Veolia in Haringey promoted International Compost Awareness week through the Waste Warriors Education Programme. The Veolia Haringey Education Team have been and are continuing to run a series of fun, free and interactive assemblies and workshops in primary schools across the borough.
On Friday 9th May students from Noel Park Primary School took part in composting workshops at their school. Students got up close with nature’s greatest recycler, the worm, learnt about the composting process and made their own mini compost bins.
By composting at home residents can save the organic waste being transported elsewhere to be processed and prevents it from being sent to landfill or being burnt at the Energy from Waste facility. Instead by composting at home residents can transforms their organic waste into valuable and nutrient rich food for their garden. It’s easy to make and use!
1. Position is paramount! – A reasonably sunny site on bare soil is an ideal site for a compost bin. Choose a site where you can easily add ingredients and get the compost out.
2. Add the right ingredients – Have a container available such as a kitchen caddy or old ice cream tub. Fill your kitchen caddy or container with fruit and vegetable peelings and tea bags.
3. Fill it up – Empty your kitchen caddy along with your garden waste into your compost bin. A 50/50 mix of ‘greens’ (e.g. tea bags, fruit and vegetable peelings) and ‘browns’ (e.g. leaves, cardboard and shredded paper) is the perfect recipe for good compost. Take care not to compost cooked food, meat or fish, dairy products or bread.
4. Wait a while – It takes between nine and twelve months for your compost to become ready for use. Keep on adding greens and browns to top up your compost bin. For the best results, you may also want to aerate your compost bin by using a spade and turning the material over.
5. Ready for use – Once your compost has turned into a crumbly, dark material, resembling thick, moist soil and gives off an earthy, fresh aroma, you know it’s ready for use.
6. Veolia make their own compost using food waste collected from household gardens and public parks, with no added ingredients. For more information about this product, visit the Pro-Grow website - http://www.pro-grow.com/. Haringey residents living in kerbside properties can recycle their food and garden waste using the Veolia Haringey recycling service.
Across the country Veolia diverts garden and kitchen waste from landfill and waste to energy sites and turns it into Pro-Grow compost at its 8 composting facilities. Veolia processes as much as 325,000 tonnes of garden waste per year producing valuable peat free soil conditioner. For more information about Pro-Grow or to purchase some high quality soil conditioner go to www.pro-grow.com.
For more information about the Waste Warriors Education Programme and Haringey’s waste and recycling collections, contact the Contact Centre on [email protected] or 020 8885 7700.