City of York Council is encouraging the city's residents to buy a compost bin this week (6 to 12 May) to be in with a chance of winning £100 of garden centre vouchers, as well as helping the environment. 

The Recycle Now home composting campaign has organised the competition to celebrate the seventh annual Compost Awareness Week, which runs until Sunday.

Compost Awareness Week is aimed at keeping York’s gardens in bloom by getting more and more people to home compost their kitchen and garden waste or use peat-free composts containing recycled material.

People in York will have an opportunity to pick up an order form with all the details of the compost bins on offer and find out more about home composting at the following events:

9 May 11am to 1pm: Bustardthorpe compost giveaway and compost clinic
11 May 10am to 2pm: Barnitts on Colliergate compost clinic
13 May 11am to 1pm: Rowntree Park, worm charming competition.

Celebrity TV Stars Gaynor Faye and Philippa Forrester are backing the campaign to make sure that waste is recycled at home, rather than ending up on landfill sites. 

Gaynor Faye (Dancing on Ice, Fat Friends and Coronation Street) explains why she is backing the campaign: “The environment is something we all care about and everyone wants to do their bit.  Home composting is so easy to do - fruit and vegetable peelings, garden waste, eggs shells, egg boxes and even the contents of your vacuum cleaner can all be composted.  If everyone simply composted at home, we could make a huge difference to the environment.”
 
Mother-of-three Philippa Forrester (Tomorrow’s World and Robot Wars) added her support:  “We all throw away an amazing quantity of waste and the damage this does to the environment is horrifying.  We’re filling up our countryside with waste and, unless we all act now, Britain will be ruined for our children and our children’s children.”

Almost anything organic can be composted, from shredded confidential documents and scrunched up cardboard to mussel shells and grass cuttings.  All this waste breaks down naturally to produce a free-of-charge fertiliser that can be used to keep plants and gardens looking green and beautiful. It even helps soil to retain moisture, which is good news during the hot summer months.

Anyone living in York who places an order between 6 and 12 May will be eligible for the prize of £100 of garden centre vouchers, which have been donated by DHL, the logistics company that delivers the bins.  Throughout 2007 residents will be able to buy a 220-litre compost bin for £8, a 330-litre bin for £10 or a 250-litre KOMP compost bin for £20, including delivery costs.  Visit www.recyclenow.com/compost or phone 0845 077 0757 for more information.