I am writing regarding the waste, recycling and composting facilities offered by Caradon council; in particular, the provision of subsidised wormeries and the encouragement of this method of composting. I purchased a subsidised wormery from Caradon council a year ago, and since then, the amount of refuse our household accumulates has fallen dramatically. As well as utilising the other council- organised recycling facilities and collections, we put all of our food waste into our wormery, instead of into our refuse. The result is that we now only put out a small refuse bag once a fortnight rather than once a week, as the amount of refuse we have is so small. Our wormery produces high-quality fertiliser for our garden and is generally a great asset to our household. We recently bought a separate wormery, which we use to compost dog waste, and is an extremely effective method of dealing with this normally problematic waste. I contacted the Social Policy Unit at the council last week to enquire as to whether the wormeries were still available from the council and was told that due to 'other commitments' that wormeries would no longer be available from the council. I am writing to express my view that this is a real shame as I feel that if only the council could promote this method of disposing of households' kitchen waste, that not only would households significantly reduce their refuse, but also reduce the amount of rubbish which ends up on the streets after seagulls have attacked refuse bags containing food. Even if Caradon council is no longer are able to offer subsidised wormeries, I would have thought that it would be in the council's, and residents', best interests to arrange for some sort of discount scheme or promotion of wormeries with a local supplier. I feel that at the very least, the council should be promoting this simple idea of waste management to householders so that they realise that there is an alternative to land fill, and lead the way forward for other councils in the county.
