Recycle.co.uk have sent me an email promoting their new infographics on the subject of recycling, which clearly demonstrate why we should recycle and how rubbish we really are at doing it. Do have a look because it’s very clever but unfortunately too big to reproduce here.

I don’t buy many products for the garden these days, so it isn’t a source of much rubbish. Most of the garden waste is composted, and it even takes care of the compostable waste from the house (although we have a recycling bin for excess cardboard and the small amount of garden waste I deem unsuitable for home composting*). Other household waste gets recycled, at least temporarily, as useful stuff for the garden (mainly plastic bottles and trays).

A recent clear-out in the garage led Pete to suggest I had too many plant pots (shock) and we found new homes for those; it’s also possible to rehome tools, even some power tools, with good causes.

One of the things I have bought a lot of this year is potting compost (nice peat free, organic potting compost) – it’s a side effect of growing too many annual plants and having them in pots all over the place. Next year will be different, I hope, but in the meantime I have a lot of empty compost bags. They make a lovely black plastic mulch if you turn them inside out, which helps to retain water and radiate heat. The watermelons are enjoying the boost:


Watermelons

I should take a new photo, that one is from when I planted them out. You could also use empty compost bags as planting bags for potatoes and things like that, and they’re great for collecting compostable materials to be composted later. You should even be able to recycle them – according to Almost Mrs Average, the recycling ninja, if they’re polythene (slightly stretchy) then they can be recycled in the plastic bag recycling bin at your local supermarket. Anything non-stretchy and slightly crinkly is polypropylene – check whether any local recycling facilities can cope with that before you throw it in. Or you could use them to replace bin bags if you use those.

Have you got any ideas for recycling/ reusing old compost bags? Does your garden produce a waste product you can’t handle?


*What makes garden waste unsuitable for home composting? It depends a little bit on your composting system, but most gardeners want to avoid diseased plant material and seeding or perennial weeds – problems that can live on through the composting process and be spread over the garden with the finished compost. Twiggy material can also be an issue; bramble spines seem to be fairly impervious to composting, so if you have a lot of those you end up with spiky compost :(