Spent compost is only useful if you have somewhere to store it until needed. We have lots of pots and baskets, but none are so large that they need old compost to part fill them. What am I then supposed to do with the old compost. For scale of the issue, I used between 3 and 4 large bags of compost per year, in literally several dozen pots and baskets.
If you lived near me I'd come and collect it! I can always use more soil improvement/mulching material.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
At the risk of tangenting the thread, there is as much variation in regular waste processing in the UK as with green waste. In my area all waste that isn't recycled is burnt. They capture some of the heat to heat local homes. Much of what is burnt is plastic. I imagine most councils use landfill instead.
London has a low uptake of recycling - in many councils less than 30% of waste is recycled - some of the lowest in the UK. This is partly because so much of the population lives in tower blocks and sink estates and motivation is low. Cynicism in recycling also abound.
Our Green Waste is collected fortnightly at £60 a year. We used to get a discount if you reordered the service early but that seems to have disappeared. I making the leap that is due to our council being bankrupt
I need my bin still even with 2 compost bins but I share with my neighbour. He mows the lawn between our house so I am more than happy for him to use the bin in exchange for this.
@Fire a new incinerator was opened near here a couple of years ago and most of what previously went to landfill is now burnt. I believe it generates electricity from the heat but don't quote me on that.
Can't remember whether I've posted it before. Looks like they extract anything they can - residual recyclables, organic waste for composting - and make the rest into fuel for power generation. It looks like there's quite a lot of transportation involved (they take waste from a fairly big area and the the outputs go elsewhere) but it's got to be better than landfill. It makes me feel slightly less irritated that we can only put plastic in the recycling bin if it's bottle-shaped, and we get no separate food waste collection (not that we have much of that because all my veg peelings etc go into my own compost).
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I cut three 7 or 8 foot privet bushes down to the ground the other day, spent a couple of hours cutting them up into manageable pieces and took it to the council tip, the tip is about 1/2 a mile away it took two trips and about 15 minutes each time to unload, we don't subscribe to the council garden green bin collection which costs about £50/year, I take most of my garden cuttings to the allotment to compost or to scatter in the wild area at the back of the plot for the wildlife, I also take about 3/4 of my food waste to the allotment to compost, we usually get away with putting the recycling and household waste bins out every four weeks instead of every two, there are only two of us in the house but we must be saving the council money I hope they appreciate it!
@KT53, we have an excess of lawn clippings over brown material so I have a couple of bales of straw next to the compost bin which I use in the mix. Fortunately a friend in the village has horses and gives me the bales, and manure too when I want it.
I save brown cardboard and paper to mix in when I have an excess of grass clippings, but that only really happens if we have a wet spring, and the last several springs have been dry so grass growth was slow. It looks to be getting away now though so there might be plenty of compost-making in the next few months
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
We've just paid for our garden waste collection £83. Collections are fortnightly except over Xmas. OH is annoyed at this latest price rise. Shame we can't ask for 6 months only when it's needed most.
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I need my bin still even with 2 compost bins but I share with my neighbour. He mows the lawn between our house so I am more than happy for him to use the bin in exchange for this.