Compost don’t bin those Mother’s Day flowers
Warwickshire County Council is calling on people to think of the environment when the Mother’s Day flowers start to wilt.
Mother’s Day saw about £55m nationally spent on bouquets of flowers, and here in Warwickshire the message is to make sure those flowers don’t end up in the bin.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Environmental Services, said: “Composting is one of the easiest ways to make a dramatic impact on the environment and reduce the amount of rubbish you send to landfill.”
Traditionally, composting has been seen as something that only very keen gardeners do. However, in recent years there has been growing interest in creating compost from organic materials including food waste, due to the environmental problems caused by traditional disposal methods like landfill.
The environmental benefits of composting are:
- decomposing organic waste such as garden waste and food can led to high methane levels when it is disposed of at landfill - methane is not only a potential fire risk but also a green house gas thought to contribute to global warming.
- slims your bin and reduces the amount of waste going to landfill
- prevents the need for polluting bonfires
- reduces the need to water your garden
- increases plant growth and health
- replaces the need to use chemical fertilisers and pesticides
- replace the need to use peat from fast-disappearing peat bogs
More details on composting in Warwickshire can be found at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/environment.