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Bulky garden waste

Some garden waste, such as woody hedge clippings, is less easy to compost than materials like grass.  However, once shredded these make a fantastic weed reducing and water retaining mulch.  You can hire or buy small garden shredders from many local DIY stores.  You can also take all woody garden waste to the Household Waste Recycling Centre, where it will then be sent on to be shredded and composted into “Pro-grow” which is available for just £2.30 per bag.

What happens to your bulky garden waste?

All the garden waste taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) is collected and taken to the composting facility at Down End near Fareham.  This site takes green waste from all the Hampshire HWRCs and processes it to produce ‘Pro-grow’ – high quality, Soil Association, soil conditioner.  This product is available to buy at every HWRC at a competitive price.

Down End processes approximately 20,000 tonnes per annum of garden waste from kerbside collections, drop off points and from HWRCs across South East Hampshire.

Once the green waste has been delivered to the site it is shredded and mixed to give the best blend of carbon rich (woody) and nitrogenous (leafy/grass cuttings) material.  The mix is then formed into windrows (long triangular prisms) or blocks.

The windrows are turned regularly so that the composting process can take place in a controlled manner.  Micro-organisms feeding on the waste material also require oxygen and water to function effectively.  Through the feeding process of the micro-organisms, heat energy is crated, within a period of two days this causes temperatures to rise between 55 to 80 degrees centigrade and kills all weed seeds and pathogens.  The process takes between 16 – 26 weeks, providing temperatures, oxygen and water levels are monitored and the windrows treated accordingly.