Date issued: 8 October 2019
This autumn, Colchester Borough Council is encouraging residents to save money, help the environment and follow its example by using their garden waste to make compost and mulch at home.
In the past few weeks, the council has used three tonnes (which is the equivalent weight of 1.3 rhinoceros) of its own leaf mulch from last year, on Castle Park’s flower beds. By using its own mulch, the council has made use of the park’s fallen leaves, reduced its carbon footprint, saved money and helped next year’s plants to be even healthier, thanks to this nutrient-rich mulch. Staff and volunteers are now also collecting this autumn’s leaves to create even more mulch for use next year.
So, if you’re a gardener, now’s the perfect time to follow this example and create your own mulch or compost at home. To help with this, Essex County Council has a compost bin special offer for residents where bins are available from only £9.25. There’s also a multi-buy offer for residents with larger gardens or for those who team up with a friend or neighbour to buy a bin.
Composting at home is a quick, easy and cost-effective method of clearing away garden waste and making a free supply of compost to use in your garden for the spring. Whether it’s vegetable peelings and eggshells from the kitchen, a leftover pumpkin from Halloween, compostable products, shredded paper or the cuttings from one last outing for the lawnmower, simply throw it in your compost bin and over the winter months it will break down to produce environmentally-friendly compost.
Depending on your recycling and rubbish collection method, Colchester residents’ kerbside limits for garden waste is one full brown wheelie bin (with a closable lid) or four white sacks. Residents requiring white sacks can claim up to four bags for free by downloading a voucher redeemable with one of our local stockists. More information and the downloadable voucher can be found at www.colchester.gov.uk/recycling
Councillor Martin Goss, Portfolio Holder for Waste, Environment and Transportation, said: “Creating and using our own mulch in Castle Park is a great example of recycling fallen leaves and is another step towards creating a greener, cleaner and better Colchester.
"Composting throughout the autumn and winter produces excellent compost for use in the spring and can really help residents with larger gardens by helping them to keep within the kerbside collection limits for garden waste.”
To find out more about the benefits of composting at home and how you can get involved, visit: www.getcomposting.com/composting-guide
Page last reviewed: 8 October 2019