Comments on: B’ham City Council Recycling

By: joe

joe — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:06:00 +0000

these are some good photos:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcoa/producers/orginfo/crops/composts.html

By: joe

joe — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:02:02 +0000

Chris, they will be windrow composting this material.

A windrow is just a long compost heap, you stack it up high in the middle so it looks like an upturned ‘u’. The longest one I’ve seen is was about 100m long.

They’re like this because they used a big mincing machine on the back of a tractor to turn the compost and the material generally gets heaped into the middle.

Windrow composting *is* hot composting. Inside a windrow you sometimes get really hot, and the compost is usually much better than you could do at home because the mass of material is so much greater and the oxygenisation is more thorough during the turning process. The downside is that it can be pretty smelly.

By: Chris Duggan (GreeninBrum)

Chris Duggan (GreeninBrum) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:46:29 +0000

I’m told that they pay a private company to take the stuff away and process it into saleable compost or soil improver – whether this involves windrow composting, I have no idea. I can picture windrow composting, but would be grateful for a definition. Gardeners might be interested to know whether it destroys weeds, pests and diseases, as ‘hot’ composting would.

By: joe

joe — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:00:05 +0000

Presumably the council is already windrow composting the collected green/garden waste, otherwise what are they doing with it?

By: Olumide Kanye

Olumide Kanye — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:23:29 +0000

i must commend BCC for the great effort in introducing new measures to achieve high recyling rate. However now that the city has introduced the collection of green waste/garden waste, it will be sustainable if the council can go on a large scale of composting through wind rows method, as this will enhance the high rate of recycling in the city.

By: Mark Varney

Mark Varney — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:43:43 +0000

Birmingham city council are doing an excellent job on their recycling programme. I recycle every thing including my own garden and vegetables and use it to on my vegetable garden. I am having problems trying to buy recycled compost from birmingham city council require 2 tons to fill my new raised beds and requireit to be delivered Post code B31 2QH I live 10 minutes from cofton park recycle centre but told carn’t buy it.Help

By: Chris Duggan (GreeninBrum)

Chris Duggan (GreeninBrum) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:36:47 +0000

St Pauls Community Development Trust based in Balsall Heath has a long history of collecting waste paper from businesses in B12, B13 and B14 in a converted milk float.

By: Oz

Oz — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:49:51 +0000

The Council also does not provide any recycling to businesses although there are attempts by Balsall Heath In Bloom, Moseley In Bloom and King’s Heath Floral Trail to get things going on a small scale using Brumcan and other organisations.

By: Katie Garman

Katie Garman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:55:29 +0000

Whilst the rise is recycling rates is excellent, the Council are still not providing any recycling facilities to residents living in flats.
I’ve moved into the city centre about 9 months ago, and have been told that there are no plans to provide any recycling facilities.
I refuse to bin recyclable waste, so this amkes it a real effort to take my waste to recycling centres when I don’t own a car.
The Council make is very hard to be “green” in Birmingham.