Help the environment

More than 1,000 people in the county took part in a door-to-door survey exploring the recycling and composting behaviour and attitudes of Wiltshire households. The survey was commissioned with Wiltshire County Council.

The most common reason for not composting is that respondents consider their gardens too small.

Of the third who do compost the two most common reasons given, apart from creating compost for the garden, is to reduce the waste they throw away, and to help the environment.

"I think it is wonderful that there are so many environmentally-aware people out there who are prepared to take action, but we've still got a long way to go to convince people it is easy to do," says the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's waste prevention manager Mike Read.

The survey found that 82 per cent of those who do compost at home add both kitchen and garden waste to their bin, but 75 per cent of composters do not compost cardboard. "People need to know that composting cardboard helps both your compost bin and your soil because it's fibrous and full of carbon, which provides the bugs in the bin with the diet they need to do the job," explained Mike.

Julian Newton of Aldbourne has won a hamper of Fair Trade goodies in a prize draw through the survey.

Mr Newton chooses to compost because he doesn't like creating waste, or throwing away a valuable free resource.

"By composting all my lawn clippings and other garden waste, I create a nutritional source of organic material to feed the soil in my garden. I'm not very scientific about it and I leave it alone to slowly rot. I'd not heard about composting cardboard until told by the WWT, and I'm looking forward to trying it."

The survey reveals the typical Wiltshire composter is aged between 35 and 59 years old, lives in a detached house, and uses the compost in the garden. Most have been composting for more than ten years and experience few problems with the process.