Over the past two and I half months, there has been a bit of a theme that I’ve come across repeatedly. I have done a lot of work using soil, compost and mulch. In every batch of each one that I have used there has been bits of plastic within it.
Usually, it is soft plastic from plastic bags, but there has been hard bits of plastic too. All the products were bought from various companies, so it’s not just one bad company-you could argue that they all are or they are just a bit lax with their products.
Now, I do have to say that I don’t know the process of getting mulch, soil or compost to the market. I would have to say that removing any rubbish from any component material before getting the end products ready for sale. It also begs the question of what else is going into this stuff if there is bits of plastic in it? Who knows, but it would be interesting to find out!
In my work, the work has to be done as quickly as possible, so you can move on to the next job. Clients don’t really care whether there are tiny bits of plastic in the mulch, etc, provided that they can’t see it. Complaining in this case doesn’t help-as it is hard to prove what company it came from (I only see this stuff as I’m spreading these products out) once these products have been delivered in bulk to site.
What I would love to be able to do is compost all the green waste onsite for my client, but there is no interest. The amount of green waste I produce here is a rather large, and has been at every place I’ve worked at (all with no interest). Most do use green waste bins that then presumably goes off to get composted, but where I work now wants it all going into general waste, so off to landfill. They all have space have a composting area, they just don’t see the value.
In a home setting, it is easier to avoid plastic in compost at least, as you can compost your own green waste. With soil/growing media, I have never seen any plastic or rubbish in the bags you can buy, but if you buy in bulk there could be the same issues as above.
Why does this bother me in the first place? I just really don’t like rubbish, especially when I find it where it shouldn’t be! Why should I have bits of other people’s waste in my garden beds? It isn’t a good thing. Gardens should be full of plants, happy people and sunshine.
