Shropshire Master Composters Newsletter

Autumn edition 2009

Master Composter Conference 2009 Shropshire Composters scoop award

22 volunteers from Shropshire Master Shropshire Master Composters has been

Composters attended the national conference at officially named as the best master composter
Ryton Organic Gardens this June. In total nearly group in the UK! The group picked up the
200 delegates turned up on the day and we were ‘Group Achievement Award’ at this years Master
blessed with good weather and a great day. Composter Convention.

In the morning eminent entomologist Dr. Peter

Smithers from Plymouth University talked about
the organisms found in his compost bin. He also
launched 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 via
www.homecomposting.org.uk

A wonderful organic lunch was provided and in

the afternoon we were joined by BBC Gardeners
World's Alys Fowler. Alys shared some of her ex-
citing compost adventures as well as stories of
composting around the world.
New scheme for cheap compost bins
Many composters attended workshops on sub-
Shropshire Council and its contractor Veolia
jects as varied as communication skills, wormer-
Environmental Services (Shropshire) Ltd. has
ies and boukashis, entomology and community
launched a new scheme to allow residents of
composting.
Shropshire to get cheap compost bins to help
reduce biodegradable municipal waste.

The main bins for the scheme will be supplied by

Devon-based plastics manufacturer Original
Organics Ltd. They have teamed up with Notts
based Green Cone Ltd. to offer a range of
products and at much better prices than the
recent WRAP scheme.

Transport and attendance of the event was

funded by Veolia Environmental Services the
Councils waste contractor.

1
We have new leaflets which you should all be
using now and the old ones with the old prices
and WRAP bins on can all be recycled (or
composted) now please.
Composters strike gold
Shropshire Master Composters - in a joint entry
with Shropshire Organic Gardeners - scooped a
Gold Medal at last week’s Shrewsbury Flower
Show, winning the 'Best in Show' category for
their ‘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 types
of compost bin.
Love food, hate waste training
2
25 Master Composters have recently attended a
training course on food waste prevention
delivered by WRAP. This aimed to raise
awareness of food waste and ways to prevent it.
WRAP are happy, indeed keen to offer training
to more Composters so if anyone is interested in
this idea please contact James Thompson who
will organise another session.
New £3m recycling facility in Oswestry
A brand new site at Mile Oak Industrial Estate
has replaced the old centre at Maesbury Road,
which is now closed.
Shropshire Council says the new PFI funded site
will transform how the town recycles rubbish
-helping to significantly increase the amount of
waste 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, white
goods, 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%.
A tale of some unhappy worms Worm survey

Some of us have been taking worm bins to
nurseries as part of the ‘Darwin’s Worms’ project
in association with Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
This project has proved really successful and
because of the on going support we have been
able to provide for the sites we have had very
few problems with the bins.
However, one of my nurseries phoned a couple
of weeks back to say that their bin was not
working, was full of flies, and stank! When I got
there, I found that they were right! It was
indescribable, but I’ll try. One of the trays was
stuffed full, but there was very little unrotted
food, 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 the
material, plus cardboard and compost.
Unfortunately, in my haste, I put the worms in an
empty tray. Forgot they’ve got holes. So we
ended up having a worm hunt! The nursery
assistants didn’t really like handling worms, but
by the time they’d rounded up the escapees,
they couldn’t care less.
What had gone wrong? Apparently the bin had
been in a very open position during the hot
weather, so it’s possible some of the worms died
in the heat. Then the bin was moved to a shadier
position, which unfortunately was next to a shed,
and rain flowed off the roof onto the bin. The
staff hadn’t read the instructions (surprise!) and
hadn’t added any paper/card, so it was all very
soggy and mushy…
As part of the Darwin’s Worms project master
composters have been working with Shropshire
Wildlife Trust and schools and nurseries in the
area to raise awareness of Darwin, worms,
wormeries and composting.
As part of this they have linked up with national
OPAL scheme (Open Air Laboratories) to survey
soil types and worm species across the UK. The
kids have enjoyed getting their hands dirty and
digging sample pits to count worm populations.
This is something we can all get involved in.
You can get a free pack containing all the
instructions and stuff you need to do the survey.
The idea is to sample your soil for substrate, pH
etc and then count how many worms and of
which particular worm species.
You then submit your local data via
http://www.opalexplorenature.org/?q=soilsurvey
and the scientists at Open University will be
collating these results into a kind of work census
for the UK. Everybody can take part in this
survey, whatever your age or ability. It's very
easy to do and you'll be contributing to valuable
scientific research which may aid conservation.

So they are now going to put a plastic lid on top

to keep the rain out (with a brick under so there’s
air), remember to add plenty of paper and
cardboard, and add food to the next layer up
when the first is full. And empty the liquid more
frequently. Hope it works! Val

3
New Head of Waste for Shropshire Council
A new Head of Waste Management has taken
up his post with Shropshire Council. Larry Wolfe
moves to Shropshire from the Royal Borough of
Windsor and Maidenhead where he has been
Group Manager of Waste and Environmental
Protection for the past eight years. He replaces
Adrian Poller who served as Director of Shrop-
shire Waste Partnership and then interim Head
of Waste Management for Shropshire Council,
before retiring in July.
Larry’s main responsibilities include leading on
the council’s 27-year waste contract with Veolia
Environmental Services to ensure that Shrop-
shire’s residents continue to receive high quality
waste and recycling services, and to increase
the amount of Shropshire’s waste that is re-
cycled or composted.
Larry has over 30 years’ experience in the envir-
onment sector, with the early part of his career
associated with the water industry. A move to
Canada in 1991 saw Larry continue his career
with the Canadian municipal sectors in Ontario
and British Columbia, before relocating in 2001
to the UK to work with the Royal Borough of
Windsor and Maidenhead.
Larry has led on a number of successful
achievements including the introduction of kerb-
side glass recycling and subscribed garden
waste, and he has extensive experience of let-
ting waste collection and disposal contracts.
Larry is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of
Water and Environmental Management and a
member of the Chartered Institute of Waste Man-
agement. He has a Masters degree in Environ-
ment and Management and he is married with
one daughter and two grandchildren.
4
Reminder about dates on food
Shropshire Council's waste management team is
offering advice to people about the key dates
found on food, in an effort to reduce the amount
of food that is unnecessarily thrown away in the
county.
It is estimated that every year in the UK people
throw away £1 billion worth of food that is still “in
date”. Now, as part of their ‘Love Food Hate
Waste’ campaign, the council is offering the
following reminder to help ensure that food that
could be eaten doesn’t end up in the bin.
• 'Best before' date: These dates refer to
quality rather than food safety. Foods are
OK to eat after this date, but they may no
longer taste their best.
• 'Use by' date: This is a safety thing and
you should never eat products after this
date (unless the food was frozen directly
after purchase).
• ‘Display until’ and ‘Sell by’ dates: These
are used by shops for stock control and
can be ignored.
David Roberts, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet
member for local environment and economy,
said: “Confusion over the different dates is one
reason we unnecessarily throw away perfectly
good food each year. We hope this reminder will
help people to know when to throw food away
and, more importantly, when not to.”
Through its ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign,
Shropshire Council is aiming to provide people
with information on how to waste less food which
could save them money too. For other tips visit
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/shropshire
Cae Post visit
We have arranged a ‘study tour’ to visit Cae Post
in Trewern, Welshpool. We are booked in for
10:00 AM (for 10:30) on Tuesday 3rd November.
Cae Post operate a Materials Recovery Facility
which work with adults with learning difficulties to
sort recyclable materials collected around Powys
and North Shropshire.
Cae Post Ltd is a company limited by guarantee
and a registered charity. Their charitable
objectives are the advancement of education
and the preservation of the environment.
They are an accredited Open College Network
training centre. They make extensive use of
technology and run an IT training service. Their
training facilities are a learning resource for the
wider community on recycling issues.
They are always keen to offer site visits and
tours of their facilities so if you cant make this
date we can always arrange another visit in the
future. If anyone wants to come along please
contact James Thompson at Shropshire Council.
5
Plastic bottle recycling trial
A new kerbside recycling collection service for
recycling plastic bottles is being trialled with
around 1,000 households in Whittington near
Oswestry.
Whittington has been chosen for the trial as it
was felt to be representative of much of Shrop-
shire and is a compact area contained on a
single waste collection round.
Residents involved in the trial will be asked to
put plastic bottles - with the lids removed - into
the box with their cans. During the trial a variety
of different types of collection vehicles will be
used 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 bottles
such as milk containers, soft drink bottles, sham-
poo bottles, and washing-up liquid bottles. At
present this is the only type of plastic which is
widely and cost-effectively recycled in the UK.
Other types of plastic such as yoghurt pots and
margarine tubs will not be collected.
All the plastic will be recycled in the UK at
Closed Loop Recycling Ltd in Dagenham, Lon-
don. During 2010 the service will be gradually
introduced across the rest of Shropshire a district
at a time.
Freecycle UK faces mass exodus
A dispute between US-based online reuse
network Freecycle and its UK membership has
led to a large proportion leaving and setting up
their own rival network, called Freegle.org.uk.
Freegle claims many UK members were
unhappy over the amount of control Freecycle in
America had over their own sites.
The newly formed Freegle claims that 141 local
groups - almost a third of former Freecycle
groups and representing over 638,000 members
- have moved to the new co-operative umbrella
organisation, and it said "around one million" are
expected to follow.
Freegle, which means ‘Free Giving, Locally,
Easily' claimed it was unable to continue with the
name Freecycle after becoming
"disenfranchised" with the American
organisation.
The Shropshire groups have all moved over to
the Freegle umbrella. However freecycle
continues to operate in the Shropshire area too.
Upcoming Events
• Master Composter Training – Sat 26th and
Sun 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 13th December
• THANK YOU!