Around 18 students aged between 16 and 19 are currently developing Loyne Specialist School’s first ever home-composting project. The students at the school, which caters for children aged 3-19 from across the Lancaster area who have learning difficulties, are working with teachers to grow their own fruit and vegetables and create a special sensory garden in the school grounds.

The donation from SITA UK, which comes just ahead of Compost Awareness Week (4-10 May) has been backed up by Lancashire County Council, who have supplied the school with a range of composting bins and some caddies.

SITA UK is one of Lancashire County Council’s contracted partners for dealing with waste from throughout the county. The company collects over 50,000 tonnes of green waste from household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) and through kerbside collections by the 12 borough and city council collection teams across Lancashire.  This material is taken to one of six composting facilities in the county, where it is turned into compost.

The end product is sold at HWRCs across Lancashire as 100 per cent peat free organic soil improver. The company has recently been awarded a certificate of compliance from the Compost Association, and last year 7,680 bags were bought by green-fingered residents from across the county.

Nick Cooper, teacher in the FE Centre at the Loyne Specialist School, said: “We’d like to thank Lancashire County Council and SITA UK for their help in getting the vegetable patch and the sensory garden up and running. The students here are looking forward to getting stuck in to the gardening, and the new tools and good quality compost will be a big help.

Ray Walker, Assistant Manager for Compost Operations with SITA UK in Lancashire, said: “We know that there are thousands of people across Lancashire who are using compost at home to grow their own fruit and vegetables and we’re pleased to help the students at Loyne School in this way so they can join in the fun. It’s great to know that all the students are keen to get stuck in and grow their own produce.”

Andrea Cox, Waste Minimisation Officer with Lancashire County Council, said: “Lancashire is one of the greenest counties in the country and every year we get a great deal of interest from people across the county who want to know how they can do their bit for the environment and composting is an ideal way to get started. This type of project is great for the students as they not only learn about it in school but help spread the message to their parents at home that we all need to do our bit to help the environment.”  

SITA UK also operates 23 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs), five transfer stations and three landfill sites across Lancashire to help the county council recycle and compost 38.7 per cent of the 580,000 tonnes of household waste generated in the county every year*.

*Figures relate to the total waste arising in Lancashire during 2006/07, which are the most recent available.