"jane" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 18:31:31 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

~In article , jane
writes
~
~I wish my council (Chiltern) would sell a ton of compost for £2.50.
~They sell theirs via the dump franchise at £2.50 a 25l bag... and it's
~a lot cheaper to buy a bag of multipurpose compost from a DIY store.
~
~But they do sell cheap compost bins!
Not really compared with most other places.
If you google for Blackwall compost bin you find that nearly every
other council which does the 60day free then pay offer has them at
between £0 and £15 for the same 330 litre size that mingy old Bucks
sells for £20.
(for instance lucky Lancashire residents get them for free!
http://www.compost-it.org.uk/scheme/compost_bin.htm )

~Judging by the amount of perennial weeds that people discard into the
~pile collected at Amersham for shredding, most of the compost will have
~ground elder and every other sort of pernicious weed

I know what you mean - if I ever get my act together to mail a
question to GQT, it will be if japanese knotweed composts safely in a
council heap, cos I'll bet these central composting centres get that
too.
http://www.compost.me.uk/html/japanese_knotweed.html seems to suggest
it *should* be ok, but then again it may not as we have no way of
knowing if the commerical composter follows the temperature
guidelines.

I admit that this is why I've never bought any of the bags they sell
but if it was like the stuff Monty was digging out, it would probably
be ok. But how does one know if it's well-composted or it's got a
lurking danger? Answers on a postcard...

I compost everything I can at home in an enclosed heap except the
perennial weeds which go to the tip: my heap doesn't get hot enough to
kill them. Luckily my worst is bindweed from next door's wilderness.

Anyway, hello Janet - nice to find an urgler in my area!

Some decades ago, I used compost made by Leatherhead Council extensively. I
never got any weeds which I could ascribe to the compost. It did, however,
contain a fair amount of pieces of glass and potshards. Luckily these had
their sharp edges removed, because the composter was an enormous
continuously rotating drum.

Franz