Rachel writes…

I have become a composting bore. I should admit before I start that we actually have two composters in our garden. When I think about this harder, I fear that this is because we do more eating than we do gardening. But whatever the reason, the practical upshot is that all our apple cores and teabags can be thrown away without clogging up landfill, and I have a steady supply of lovely compost if I can ever find time to do some gardening.

I so often meet people who have gardens but no compost bin, that it reminded me I should try to do a bit of promoting. So here is my sales pitch. Composting is cheap, incredibly easy, takes up very little space, saves you (and your local Council) money, only takes a few minutes, is great for the environment, and gives you the gentle internal glow of righteousness that comes from doing something good every day.

You can buy a composter, with a subsidy from Newham Council, from as little as £4. Once you have one, there is lots and lots of information online about how to compost. I was once given an entire book about it, with information about layers, and recommendations a-plenty on turning and leaving and settling. But in essence, you just throw anything compostable in, and leave it. And that’s basically that.

Sometimes mine gets a bit wet, and I try to put in more dry things like brown paper, egg boxes, or even scrunched up newspaper. I never put anything cooked in there, or anything with any fat, as I seem to remember that way you can encourage rats. But mostly I lift off the lid, bidding greetings to the hundreds of worms that writhe happily in there, throw in my compostable waste and then that’s it. After about a year, or perhaps less, I open up the door at the bottom and find that my food waste has magically turned to compost.

When we got our first composter, I noticed that the volume of rubbish we were throwing away went down immediately and significantly. This is obviously good news for local Councils, but it was handy for us, too, as it meant less time spent emptying the kitchen bin, and less chance of our wheelie bin overflowing. Everyone’s a winner.

You can buy your own composter with a Newham discount here, and information about composting is on the Newham website here.

PS If you are a keen gardener, then I trust you are already a member of the Forest Gate Community Garden? Just checking.