You can reduce kitchen and garden waste by composting at home. Subsidised compost bins are available from Waste Aware Scotland. Over 18,400 compost bins have been sold to householders in Dumfries and Galloway through this campaign since April 2005.

Organic wastes such as fruit and vegetable peelings from the kitchen and grass cuttings from the garden can make up at least 30% of your household waste. Scotland produces enough organic waste every year to fill Hampden Stadium 18 times!

Home composting stops green waste from being transported around the region for treatment. It also creates a useful resource for the garden and could save you buying bags of soil conditioner or compost.  

If you leave organic material such as grass cuttings, prunings, dead plants and kitchen waste (fruit, vegetables, tea bags and egg shells) in a compost bin it will rot down into compost.

Dumfries and Galloway Council together with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) are offering compost bins at a reduced price.

The offer is limited to 2 bins per household and subject to availability and the current offer closes at the end of March 2010. For more details and to order compost bins, call 0844 855 2990 or visit the Waste Aware Scotland website on Home Composting.