Scandal Compost?

I just have to ask this question...
I am sitting at work and fumbling through May 2006's "Gardener's World" (yes, I am sad!), and on page 51 in Monty Don's "Back to Nature" article it says:
quote:
"it is a scandal that the latest figures show the largest part of all landfill, 21 percent, is so called garden "waste" which could all be composted"
*quote ends.

Huh?
I have collected, on digging my flowerbed, about 4 black binbags full of couch crass and roots, which I am planning to drop off at the Civic Amenity Site on Saturday. Now this will amount to about 21 per cent of my household waste for the next month or so, fair enough. And I would love to dispose of it in another way - but how on earth do I compost couch grass????? Will I not simply invite it to re-grow in my garden by doing that? For the same reason I do not use any kind of roots on the compost heap, and nor do I use moss or the likes. It kind of defeats the purpose, as far as I am concerned!
I even kicked half-rotten fence posts I dug up into my compost heap - just wood, and half rotten anyway so I may as well let it rot down completely. But I also dug up mesh wire and clothes pegs and such things, which in my eyes is certainly garden waste... and cannot be composted.

Is it not a bit silly to say "all garden waste could be composted"? Or am I focusing too much on the little things in what people say? Most of the waste I found in clearing my garden, while I classify it as garden waste has to go to the landfill - I would love to spare myself these trips down there but I can't! :rolleyes:

 

I may be getting the wrong end of the stick here Wishaw, but our tip has a green waste section for unbagged garden refuse (and a timber section for the rotting fence posts). Perenial weeds and the like go in there instead of my own heap because the heat from the "super-compost heaps" is enough to kill them (or so I understand). We have a green bin which is collected and goes to the same place (allegedly - I hope it does) so if I'm not doing a major tip run, it goes in there as well..

I would say that if you're (that's the general public, not you personally) chucking garden waste in the landfill bin when there's an option to chuck it in something like that, then that's probably what ol' Monty is referring to.. or am I totally lost?!

To add a more controversial point, I read an article the other day which says that most councils focus on recycling the "easy" stuff (garden waste, wood etc) because it keeps their targets on track - but as you point out, most of this would rot anyway so can go in landfills without causing too much adverse environmental damage. At the same time, they ignore the problems of plastic and other man-made products which they are happy to dump in landfills. Our council, for example, doesn't recycle plastic because it's too expensive - kind of missing the point, wouldn't you say?! :D

 

Spot on with the plastic, Dave! I can't believe how bad Britain still is when it comes to recycling - in Germany you would go to jail if you neglected plastic recycling in such a way! They put the little recycling symbol on packaging here as well but don't bother with the rest of it. What's more, the amount of plastic that is burnt in Britain is scandalous!
We get brown composting bins from the council which I use for the "less drastic" stuff, even roots, but with the reputation of couch grass I just do not think it is fair. It also does not say we can put roots in on the wee piece of paper that came as the information with these bins. Just your ordinary cuttings, grass, leaves and twigs 0 the stuff I use on my own heap!
Could I chop the couch grass weeds in little pieces and declare as cuttings? Then again, that does not help my own conscience... thinking about someone eventually using the "compost" and introducing loads of couch grass to their garden, because it did NOT compost.
Can someone put my mind to rest and confirm that super-heaps boil the stuff to death? Because it would save me a few trips to the landfill site! :D

 

I don't put twitch and ground elder on the compost heap, it goes on the bonfire then it really is super heated!

As to the plastic issue, the thing that bugs me is that there is so much over packing. We used to buy veg, peel it and compost the peelings, but now it is all ready washed and prepared and we have a load of plastic to get rid of.

We get our houshold dustbins emptied every other week, alternated with recycle weeks, but appart from all our Gin bottles we don't get any as green waste as we use it all ourselves, but still our council tax goes up!

 

We have a non-compost heap. On to it goes all the stuff you are not supposed to put in ones compost heap. Things like couch, dandelion, dock roots etc all go in it. When it has reached a reasonable size it is covered with black plastic and left. The last one was covered like that for about three years. Then when opened it was just good compost and no signs of roots or anything. BUT, we have the space for such a heap, I certainly would not have been able to do it in our previous garden. The area by the way of the heap is about 8 feet by 8 feet and it is covered when it gets too high toput anymore on it.

 

I experimented with horse muck in small bags, but it was too heavy for a girlie to cope with.

My dad used to have a small incinerator and every so ofter just burn stuff. NOW Marley Farley you say you cant have a bonfire, but I bet you can have a BBQ with one of those warm the atmosphere chimeny things!

sorry don't get me mad and upsetting people again - you know us Yorkshire lasses speak our minds! I just honestly can't see the logic in it all.

 

So you are saying you can't have BBQ???

 

Wishaw - I really don't think couch grass roots will be a problem for your Civic Amenity site. As t'other Dave says the super sized compost heaps created by local councils produce temperatures that will destroy just about any veg material.

Veg and soft or veg and thin - chuck it in!

If in doubt try a phone call. Our council is really getting into recycling and is very helpful whenever we query anything, as are the operatives on-site.

[ 27. April 2006, 07:28 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]

 

Thinking about the Council compost heaps. I am sure that everything is put through a shredder efore it goes into the heap. The temps in those heaps by the way are high enough to kill every pathogen and weed root and seed.

 

Oh and on subject of shredder, I am considering buying one, its just that big sralky stuff seems to take so long to compost, so would a shredder speed things up???

 

A shredder is a brilliant thing Waco. Anything woody we have that is less than about an inch or an inch and half gets put through ours. Woody stuff we use on paths and the rest goes to compost. Most of what we used to burn now gets the 'chop and rot'.