The Community Composting Scheme

In partnership with Cyngor Dosbarth Meirionydd (Meirionydd District Council).

17/1/96

In the early summer of 1995 I contacted the head of Environmental Health at Cyngor Dosbarth Meirionydd, Mr. Lewis, with regard to concerns about waste disposal in the area. I was particularly interested in green waste such as roadside prunings and the possibility of making use of these organic materials to generate products like compost and create useful employment. I had heard of a scheme set up by Somerset District Council whereby local garden groups were provided with grants to buy small shredders, (about £200 each), in order to shred and compost green waste. The scheme seemed to be working very well, not just in terms of converting an otherwise wasted resource into a valuable product but also as a method of involving local people and groups in local practical solutions to the growing environmental crisis. Over 100 shredders have now been provided by the Somerset Council.

In our area, Cyngor Dosbarth Meirionydd had introduced a free bulky refuse collection service some years earlier and found that a substantial proportion of these collections was organic material. This was, (and still largely is), transported to a pulveriser at a waste disposal site at Harlech and then landfilled. The worst case scenario was a 100 mile round trip to collect and deposit the waste, a waste which theoretically could be shredded, composted and sold locally.

Through contact with Cyngor Dosbarth Meirionydd it became clear that Mr. Lewis and his team were well aware of the unsustainable nature of current waste handling and had been thinking along similar lines to the Somerset scheme. They had looked at this and other similar projects that are currently being set up in Britain and were considering how to apply those precedents in Meirionydd. Following our initial contacts, Mr. Lewis's assistant, Malcom Thorpe, contacted all gardening clubs in the county, inviting them to a meeting at the Council Offices to discuss the development of a community composting scheme here.

Myself and Louise Thompson attended as representatives of the Mawddach Permaculture Group and a total of seven clubs or groups from Meirionydd were represented. Malcom explained that rather than following the Somerset example of providing many small shredders, the nature of our locality with its small population in widely scattered communities favoured fewer but larger machines. The Council were keen to move towards government targets for recycling of green waste and felt that larger machines would allow the diversion of more green waste from the landfill site. After the meeting, two machines were demonstrated by Arbour Eater Ltd. A 200 model and the larger 300 model. The groups retired to consider the proposals.

The Mawddach Permaculture Group had already been looking at a Forest Cycle Design for a number of years. This approach looks at the huge timber and green resources within the county and sets out alternatives to the present practice of exporting raw materials from the area, (with very little associated local employment), and then the buying back of finished products from outside the area, (thus sending money out of the locality). The Forest Cycle Design demonstrates how inter-connected, small-scale businesses could manage the whole tree cycle from local seed collection, nurseries, site design, planting, management, harvesting, processing, value adding, (products), education through to sales. In the early stages of this design it became clear that some form of shredder/chipper would allow for the generation of valuable products by converting the waste produced by each section of the Forest Cycle. In fact, the shredder was identified as a key component for setting up the Forest Cycle as it has the potential to generate an income from existing waste products which are free; in some cases it may be possible to charge for the shredding itself as well. For these reasons the group decided to ask the Council for the larger 300 model shredder/chipper.

The consultation process took a number of months of contact through letters and meetings, the drawing up of draft agreements and the clarification of the various responsibilities and roles of the council and the groups involved such as safety procedures, training, insurance, servicing and repairs. The council representatives Malcom Thorpe and his deputy, Robin Jones, were very supportive throughout this period.

The Mawddach Permaculture Group met regularly to discuss various aspects of the project such as a suitable site, use of the machine, trained operators, processing of shredded material, possible problem plants such as Japanese Knotweed, an expansion of the local group and the use of the shredder generally.

From these discussions a clear strategy emerged. Community composting schemes in Britain are at an early stage and although a garden compost heap is quite easy to set up and manage, there is still much to be learned about large scale composting. With this in mind the group decided to view the first twelve to eighteen months of the operation as a pilot study to allow us to gain familiarity with the machine, to shred and experiment with composting different materials, to contact other groups in Britain working on similar or related projects, to explore other potential uses for shredded material such as mulch, fuel briquettes, mushroom beds etc. and to conduct market research in to sales and product distribution.

At the point of writing this, we are hoping to use a site at present in the hands of Forest Enterprise who have expressed their support for the scheme. This has lockable storage sheds and sufficient space to allow for storage of material to be shredded and trial composting heaps. In the medium term, (within the trial period), we wish to find a bigger site which will allow for the development of other areas of the Forest Cycle and larger scale composting. We are also exploring options for funding the scheme and the setting up of other aspects of the Forest Cycle.

The machine will be on permanent loan to the group with a written agreement defining the arrangement. Local people will be able to bring their own material for shredding by prior agreement and similarly, if the Council find they have quantities of green waste for the bulky refuse collection that would normally go to the landfill site, they will, by prior agreement, be able to divert that waste to the nearest shredder.

The Mawddach Permaculture Group feel there is a huge potential in our area for the Forest Cycle and that the partnership with Cyngor Dosbarth Meirionydd presents an opportunity to develop practical solutions to the environmental, economic and social challenges that we face. As permaculture designers we feel also that the partnership clearly demonstrates that there is no "us and them" when it comes to environmental and social issues; we are all in the same boat. We are looking forward to the challenges ahead.

(This document was written by Chris Dixon, as a representative of Amaeth Parhaol Y Mawddach, the Mawddach Permaculture Group. 17/1/96)