LIVES
Waste not
by Tom Martin
Farming life
“We’re all doing our bit for the environment.” That’s what I hear so often—and it’s certainly necessar y that we all play our part. It’s frustrating, then, to observe how cuts to my local council have led to it charging residents for the collection of green waste. This has made it more difficult for me as a farmer and a resident to do my bit.
Many people don’t realise just how valuable recycling green waste is. Nature wastes nothing, and in re-using vegetative byproducts and food waste, we mimic nature. Across our farm, we provide recycling services to humanity by spreading cattle manure and “sewage sludge” (a treated human manure!) on our crops. We can even use the watery washings from the potato cleaning that begins the process of making your chips. And I have always enjoyed the fact our green waste (lawn clippings, garden vegetation and food leftovers) is collected and processed for other farmers or gardeners to use.