web based email account free of charge
and use the libraries if you don’t have a home
PC.
The group website also contains various files of
information – lists of display equipment held at
various venues, pictures of as many of us as I
can find, quiz sheets you might want to use if
you’re working with groups, photos.....
We also have a website,
www.shropshirecomposters.co.uk. At the
moment, Val is keeping this up to date, but there
is no reason why you can’t amend it as well. If
you have any problems using the group, or
would like to update the website, please contact
Val on 01743 260971.
We’ve got a mobile phone which is advertised
on some of our literature. We’ve only ever had 3
calls, so it’s not onerous! but it can be passed to
various members if needed. Number is 07780
740172. Some of us have business cards to give
out, if people want details for arranging talks etc.
If you want a sample, can you get in touch – you
can get your own from Vistaprint, free except for
postage, but it makes sense to use the same
format/picture even if your details are on it.
Feedback from WRAP
Following an upgrade to the call centre, I just
wanted to inform you of a change in telephone
number for the home composting order line and
customer care line. Effective immediately, the
new telephone number is 0845 076 0223. This
replaces 0845 077 0757 for sales and 0800 107
3798 for Customer Care. This will bring the two
facilities together and offer a complete service to
our callers on the same number. There is a re-
direct facility on both old numbers until the end of
March.
Fleeces
Fleeces/polos have arrived for new Composters
and are available from James Thompson,
Shropshire Waste Partnership (01743) 210714.
If you can pop by and collect, at your
convenience. I know a lot of folk raised the issue
that they were pretty super-sized, and we did ask
WRAP if more slimline versions were available
but I’m afraid they won’t change them.
Telford talk
Telford & Wrekin have been doing a trial with
Green Cones. Trevor has been to a progress
meeting and there was general agreement
among the 'guinea pigs' that they were working
well and causing no problems.
The trial cones had all been professionally sited /
installed so the potential for water saturation
wasn't an issue. Melanie was disappointed; hers
had flooded almost immediately but Anne H had
met with great success.
The Cones, which digest cooked food including
meat aerobically, would seem to have a place in
the Master Composter portfolio. Maybe the next
time we have a joint meeting this could be a
topic for presentation?
The Johana is similar to a regular bin but they
claim its design allows it to work at 25 degrees
above ambient for faster production and it can
also be used for bread & cooked vegetables.
Carola was also trialling a ‘Green Johanna’ and
was pleased with the initial results.
Magic compost
The magazine Organic Garden and Home has
an article this month on Quick Return
composting. This uses a herbal activator made
from nettles, dandelion and oak bark. The
compound has been on sale since the 1930s,
and was invented by ‘Queen of Compost’ Maye
Bruce. The method is to build a heap of 4”
layers, each being sprinkled with dilute
compound. The heap should have good
drainage, shelter, heat retention and aeration. It
claims to produce compost in 6-8 weeks in
summer. I
don’t know
about you,
but I think
this isn’t
far off what
you would
get if you
paid as
much
attention to
the layers, dampness etc of a normal heap,
without the magic mixture. Anyone got the
interest/ self discipline to try an experiment
comparing the 2 methods?
OSWESTRY MC AUTUMN EVENTS
For the first time MCs attended the annual
Welsh Food Fair at Glansevern Hall near
Berriew having had permission to cross the
border! Linda, Barbara, Jane & Jenny talked
informally to around 250 people over the
weekend & with an additional 70 people at
Linda’s three talks & demonstrations. The event
was planned efficiently and the organisers were
attentive to our needs during the fair. The venue
was excellent with an opportunity to see the
gardens & to have a quiet lunch by the lake -
away from the hustle & bustle of the fair.
Attendance, which included many people from
Shropshire, was excellent even on the damp
Sunday. One person was interested enough to
sign up to train as a MC – Anne Hendrie from
Oswestry! People asked questions without being
prompted - this was a novelty because usually
people have to be approached at the Oswestry
area events. This was the Oswestry area’s most
successful event to date which hopefully will be
repeated because James has given his
permission for attendance at this year’s event on
5th & 6th September.
MCs attended the very first Blackberry Fair in a
cold, draughty Market Hall in Whitchurch.
Barbara, Malc & Rob manned the display while
Linda had the strange experience of speaking to
the whole hall via a microphone while the
‘audience’ continued their buying, selling,
chatting (most disconcerting!) however the
organisers were happy & Anne Nagle (Trevor
Bell’s WRAP colleague from Staffordshire who
was manning the ‘lovefoodhatewaste’ display)
was impressed. New MC Lyn Hall came along to
lend her support & MCs who have trained since
the event introduced themselves. Hopefully,
some Whitchurch area MCs who will be able to
do this event in 2009 to save on transport costs.
Walford College
Jane led the final session of her Walford &
North Shropshire College horticulture class’s
topic on ‘Soils’ with a powerpoint presentation.
Linda, Rob, Tracy with newly trained MCs Anne
Hendrie & Brian Knell (at their first event)
supported the students during a virtual compost
game and by answering questions particularly on
wormeries, green cones & bokashi bins. It
seems that those students, who were not already
composting, have been persuaded to start,
especially one who burnt everything!
Car stickers
Garden Organic have been working with
Oxfordshire composters to produce a car sticker
for MC’s. Might be a nice idea? Let us know
what you think?
Training
We are organising some training in the first week
of April surrounding food waste prevention and
the Love Food Hate Waste Campaign
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
Date and time is currently TBC.
Soil Association Training Day
Are you interesting in doing a Soil Association
organic gardening course locally in Aston on
Clun? There are already about 12 people
showing interest, we need to get more.
You had to provide your own lunch, bring a
sample of your own soil, and wear suitable
outdoor clothes. The course costs £24 each.
If you are interested contact
j.miles@wnsc.ac.uk who is getting a list of
interested people together.
Upcoming Events
• Mon 2/3/09 7.30 p.m. - next meeting of
the Oswestry area MCs at 45 Cabin Lane,
Oswestry - new MCs can see the
displays, equipment etc that we have in
Oswestry
• Sat 14/03/09 – Wem Green Fayre
• Sun 29/3/09 10 - 4 Walford College
Spring Open Day (organiser Jane Miles)
• Tues 5/5/09 10 -12 Talk to Oswestry U3A
• Sat 4th July – Shrewsbury Green Fayre
• Sun April 26th Fordhall farm food fayre
• Sun July 5th 11-4 Fordhall farm farmers
market