Problem
Flintshire County Council has been operating an Open Windrow Composting Facility in Greenfield since 2001. This facility processes organic garden waste, transforming it into nutrient-rich soil conditioner. The Council collects this type of waste at Recycling Centres (RCs), from Grounds Maintenance Services, as well as from its kerbside garden waste collections service across the county. It also accepts garden waste that’s collected by its neighbouring authority, Denbighshire County Council. This supplies the facility with ample feedstock and keeps garden waste out of the black bins for non-recyclable waste, helping the Council work towards meeting Welsh Government’s recycling targets.
Garden waste collections continue to be a chargeable service for Flintshire residents, giving them an opportunity to dispose of their garden waste correctly from the kerbside, for a small fee.
With the success of the established service resulting in the production of high quantities of soil conditioner, the Council noted an opportunity to give back to the community.
Solution
Flintshire County Council offers residents the opportunity to obtain the soil conditioner produced by the Greenfield facility, free of charge, to use in their gardens and allotments.
- Residents can collect compost from their nearest RC: The Council distributes the ready-to-use compost to five RCs in Flintshire, ensuring easy access to PAS100 natural soil conditioner for residents across all areas of the county. The PAS100 specification issued by the British Standards Institution ensures the compost is safe, reliable and high-performance.
- The compost is limited to residents of Flintshire: Those collecting compost from the RCs need to bring a document to prove their residency in Flintshire, ensuring the Council gives back to its own community. All residents may collect the soil conditioner, regardless of whether they pay for garden waste collections.
- The Council runs this initiative at a low cost: Individuals collecting compost are required to bring their own bags and shovels to load the compost, reducing the amount of Council-provided human resources and materials needed to provide this service.
- The service brings in additional revenue: As the composting facility produces high quantities of soil conditioner, this allows the Council to reap the benefits of selling the excess onto the horticulture and landscaping sectors.
Impact
Flintshire County Council’s implementation of this compost provision initiative has yielded positive outcomes for its garden waste recycling service:
- A significant number of households in Flintshire are subscribed to the Council’s garden waste collections service: There is a good uptake of this service in Flintshire, with 29,075 subscriptions purchased for the 2024 collections season, ensuring a substantial amount of feedstock for the composting facility.
- Flintshire collects 12,000 tonnes of garden waste annually: Material is collected from households, RCs, roadsides, parks, gardens and external sources.
- On average, 6,000 tonnes of soil conditioning compost is produced through the Greenfield facility annually: This vast amount of high-quality material is distributed to residents, local horticulture companies and the agricultural sector.
- The Council regularly distributes the compost to local schools to assist with school gardens: Students in Flintshire experience the benefit of separating garden waste and taking part in recycling behaviours first-hand.
By offering residents free compost from its local composting facility, Flintshire has put vast amounts of organic material to good use by giving back to the local community and showing the benefits of reusing garden waste.