People in Gosport who buy a compost bin during compost Awareness Week (6 - 12 May 2007) could win £100 of garden centre vouchers to spruce up their garden and help the environment along the way.
The Recycle Now Home Composting Campaign has organised the competition to celebrate the seventh annual Compost Awareness Week, which is aimed at encouraging people to keep their gardens in bloom by composting their kitchen and garden waste to benefit their plants.
“We all care about the environment and want to do our bit to help and at the end of the day home composting is so easy to do,” said The Mayor Councillor June Cully. “Fruit, vegetables even peelings are good, as is garden waste, eggs shells, egg boxes - even the contents of your vacuum cleaner can be composted. If everyone were to have a go at composting they would find it so easy to do and we could make a huge difference to the environment.”
Almost anything organic can be composted - from shredded documents and scrunched up cardboard to mussel shells and grass cuttings. All this waste breaks down naturally to produce a free-of-charge fertiliser which can be used to keep plants and gardens looking green and beautiful – and it even helps soil to retain moisture, which is good news during the hot summer months.
Anyone living in Gosport who places an order during Composting Awareness Week will be eligible for the prize of £100 of garden centre vouchers, which have been donated by DHL, the logistics company that deliver the bins. Throughout 2007, residents are able to buy a 220 litre compost bin for £8, a 330 litre bin for £10 or a 250 litre KOMP compost bin for £20, all including delivery. Check out the website
www.recyclenow.com/compost or phone 0845 077 0757
for more details.
If you’d like to see the bins, then staff from Gosport Borough Council will also be doing their bit for Composting Awareness Week, by manning a stand on Tuesday 8 May at the Gosport Market in the High Street, from 9.30am to 12 noon, where you can view the bins and chat to our guest Composting Expert, David Smith, of WRAP (Waste Resources Action Programme).
Then, on Sunday 13 May, the team will be at Grange Farm, Rowner as part of their FREE 'Really Wild Garden Show' which runs from 1pm-4pm. Here there will also be stalls, displays and advice on how to make your garden wildlife friendly. Find out about the wildlife that may frequent your garden and how to attract more, plus plant sale, guided walk, children's activities and refreshments - all in the beautiful setting of the Alver Valley.
Notes to Editors:
- *Statistics from WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme)
- Recycle Now - Launched by Matthew Pinsent in September 2004, Recycle Now is the multi-media national recycling campaign, implemented and managed by WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) on behalf of the Government. The aim of the campaign is to encourage more people to recycle more stuff, more often.
- WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
- Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
- More information on all of WRAP’s programmes can be found at www.wrap.org.uk
