Council compost ?

[sarahkeast]

So I was at at the tip [again] yesterday getting rid of another load of rubble from the garden and I noticed they have started selling the compost made from all their green waste. Asked the nice guy who was helping me unload how much it was etc. He said I shouldnt use it on fruit/veg/edible crop areas as there is a warning label on it about 'spores and microbes that might be harmful. Isnt that the whole point of compost ? to add microbes ? altho I do have concerns about what weeds and stuff may have been in the mix.

Anyone know anything about this ?

I am not too bothered as I can get sacks for the same price from my local veg box growers, more curious.

Sarah

[seasidegirl]

I wouldn't buy this because the only garden waste I've ever sent via the green bin is stuff I wouldn't want in my own compost bin. Eg leylandi trimmings and perennial weed roots. I'm guessing that people mostly send the nasty stuff too. My guess wast that they will have large enough heaps to get the heat to compost these effectively. Also assumed they will use in council parks when ready. Now I've actually cleared this garden i won't be using it at all.

I met somebody recently whose job is a food scientist. We had an interesting chat about food safety regarding germs and bacteria etc. I've always believed that sell by dates, for example, are silly and also that a bit of dirt does not do you any harm. We've never had food poisoning that I'm aware. If you eat fresh food, well cooked regularly then I think you have a stronger immune system. I suspect that it's the people who live on ready meals or takeaways who have weak immune systems. He agreed with this but also ran off a list of nasties (can't remember them) that exist in the soil that cannot be killed by washing or cooking.

Anyway I'd stick with your vegetable growers compost myself. Be interesting to learn more about council garden waste systems and discuss how environmentally friendly they are. I've always thought its a bit daft sending lorries around to collect peoples garden waste. Surely if you have a small garden you could have a wormery and a large one compost bins? If they sold all the lorries and saved all the diesel then they could probably supply every householder with their own kit.

As said, I've used this myself but don't feel comfortable about it long term.

[JulieSherris]

Now, our waste collection here in Ireland is entirely different... for a start, we have no council tax, so waste collection is all done privately.

We have a blue bin for recycling & the black bin for waste - no garden bins except for the towns.
Our waste folks have recently started a compost facility & if you take in compostable waste, it's checked over by the staff, then weighed, then you are given a ticket - you can save these tickets & then you're allowed double the weight of your own waste in compost - now or save it up for later.... a fantastic idea, especially for those in the towns.... and yep, folks are using this on their veggies with no problems.

Maybe the councils are just afraid of the modern day culture of being sued at some point, in case 'something' goes wrong?

[Millymollymandy]

Dear old France, we had to pay for it of course, and it was absolute rubbish quality full of sticks. Didn't make that mistake again as if I'm going to pay for something I'll buy compost which (1) retains some moisture and (2) isn't full of uncomposted sticks which I had to pick out, leaving me with not a lot!

I send all my diseased stuff which I wouldn't compost myself to the tip but I assume these huge council tip places which make compost kill off the bacterias and diseases and weed seeds by the hot composting methods they can employ. I've never heard of not being able to use it on edibles though.

[Green Aura]

I had a little look around and found this gem, from a Redcar and Cleveland Council report

The Council is still hesitant at this stage, however, of committing to a municipal waste composting facility based on domestic waste arisings. If the waste stream used for composting includes heavy metals, cigarette ends, cooked and uncooked meats etc., the final product can for a variety of reasons, be deemed not suitable for use either as a soil conditioner or as compost.

Maybe that has something to do with it?

[Flo]

You'll find that more commercial compost producers are turning to council waste as part of their product if you read the small print on the packaging (20% natural products from composted waste).

Did you hear that B&Q had to recall a batch of their organic tomato feed last season because it was contaminated by grass clipping that had been fed Verdone. The Verdone contained something associated with the herbicide that wiped out so much produce on allotments over the last couple of years. Certainly the organic tomato feed was killing off the tomato plants a treat. Nice one. Not.

So - no you don't really know what you are getting with the council compost but it seems that it is creeping into places you don't expect. Hmm.

[John Headstrong]

this year our council gave out vouchers to collect 3 bags of compost from the local recycling centre, I was there yesterday to get mine. there was someone filling their bag and he said "if you hold my bag, I will hold yours" a great deal. so the next bloke was a older gentleman, and was having hassle just getting the bags open, so I told him to hold his bag open and I filled it. the next bloke was very frail, so I filled his bags also and he had bags from his neighbours.

24 bags of compost later! I managed to leave!

the council blokes where still in there office watching TV

[grahamhobbs]

I guess it depends on the particular councils policy as to the quality of the compost. Charles Dowding, organic small scale commercial grower ( author :Organic Gardening: The Natural No-dig Way) uses organically certified municipal compost. Although he is in Dorset and I think(?) he gets it from Yorkshire!

[Plotter]

I got some a few years back, it was free to all, you just helped yourself. I found it had a large proportion of un-broken-down woody bits and quite a noticable amount of plastic bits. Not great. I would be cautious in using it myself.

[realfood]

The chemical that has ended up contaminated Council compost is clopyralid, a persistent broadleaved weed killer. To laboratory test for the presence of clopyralid would cost several hundred pounds, which is why it is still turning up in Council waste.
The only alternative might be to carry out your own test in a similar manner as that suggested to test for Aminopyralid contamination of manure, again using broadbeans.
See http://www.growyourown.info/page164.html