GARDEN waste collected by a council’s recycling service is helping grow vegetables, salad crops and fruit in a community garden.
Waste collected in Monmouth is being reprocessed into compost for use at the town’s My Day My Life Hub garden at Overmonnow Family Learning Centre.
Abergavenny’s Green Waste Company has reprocessed the waste for the Monmouthshire council site for over a year, and has now been successful in securing a longer term contract to reprocess all the garden waste produced in the county from 2018.
Day centre officer Cathryn Yeates said: “It’s great that we’re able to re-use waste from the gardens of Monmouth’s residents. This is closed loop recycling at its very greenest.”
Green Waste currently also processes waste in Abergavenny, and company spokesman Andrew Lewis said: “It’s great to be able to support the Monmouth My Day My Life Hub garden like this. We are delighted to be working with the council and with this exciting community project.
“Our Green2Earth composted soil improver is a locally produced, sustainable product which will improve soil structure, increase worm population and provide a slow releasing source of nitrogen, phosphates and potash for the garden.
“We look forward to hearing about the successes of this project and supplying Monmouthshire residents with our Green2 Earth soil improver.”
Cllr Bryan Jones, Monmouthshire’s cabinet member for recycling and waste, added: “This is a really positive initiative and delivers on so many of the aspirations of the Wellbeing and Future Generations Act.
“It encompasses a local company securing a long-term contract to reprocess garden waste, creating jobs, making a positive contribution to the environment, reducing carbon emissions and being able to use the compost in such a sustainable way.”
For more information on turning garden waste into compost, contact education and awareness officer Sue Parkinson at SusanParkinson@
monmouthshire.gov.uk