Free compost giveaway planned

9:23pm Sunday 4th May 2008

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Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Borough Council are planning to celebrate Compost Awareness week by giving away 16 tonnes of compost on Thursday, May 8.

People can turn up to collect the compost from four venues across the county, starting at 10am on the day, with four tonnes available at each venue.

All that is asked is that you bring your own bags to collect the compost, which will be limited to 3 bags per person.

The venues are as follows.

• Asda car park, Ingram Road, Skelmersdale.

• Capitol Centre car park, London Way, Walton le Dale, Preston, near Chorley.

• Williamsons Park car park, Wyresdale Road, Lancaster.

• Household Waste Recycling Centre, Bristol Avenue, Blackpool.

The compost is being supplied by SITA UK who turn over 50,000 tonnes of people's garden rubbish across Lancashire into compost each year.

This is collected at the county's network of Household Waste Recycling Centres and through the kerbside collection of garden waste.

As well as giving away compost these events will be an opportunity for people to learn more about composting at home and how this could help them reduce the amount of rubbish they throw away.

County Councillor Tony Martin, cabinet member for sustainable development, said: "Composting at home is one of the best ways to help the environment by turning rubbish, including fruit and veg peelings, grass cuttings and even paper and card into a resource where it is created.

"For the last six years Lancashire has been amongst the most active areas in the UK for home composting with over 150,000 compost bins given out to residents through the Lancashire Home Composti ng project.

"This has helped us to reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill by over 100,000 tonnes a year - that's a lot of spud peelings!"

Phil Holland, general manager for SITA UK in the north west, said: "This is a great initiative from the council and we're pleased to be helping out.

"We are working closely with residents and the local authorities to reduce, reuse and recycle as much of Lancashire's waste as possible and this is a wonderful way of giving something back to local people who make all this possible."