Seeking Master Composters

Local volunteers for the Scottish Borders Master Composter Programme aim to give home composting a boost by encouraging people in their local communities to compost at home.

Volunteers are being recruited to join the programme aimed at encouraging people to take responsibility for the waste they produce, and to give them the support that they need in order to compost their food and garden waste at home.

This is being achieved through training volunteers - “Master Composters” - to enable them to promote home composting within their own communities. The volunteers will offer local residents free advice and support including running workshops, speaking at local meetings or helping people on an individual basis.

The programme in the Scottish Borders is one of twelve in Scotland and is focused on the communities of Duns, Kelso, Melrose and West Linton. It is run by BCCF Environmental, a charitable company formed by the Community Councils in Berwickshire.

The scheme is part of Waste Aware Scotland’s Compost at Home campaign - which has distributed nearly 200,000 compost bins to homes across Scotland – and has been developed in partnership with CRNS (Community Recycling Network for Scotland) and WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme).

Dr Nicki Souter, Waste Aware Scotland Campaign Manager, said “Master Composters are a great resource to help local communities compost at home and make a direct contribution to reducing the 900,000 tonnes of kitchen and garden waste that Scotland produces every year. As well as diverting waste from landfill, composting kitchen and garden waste produces a rich soil conditioner that can be used in the garden.”

Sarah Lagden, Community Composting Development Officer for the CRNS, said, “Master Composter schemes harness the enthusiasm of motivated individuals to make a difference in their own communities. They provide great volunteering opportunities and, most importantly, a local point of contact for people wanting advice on home composting. The Master Composter network helps to maintain people’s enthusiasm and commitment to home composting.”

To find out more about volunteering as a Master Composter contact the co-ordinator, David Scott Aiton on 01573 410274 or email David@BCCFEnvironmental.org.uk

Further information can be found at www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk or www.crns.org.uk/index/master-composter.

Compost bins can be ordered via the Waste Aware Scotland website www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk or by calling the order line on 0845 076 0223

Additional information -

BCCF Environmental
BCCF Environmental is a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee formed by the Community Councils in Berwickshire. Scottish Charity Number SC038733.

Waste Aware Scotland
The Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) was set up in 2000 with the remit of changing public attitudes and behaviour towards domestic waste. One of SWAG’s key aims is to deliver the national campaign, Waste Aware Scotland. This campaign aims to raise awareness of, and change public attitudes and behaviour towards Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The campaign is delivered at a local level through a range of campaigning activities and in parallel with the implementation phase of the National Waste Plan for Scotland. For more information visit www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk.

Waste Aware Scotland is a programme of Keep Scotland Beautiful. Keep Scotland Beautiful is an operating name of Environmental Campaigns (Scotland). Scottish Charity Number SC030332.

Waste Aware Scotland is funded by the Scottish Government, as part of their commitment to a Greener Scotland. For further information visit www.itsourfuture.co.uk.

WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme)
The Waste Aware Scotland Composting at Home Campaign is delivered in partnership with WRAP.

WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.

Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from the Scottish Government, Defra and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.

More information on all of WRAP’s programmes can be found at www.wrap.org.uk or by contacting:
Viki Coppin, Corporate PR, WRAP
Office: 01295 817695
Email: viki.coppin@wrap.org.uk

CRNS (The Community Recycling Network for Scotland)
The Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS) is a membership organisation for community recyclers in Scotland. It exists to provide a one-stop-shop for information and support to existing and emerging community recyclers.

The CRNS exists to build a stronger community recycling sector in Scotland which can create real social, environmental and economic benefit within our local communities.

The community recycling sector currently:

• Comprises over 180 individual organisations
• Employs over 1100 fte staff
• Provides over 950 training places and over 3200 volunteering opportunities
• helps over 100,000 individuals
• diverts almost 73,000 tonnes of materials from landfill
• has a turnover in excess of £26 million

CRNS is a registered Scottish charity and a company limited by guarantee. CRNS is supported by the Scottish Government through the Zero Waste Fund and by the Scottish Government Homelessness Team.

Community Recycling covers various activities that allow communities to treat waste as a valuable resource in order to deliver social, environmental economic benefits in their communities. The main areas of activity include:

• Waste Prevention and Education
• Community Reuse
• Furniture Reuse
• Community Composting
• Community Recycling
• Community Remanufacturing

The Master Composter Programme for Scotland: http://crns.org.uk/index/master-composter