Give home composting a go during Compost Awareness Week

To mark International Compost Awareness Week (4-10 May), Norfolk County Council is encouraging people who are interested in home composting to give it a try. Discounted compost bins, a special event held by Norfolk's Master Composters and a free online Introduction to Composting Course are all on offer. 

Discounted 220 litre compost bins are currently available at all of Norfolk's 19 recycling centres at the price of just £15. And from June this year, for the first time ever, discounted 330 litre compost bins will also be available to purchase at the seven larger recycling centres (Caister, Dereham, Hempton, Kings Lynn, Norwich North, Norwich South and Thetford) for £21.   

Norfolk County Council has a team of volunteer Master Composters who offer expert advice at events and online throughout the year. Plus, to coincide with International Compost Awareness Week, a special event will be held at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library in the Forum on Wednesday 7 May. The event takes place from 10am until 3pm to show people how easy it is to get into composting at home.

For those that can't attend the event, there is lots of advice on how to get started on www.norfolkrecycles.com/home-compost including information about our new, free Introduction to Composting Course.  

Cllr James Bensly, Cabinet Member for Environment said: "Composting is great for your garden and for the environment. We're continuing to offer subsidised compost bins which helps the council save an estimated £1.7 million each year in avoided disposal costs and since 2002 has seen around 15,675 tonnes of waste being composted at home each year.  If you are not sure whether composting is for you, or if you want to give it a go but not sure where to get started, there is a lot of guidance available, including an easy step-by-step guide on the Norfolk Recycles website." 

Join the 1000s of people in Norfolk who are already composting at home including:  

Laura from Caister, who only recently started composting, said, "I started home composting because it just feels like the natural thing to do when you have a garden! My plants, fruits and vegetables need compost. It just makes sense to make compost - for free - from waste that would normally be thrown out with the rubbish.  Composting is a great way to help reduce waste and get something awesome & useful for free! "  

Alan from Reepham took up composting when they retired. He said, "All my life I lived without a garden. On retirement I started living in a house with half an acre. I very quickly realised that there would be a good deal of garden waste so I started composing. It's important to me because I don't want to send away my garden waste, I want to return the nutrients to the garden. In particular to my veg plot."   

Cathy from Heydon said, "Composting is an amazing process of transformation and easy to do, it just wants to happen!"

Homemade compost is the single most useful addition to any garden and nurtures the life of the soil to give you better crops flowers, fruit and veggies.  To create the best possible circumstances for the heap to thrive is important, you need to consider where to put your heap, what to add and when and learn how to maintain it. These guidelines are very simple and are available from the Norfolk Recycles website. 

There is also a wider environmental benefit of home composting as it reduces waste, pollution and energy by recycling this valuable resource at home, where it is produced, rather than having it collected and transported. We need to work in harmony with natural processes. Composting is both a practical and useful example of this, supporting the cycle of life."

To learn how to compost at home visit www.norfolkrecycles.com/home-compost  

To get your cut price compost bin, visit www.getcomposting.com, call 0800 316 445 or buy one at your local recycling centre.