Dear Friends,
I am writing to you as part of the Community Composting Network. We are trying to build a coalition to tackle some very bad decisions being made by DEFRA and the Environment Agency. I am about to write a briefing paper on the subject, so I will try to keep this letter short, and follow it up with the briefing paper.
On the 13th June the Environment Agency announced at the Institute of Waste Management Conference an amendment to the Animal By-Products Order. It is now illegal to compost organic kitchen waste from both domestic and commercial sources, and then use the material on the land. Technically this includes home composters as well, but it is unlikely that they would be prosecuted.
This is part of the fall out of Foot and Mouth Disease. The justification is that all kitchen scraps could either include meat and dairy products or have been in contact with meat in the kitchen. Infection could then be passed to birds and livestock either during the composting process or while the compost is used outside.
There are countless problems with this line of thinking, and I don't see them trying to ban the hazardous part, namely the sales of meat and dairy produce. Instead they are quite clearly going for the wrong end of the stick.
This ruling has several implications. One is the damage it will do to both community and farm site composters. These are projects that have taken a lot of hard work over the years and they are being disregarded in the name of no vaccinations. It is unclear yet what will happen to a group if they continue to compost, but they can and may be prosecuted. I can also say that local authorities such as Chesterfield have had to abandon plans to start a kerbside collection round for organic kitchen waste.
With these constraints community industries are being crushed and the knock on effect is that there is less environmentally sustainable employment, less training opportunities for the community and less educational activities about sustainable environmental practice. We will no longer be able to produce a valuable locally produced alternative to shop bought peat based compost products. These are all things provided by Community Composters
The second implication is what will happen to the waste instead. It is either going to go to landfill or incineration. Landfill sites are hardly free of birds and rats scavenging for food so this option is the same as composting. Incinerators on the other hand need to stay at high temperatures to burn the mix of chemicals they put in them 'safely'(?!), and the reason behind Sheffield incinerator having one of the worst records in the country is that they put to much organic waste in, which takes us back to composting.
This change in the regulations is not necessarily permanent and there is a consultation process going on as we speak. It has been said that this could take several months, but there have been hints that there could be announcements in the next few weeks. We are assuming that, given the history of short sightedness in environmental decision making in this country, the decisions may well not go in our favour.
We would like to get this out to as many environmental groups and journalists as possible, so that if they do, as we fear, make the wrong decisions, then there are as many people as possible to tackle the issue. Please circulate this letter to anybody you think may be interested.
In the meantime you can contact Phillip Walker of the Environment agency on Philip.Walker@defra.gsi.gov.uk 020 7944 6404
Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
7/F9
Ashdown House
123 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6DE
I look forward to working with you in the future.
Yours
Nick McAllister