Students in Caerphilly learned a lot about the environment and particularly about reducing, reusing and recycling during this year’s Compost Awareness Week. From May 4th to May 10th, Caerphilly council’s minimisation team toured the neighbourhood schools, teaching students about the importance of reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill through composting. The Bedwas Juniors participated in Compost Awareness Week by running a competition to design their compost bin. Composting activities around the area were photographed in order to compete for the prize of Caerphilly’s Compost Champion. The prize was awarded to Ynysddu Primary School for their enthusiastic environmental activities. Waste & Resources ... Full Story

A survey conducted by the Waste and Resource Action Programme has revealed that the increasing fertiliser prices would lead to the demand for compost going up. Last year soil improver and fertiliser prices increased by over fifty per cent and they have now reached record levels. Partly the increase is attributed to a price rise of natural gas which is a component of ammonia fertilisers. But with the high prices for fertilisers farmers were now turning to compost and this was likely to lead to higher prices for it. The Waste and Resource Action Programme has approximated that compost fetches a ... Full Story

IChemE recently conducted a household survey and discovered that as much as £610 worth of food is thrown away every year by the average family in the UK. As a result of these figures, the group has released a new guide to help families reduce the amount of household waste they generate. According to IChemE’s Director of Policy, Andrew Furlong, the recently published ten-step guide covers all aspects of waste management and does no solely focus on food waste reduction. "People must rethink the way they approach waste if we're to avoid being lost to landfill The UK sends more rubbish to ... Full Story

The building of a composting plant has started at Hillbarton in Essex. The composting plant is being constructed at a cost of two and a half million pounds and the work is being undertaken by Verdia Horticulture Ltd. The composting plant has a capacity of processing fourteen thousand tonnes of green and food waste annually and this will generate about eight thousand tonnes of compost for use in horticultural activities before the year ends. Verdia Horticulture Ltd will get waste from the private sector as well as the deals it hopes to get into with local authorities. Equipment for the plant will ... Full Story

The composting plant that Agrivert has been operating at the Edmonton EcoPark in the north of London has been turned over to LondonWaste Ltd, a client of Agrivert. Running of the five million pound facility will now be in the hands of LondonWaste Ltd. Agrivert constructed the composting facility in 2005 and every year the plant has been processing approximately thirty thousand tonnes of food and green waste. A spokesperson for LondonWaste Ltd, Wendy Lord, admitted that LondonWaste Ltd had been for a long time wanting to run the EcoPark Compost Centre. The spokesperson gave assurance that the change of hands of ... Full Story

Mike Russell, Scotland’s environment minister was the guest of honour at the official launch of an extension to an in-vessel composting facility. The 4 new in-vessel tunnels at the Deerdykes Composting and Organics Recycling Facility will enable the recycling firm to compost food waste for the first time in its history. Deerdykes Composting and Organics Recycling Facility first begun operations in 2006 and it has concentrated its efforts on garden waste but the new extensions will give it the capacity to process twenty four thousand tonnes of food waste every year. The environment minister welcomed the conclusion of the plant’s expansion which had ... Full Story

The Chelson Meadow landfill site in Plymouth is going to be shut down on Monday after being in existence for over forty years. This will be on the thirty first of March when the final lorry will dump waste into the ground at Chelson Meadow landfill site. Consequently Plymouth will engage in a search for alternative ways of getting rid of rubbish in conjunction with Torbay Council and Devon County Council and they are likely to invest in a facility that turns waste into energy. In the meantime the rubbish will now be disposed off by Viridor Waste Management at its commercial ... Full Story

Recent research has found that much of commercial food waste is edible. A study carried out by Southampton-based charity SCRATCH (Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship) has reached the conclusion that a large amount of commercial food-waste is actually edible. The project has also found that if the right distribution network is used, surplus fresh food can be diverted from traditional disposal routes. It can be put to better use as meals for vulnerable sectors of society. The Surplus Food Research project was funded by a grant of £162,583 from The Veolia Environmental Trust. It was awarded under ... Full Story

The South Hadley High School in South Hadley, MA will be the recipient of 5 percent of the sales from Jan. 15 of Whole Foods Market for the composting program at the high school. The money will allow the school to keep its program running in the coming year as well as seed money for 2009, stated Ann M. Walsh-Sullivan, marketing team leader for the Hadley Whole Foods. South Hadley’s program has a 98 percent compliance from the student body, and diverts 75 percent of the high school cafeteria’s garbage from the town landfill. 35 percent is composted and taken to ... Full Story

The Composting Association, the UK leading's membership organisation for the composting and biodegradable resource management industry, is reminding people that its annual conference and exhibition is approaching fast. This year's conference will look specifically at the issue of biowaste and the carbon economy. Both issues are relevant in industry, and pop culture, circles. As Sir Nicholas Stern wrote in his recent report on the economics of climate change 'There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now'. This strong action will create new markets in low-carbon energy technologies and other low-carbon goods and ... Full Story

About 110 people attended a recent Sudbury council meeting to raise concerns about a new proposal that would provide a common site for composting. The issue residents are rallying against wasn't on the agenda at the meeting, but it didn't stop them from protesting. "The purpose of the rally is to continue to impress upon the local municipal council that people are not in agreement with (the rezoning bylaw), which creates a waste recycling site... at the headwaters of the Pine River," said Roly Bertrand, co-chair of the French River Citizens Action Committee. In August, French River council approved an application by Halton ... Full Story

Culinary School of the Rockies is recruiting students nationwide to participate in its newly created "Farm to Table" Culinary Arts Program, an industry-pioneering opportunity for aspiring cooks and chefs to combine culinary know-how with a deep understanding of ways to source and use local ingredients. This innovative and environmentally sensitive program responds to the growing demand from restaurant consumers who are asking for more locally grown menu items. The six-month intensive Culinary Arts Program, which includes a five-week immersion on the farms and in the kitchens of both Colorado's North Fork Valley and Boulder County. Only 16 students will be accepted ... Full Story