PR 1279
01 May 2009
EMBARGOED until 00.01 Monday 4th May 2009
Recycle Now calls on us to get clued up about compost - Help save millions of
tonnes of waste from landfill this Compost Awareness Week
Millions of tonnes of household waste could be saved from landfill each year if we all made the
most of our compost, according to the Recycle Now campaign, launching this year’s Compost
Awareness Week which runs from 3-9 May.
Compost Awareness Week aims to encourage us all to compost our household and garden waste
at home, as well as using greener, peat-free composts, in order to reduce the amount of waste
sent to landfill each year. This Compost Awareness Week, Recycle Now has teamed up with TV
chef Arthur Potts Dawson and the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire to encourage people to
give composting a go.
Recycle Now research shows households in England throw away four million tonnes of waste each
year that could have been composted, which could save 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent
emissions every year. This is the equivalent to taking more than 450,000 cars off the road. Recycle
Now estimates that around a quarter of this waste could be easily composted at home. Anything
from tea bags and egg shells to vegetable peelings can be composted- and it couldn’t be simpler to
start.
David Smedley, Lead Technical Officer for the Waste Partnership for Buckinghamshire said, “The
home composting scheme continues to be really successful in Buckinghamshire. For residents
who haven’t yet taken advantage of the scheme, I would encourage them to do so as they can pick
up a bin from as little as £8! This special offer is available through the Recycle Now Home
Composting scheme and will end in September 2009. For more information please visit
www.recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk.”
-1County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UY
For more council news look on www.recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk
Arthur Potts Dawson, Executive Chef at top eco-friendly restaurant Acorn House said:
“Composting is one of the easiest and most fulfilling things you can do to help the environment, but
many people are unaware of the impact it can have or think it is too complicated to do. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
“At Acorn House we compost 100 percent of our suitable waste on site and use the compost we
make to grow herbs and other vegetables to serve in the restaurant. I also ensure that any
compost I buy is peat-free, as I’m fully aware of the damage caused to peat bogs and their wildlife
through peat extraction for garden compost. It gets great results, and needn’t cost the earth.”
What’s more, many of us are unaware of the environmental benefits of using peat-free compost.
Fifty one percent of people have never used it, and twenty four percent say they are not aware of
it, despite the fact that it can also make a significant environmental saving. It can take anywhere
between 500 to 1,000 years to replace every one metre layer of peat extracted in the UK, putting at
risk wildlife such as birds, dragonflies and butterflies that depend on its natural habitat for survival .
Since the campaign started in 2004, Recycle Now has sold an amazing 2 million compost bins
across the UK, and over 30,0000 in Buckinghamshire as more and more people are getting the
home composting bug - and it seems awareness is increasing. Recycle Now research * shows that
we are more aware of how our gardening behaviour affects the environment than we were a year
ago and have taken steps to ‘green-up’ our gardening habits:
•
One in ten (9%) of those questioned say they are now home composting their garden waste
when they weren’t a year ago
•
One in six (16%) said they have recently started using peat-free compost
•
Almost 60 percent of people are now growing their own fruit and vegetables, with 16
percent having started in the last year
Carl Nichols, Head of Home Composting at Recycle Now, said: “There has been a dramatic
increase in home composting over the past year as people have got the grow your own vegetables
bug to help beat the recession. However even regular home composters still send on average
nearly 70Kg of compostable food waste to landfill each year - that’s the weight of a medium sized
-2County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UY
For more council news look on www.recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk
adult. Simple steps such as composting at home and switching to peat-free compost containing
recycled materials can make a huge difference.”
As an additional incentive for people to start composting, Recycle Now, the Waste Partnership for
Buckinghamshire and DHL who deliver the compost bins, are launching a ‘Golden Bin’ competition.
Anyone who buys a compost bin through the council’s Home Composting scheme is in with the
chance of winning £50 of garden centre vouchers. To be in with a chance, people should simply
visit www.recyclenow.com/compost to find out how to order a bin at a great value prize. This offer
runs from 3-17 May 2009.
For more information, please contact:
Victoria Smith, Sarah Viner, Joanna Kwiatkowska at Fishburn Hedges
tel: 020 7839 4321, firstname.lastname@fishburn-hedges.co.uk
Viki Coppin, Press Officer, WRAP, tel: 01295 819695, viki.coppin@wrap.org.uk
ENDS
Notes for editors
Notes to editors
*ICM interviewed a random sample of 1015 adults aged 18+ in GB from its online panel between
6-8th March 2009. Surveys were conducted across the country and the results have been
weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by
its rules. Further information at www.icmresearch.co.uk
About WRAP
-3County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UY
For more council news look on www.recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk
1
WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle
more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.
2
Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding
from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3
Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business
Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market
development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these
sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media
national Recycle Now campaign for England.
4
WRAP’s Recycle Now Compost at Home programme works with 112 partner areas
throughout England and Scotland, marketing to 18 million households. The programme provides
subsidised compost bins as well as information and support material on home composting. More
information is available at www.recyclenow.com/compost.
5
Recycle Now is a campaign to encourage people in England to recycle more things more
often. Six out of ten of us now describe ourselves as committed recyclers, compared to less than
half of us when the campaign began in 2004.
6
The Know Your Compost Campaign is part of WRAP’s overall programme of activity and
aims to raise awareness of the environmental benefits and availability of reduced peat and peatfree composts that contain recycled green waste.
7
More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on www.wrap.org.uk and for
more information on the Recycle Now campaign visit www.recyclenow.com
More information
Anushka Desai
Communications Officer (Waste Team)
Telephone 01296 387677
-4County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UY
For more council news look on www.recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk