The government Department for Food Environment and Rural Affairs has upset Garden Organic after a it was announced that schools and community groups will have to register, at a cost of £50 to exempt themselves, under waste licensing laws.
Garden Organic, who have been active for fifty years in encouraging schools and community groups to be green are against plans that will see small businesses who keep a compost heap being charged.
Myles Bremner, Chief Executive for Garden Organic, said: “It is vital that we do not penalise schools and community groups for their efforts to go green. In a world of climate change, diminished oil and increasing food prices it has never been more important to encourage people to reduce their waste and get growing on a local scale. Composting is a fundamental part of this.”
Garden Organic are concerned that by bringing in the registration for any waste activity will mean that schools and small groups will be charged regardless. Only private households will be exempt from regsitration.
Bremner continued: “We currently work with over 5,000 schools across the UK helping them set up organic gardens and compost heaps in their grounds. We’ve also trained over 600 Master Composters – volunteers who go out and about in their communities getting people to have a go. The Government should really be offering incentives to people to compost in their schools and in their communities – not charging them.”
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