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Grow your own compost

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Grow your own compost

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Home composting takes much of the food waste out of your rubbish bag and puts it to good use in the garden. Don't be put off if you've only got a little outdoor space as some councils will collect food waste or you could start a wormery?

The problem

The UK currently produces 28 million tons of household waste per year. 60% of this is buried in landfill sites.

It costs energy to transport rubbish to landfill sites, and that's just the start of the problem. Landfill rubbish releases toxins such as methane gas (which is twenty times worse than carbon dioxide in terms of environmental damage) into the ground and air, attracts pests and blights the landscape.

What you can do

35% of the average household's waste can be easily composted. This includes fruit and vegetable kitchen peelings, eggshells and coffee grounds, as well as garden waste such as grass clippings, leaves and twigs.

Composting transforms your kitchen and garden scraps into a valuable feed for soil, by accelerating the natural decay process.  Unlike chemical fertilisers, home compost is a pollutant-free nutrient-rich soil enhancer - and it's free!

Even if you have very limited outdoor space, you can still recycle kitchen waste by using a wormery. Some councils operate organic waste collections or offer recycling facilities - it's worth calling them to check.

It doesn't take much work to maintain your composting - and the finished product can even be used on household pot-plants.

Pledge to start composting today!

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