When the new Troon Community Recycling Centre opens garden compost will be on sale - compost that was created from household garden waste previously collected in South Ayrshire.

All the garden waste collected from brown wheeled bins is taken to a centralised composting plant in Ardeer, where it is chipped and shredded before being processed into finished compost.

The Convener of South Ayrshire Council’s Commercial and Business Services Committee, Councillor Alistair Kerr said:  “Since the inception of the kerbside household waste collection in South Ayrshire the public have been asking to purchase the compost created from it.

“As part of the design of the new Troon Community Recyling Centre a storage bay for 16 tonnes of compost has been created.

“I think that this is the way forward, to take our garden waste, have it processed then return it to land in South Ayrshire.”

For safety purposes the compost scheme will operate on a voucher basis system so that staff at the Troon Community Recycling Centre do not need to process cash.

Before uplifting compost from the Troon Community Recycling Centre members of the public should go to the Town Hall in Troon, during normal opening hours, to purchase an environmentally friendly reusable Hessian sack for £2 and a £2 per sack voucher for compost. The hessian sack will be sold to the public at the same price as the Council purchase it so there will be no profit from the sale of the sacks.

If the project at Troon proves successful, it may be possible in the future to extend the compost purchasing service to other community recycling centres or waste management depots in South Ayrshire. The new site, in Port Ranald Drive, Troon, is scheduled to open on Monday 26 June 2006.

It will then be a simple matter of members of the public handing over their voucher for compost, filling a hessian sack which will hold 70 litres of compost and transporting it home using their own transport.  A member of staff will be available to offer assistance to anyone who requires it when purchasing compost.

If the project at Troon proves successful, it may be possible in the future to extend the compost purchasing service to other community recycling centres or waste management depots in South Ayrshire.

May 2006