The Recycle for Cornwall campaign has been developed to raise public awareness of recycling and to provide consumers with a compelling reason to recycle.
Vegetable peelings, tea bags, crushed eggshells, coffee grounds and other organic matter from your garden and kitchen can be added to your compost bin to create a veritable worm feast. Organisms break down the larger molecules into smaller ones, using them as food. Heat, water and carbon dioxide are produced as a by-product. The heat produced helps to break the material down into useful compost. After a year or so, your compost can be harvested.
What can I compost?
In order to produce successful compost the organisms in your compost need a balanced diet of carbon for energy and nitrogen for growth. Carbon is found in dry woody materials often called “browns” and nitrogen is found in soft wet materials referred to as “greens”:
Greens
Vegetable peelings Fruit scraps Tea bags Coffee grounds Crushed eggshells Grass cuttings Annual plants and flowers Young hedge clippings
Browns
Hay & Straw Vegetarian pet bedding Wood chippings Wood ash Hair Sawdust Egg boxes Paper towels Crumpled paper and card Shredded or chopped wood prunings Leaves Feathers Shredded woolly jumpers! Shredded pure cotton clothes
What shouldn’t I compost?
In order to make the composting process as simple as possible you may want to avoid adding persistent weeds, meat, fish, cooked food and diseased plants. Coal ash, cat and dog faeces and disposable nappies should not be added to your compost bin.
What can I use my finished compost for?
Compost can be used in the garden to improve the structure of your soil; or as mulch around plants, to help retain moisture and supply a nutrient rich food. You could enrich your lawn with nutrients by sprinkling compost on to the grass; this is known as “top-dressing”. If you don’t have a garden you could use the compost as a potting compost or when mixed with a material like wood chips as a growing medium to plant new seeds.
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"Recycling is hugely important, and if it's given enough support it will have a huge impact. This campaign gives Cornwall a chance to make a real difference."
"Recycling is hugely important, and if it's given enough support it will have a huge impact. This campaign gives Cornwall a chance to make a real difference."