More action needed on compost

At its annual meeting last week the Composting Association launched a Manifesto for Achieving Sustainable Biodegradable Waste Management outlining key challenges facing the industry and how it believes Government could act to move the sector forward.

Priorities include developing new infrastructure to process biowaste, provide guidance on the use of compost-like residual waste from mechanical biological treatment and similar processes and supporting sustainable agriculture to provide an end use for compost produced by the waste management industry.

Jane Gilbert, chief executive of the Composting Association said: “This Manifesto for Achieving Sustainable Biodegradable Waste Management is the crystallisation of hundreds of conversations that the Composting Association has had with members who are actually producing compost on a daily basis.

“The composting industry is extremely healthy at the moment. There is public and private support, the industry is innovative and passionate about what it does and there is a real desire for it to build on current successes and to move to the next level.

“However, the industry cannot move forward without the support of the Government. Without the support of the Government the industry will not realise the potential that we all know exists within it.

“We are calling, in the strongest possible terms, for the Government to prove its commitment to making this country environmentally sustainable and to support the future development of the composting industry.”

The full manifest can be found on the association’s website at www.compost.org.uk

Sam Bond