Autumn 2009 Shropshire Master Composters Newsletter

8/9/2019 Autumn 2009 Shropshire Master Composters Newsletter

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Master Composter Conference 2009

22 volunteers from Shropshire MasterComposters attended the national conference atRyton Organic Gardens this June. In total nearly200 delegates turned up on the day and we wereblessed with good weather and a great day.

In the morning eminent entomologist Dr. PeterSmithers from Plymouth University talked aboutthe organisms found in his compost bin. He alsolaunched a special national Compost Inverteb-rates Survey. He is asking keen composters to

help him map out the species found in your com-post bins. Survey information is available viawww.homecomposting.org.uk

A wonderful organic lunch was provided and inthe afternoon we were joined by BBC GardenersWorld's Alys Fowler. Alys shared some of her ex-citing compost adventures as well as stories ofcomposting around the world.

Many composters attended workshops on sub-

jects as varied as communication skills, wormer-ies and boukashis, entomology and communitycomposting.

Transport and attendance of the event wasfunded by Veolia Environmental Services theCouncils waste contractor.

Shropshire Composters scoop award

Shropshire Master Composters has beenofficially named as the best master compostergroup in the UK! The group picked up theGroup Achievement Award at this years MasterComposter Convention.

New scheme for cheap compost bins

Shropshire Council and its contractor VeoliaEnvironmental Services (Shropshire) Ltd. haslaunched a new scheme to allow residents ofShropshire to get cheap compost bins to helpreduce biodegradable municipal waste.

The main bins for the scheme will be supplied byDevon-based plastics manufacturer OriginalOrganics Ltd. They have teamed up with Nottsbased Green Cone Ltd. to offer a range ofproducts and at much better prices than the

recent WRAP scheme.

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Shropshire Master Composters NewsletterAutumn edition 2009
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We have new leaflets which you should all beusing now and the old ones with the old prices

and WRAP bins on can all be recycled (orcomposted) now please.

Composters strike gold

Shropshire Master Composters - in a joint entrywith Shropshire Organic Gardeners - scooped aGold Medal at last weeks Shrewsbury FlowerShow, winning the 'Best in Show' category fortheir green themed garden.

The garden highlighted many ways to help pro-tect the environment including water conserva-tion, use of recycled materials, planting for wild-life, green manures, wormeries, and three typesof compost bin.

Love food, hate waste training

25 Master Composters have recently attended a

training course on food waste preventiondelivered by WRAP. This aimed to raiseawareness of food waste and ways to prevent it.

WRAP are happy, indeed keen to offer trainingto more Composters so if anyone is interested inthis idea please contact James Thompson whowill organise another session.

New 3m recycling facility in Oswestry

A brand new site at Mile Oak Industrial Estatehas replaced the old centre at Maesbury Road,which is now closed.

Shropshire Council says the new PFI funded sitewill transform how the town recycles rubbish-helping to significantly increase the amount ofwaste recycled.

Visitors will be able to recycle more than 20 dif-ferent materials including garden waste, timber,

cardboard, scrap metal, glass bottles, cans, plas-tic bottles, textiles, household batteries, whitegoods, garden waste, engine oil, soil and rubble,and many more materials.

It is hoped that the new intergrated waste man-agement facility will help to increase the recy-cling rate from 46% at present in the former Bor-ough of Oswesty to beyond 50%.

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A tale of some unhappy worms

Some of us have been taking worm bins tonurseries as part of the Darwins Worms projectin association with Shropshire Wildlife Trust.This project has proved really successful andbecause of the on going support we have beenable to provide for the sites we have had veryfew problems with the bins.

However, one of my nurseries phoned a coupleof weeks back to say that their bin was notworking, was full of flies, and stank! When I got

there, I found that they were right! It wasindescribable, but Ill try. One of the trays wasstuffed full, but there was very little unrottedfood, it was very wet, and it looked (pardon me)like poo. Never seen anything this bad.

I removed the worms which were big and juicy.Then washed the bin out, replace some of thematerial, plus cardboard and compost.Unfortunately, in my haste, I put the worms in anempty tray. Forgot theyve got holes. So we

ended up having a worm hunt! The nurseryassistants didnt really like handling worms, butby the time theyd rounded up the escapees,they couldnt care less.

What had gone wrong? Apparently the bin hadbeen in a very open position during the hotweather, so its possible some of the worms diedin the heat. Then the bin was moved to a shadierposition, which unfortunately was next to a shed,and rain flowed off the roof onto the bin. The

staff hadnt read the instructions (surprise!) andhadnt added any paper/card, so it was all verysoggy and mushy

So they are now going to put a plastic lid on topto keep the rain out (with a brick under so theresair), remember to add plenty of paper andcardboard, and add food to the next layer upwhen the first is full. And empty the liquid morefrequently. Hope it works! Val

Worm survey

As part of the Darwins Worms project mastercomposters have been working with ShropshireWildlife Trust and schools and nurseries in thearea to raise awareness of Darwin, worms,wormeries and composting.

As part of this they have linked up with nationalOPAL scheme (Open Air Laboratories) to surveysoil types and worm species across the UK. Thekids have enjoyed getting their hands dirty anddigging sample pits to count worm populations.

This is something we can all get involved in.You can get a free pack containing all theinstructions and stuff you need to do the survey.

The idea is to sample your soil for substrate, pHetc and then count how many worms and ofwhich particular worm species.

You then submit your local data viahttp://www.opalexplorenature.org/?q=soilsurvey

and the scientists at Open University will becollating these results into a kind of work censusfor the UK. Everybody can take part in thissurvey, whatever your age or ability. It's veryeasy to do and you'll be contributing to valuablescientific research which may aid conservation.

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New Head of Waste for Shropshire Council

A new Head of Waste Management has takenup his post with Shropshire Council. Larry Wolfemoves to Shropshire from the Royal Borough ofWindsor and Maidenhead where he has beenGroup Manager of Waste and EnvironmentalProtection for the past eight years. He replacesAdrian Poller who served as Director of Shrop-shire Waste Partnership and then interim Headof Waste Management for Shropshire Council,before retiring in July.

Larrys main responsibilities include leading onthe councils 27-year waste contract with VeoliaEnvironmental Services to ensure that Shrop-shires residents continue to receive high qualitywaste and recycling services, and to increasethe amount of Shropshires waste that is re-cycled or composted.

Larry has over 30 years experience in the envir-onment sector, with the early part of his careerassociated with the water industry. A move to

Canada in 1991 saw Larry continue his careerwith the Canadian municipal sectors in Ontarioand British Columbia, before relocating in 2001to the UK to work with the Royal Borough ofWindsor and Maidenhead.

Larry has led on a number of successfulachievements including the introduction of kerb-side glass recycling and subscribed gardenwaste, and he has extensive experience of let-ting waste collection and disposal contracts.

Larry is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute ofWater and Environmental Management and amember of the Chartered Institute of Waste Man-agement. He has a Masters degree in Environ-ment and Management and he is married withone daughter and two grandchildren.

Reminder about dates on food

Shropshire Council's waste management team isoffering advice to people about the key datesfound on food, in an effort to reduce the amountof food that is unnecessarily thrown away in thecounty.

It is estimated that every year in the UK peoplethrow away 1 billion worth of food that is still indate. Now, as part of their Love Food HateWaste campaign, the council is offering thefollowing reminder to help ensure that food that

could be eaten doesnt end up in the bin.

'Best before' date: These dates refer toquality rather than food safety. Foods areOK to eat after this date, but they may nolonger taste their best.

'Use by' date: This is a safety thing andyou should never eat products after thisdate (unless the food was frozen directlyafter purchase).

Display until and Sell by dates: Theseare used by shops for stock control andcan be ignored.

David Roberts, Shropshire Councils Cabinetmember for local environment and economy,said: Confusion over the different dates is onereason we unnecessarily throw away perfectlygood food each year. We hope this reminder will

help people to know when to throw food awayand, more importantly, when not to.

Through its Love Food Hate Waste campaign,Shropshire Council is aiming to provide peoplewith information on how to waste less food whichcould save them money too. For other tips visitwww.lovefoodhatewaste.com/shropshire

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Cae Post visit

We have arranged a study tour to visit Cae Postin Trewern,Welshpool. We are booked in for10:00 AM (for 10:30) on Tuesday 3rd November.Cae Post operate a Materials Recovery Facilitywhich work with adults with learning difficulties tosort recyclable materials collected around Powysand North Shropshire.

Cae Post Ltd is a company limited by guaranteeand a registered charity. Their charitableobjectives are the advancement of education

and the preservation of the environment.

They are an accredited Open College Networktraining centre. They make extensive use oftechnology and run an IT training service. Theirtraining facilities are a learning resource for thewider community on recycling issues.

They are always keen to offer site visits andtours of their facilities so if you cant make thisdate we can always arrange another visit in the

future. If anyone wants to come along pleasecontact James Thompson at Shropshire Council.

Plastic bottle recycling trial

A new kerbside recycling collection service forrecycling plastic bottles is being trialled witharound 1,000 households in Whittington nearOswestry.

Whittington has been chosen for the trial as itwas felt to be representative of much of Shrop-shire and is a compact area contained on asingle waste collection round.

Residents involved in the trial will be asked to

put plastic bottles - with the lids removed - intothe box with their cans. During the trial a varietyof different types of collection vehicles will beused to find out which is the best for the job.

Only plastic bottles can be put out for collection.This includes most kitchen and bathroom bottlessuch as milk containers, soft drink bottles, sham-poo bottles, and washing-up liquid bottles. Atpresent this is the only type of plastic which iswidely and cost-effectively recycled in the UK.

Other types of plastic such as yoghurt pots andmargarine tubs will not be collected.

All the plastic will be recycled in the UK atClosed Loop Recycling Ltd in Dagenham, Lon-don. During 2010 the service will be graduallyintroduced across the rest of Shropshire a districtat a time.

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Freecycle UK faces mass exodus

A dispute between US-based online reusenetwork Freecycle and its UK membership hasled to a large proportion leaving and setting uptheir own rival network, called Freegle.org.uk.

Freegle claims many UK members wereunhappy over the amount of control Freecycle inAmerica had over their own sites.

The newly formed Freegle claims that 141 localgroups - almost a third of former Freecycle

groups and representing over 638,000 members- have moved to the new co-operative umbrellaorganisation, and it said "around one million" areexpected to follow.

Freegle, which means Free Giving, Locally,Easily' claimed it was unable to continue with thename Freecycle after becoming"disenfranchised" with the Americanorganisation.

The Shropshire groups have all moved over tothe Freegle umbrella. However freecyclecontinues to operate in the Shropshire area too.

Upcoming Events

Master Composter Training Sat 26

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andSun 27th September Garden Organic

Whitchurch Blackberry Fair Sat 3rd

October, Whitchurch Market Hall

Apple Weekend at Attingham Park, Atcham -Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th October

Madeley Green Day Sat 4th October

Oswestry 350 Day Sat 24th October Oswestry Memorial Hall

Cae Post site visit - Tuesday 3rd November- Cae Post Recycling Centre, Welshpool

Shropshire Community Recycling Ltd.AGM Wed 4th November, Wildlife Trust

Dudmaston Xmas Fayre at Dudmaston Hall

near Bridgnorth Sunday 13

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December

THANK YOU!

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http://www.uk.freecycle.org/

Autumn 2009 Shropshire Master Composters Newsletter

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