Compost awareness week

04 May 2010

Linking with National Compost Awareness Week (2-8 May 2010), the Recycle for Jersey Team from Transport and Technical Services has been working with Island primary schools to set up school composting schemes and turn young students into ‘composting experts.’

Using home composting kits, schools are collecting food waste such as fruit skins from break time and tea bags from the staff room and turning it into quality compost to help them grow flowers and produce.

The ‘composing experts’ can also apply their new skills at home helping to reduce their household rubbish by up to a third by collecting kitchen and garden waste for the home compost bin instead of the rubbish bin.

One of the schools producing compost for their vegetable garden is Bel Royal primary school where Year 4 students know what can and can’t be composted, as well as the important balance of materials that are needed to make the perfect compost.

Bel Royal head teacher,Sonia Burton, said “Learning about composting has been a brilliant way for children to learn about a range of topics both in and out of the classroom. Pupils have learnt to take responsibility for their waste and to take positive action both at school and at home.”

Recycling Officer, Emma Richardson, said “Most of the Island’s primary schools are now generating their own compost. This is a fantastic way for students to learn about recycling and the difference they can make by turning their waste into something useful. It also links in with other topics such as encouraging outdoor activites and healthy eating and so is a brilliant subject for schools. We hope that the success of school composting will lead to more people trying it at home and what better time to start than Compost Awareness Week.”

To encourage more Islanders to compost their household kitchen and garden waste, the States of Jersey subsidise home composting kits which are sold through local garden centres for just £10. Each kit contains a home composter, kitchen caddy and instruction booklet.