Bristol Compost from Autumn Leaves

Each year tons of leaves fall on Bristol in the autumn---they lie around on city streets causing problems for pedestrians especially after rain, It costs lots to clean them up and its not done frequently enough to prevent problems --------------

Leaves when composted provide the best quality compost in the form of leaf mould.

Half the compost sold in this country is peat based. Extraction of peat releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and disturbs the eco systems.

Why dont we use our community pay back teams to collect leaves frequently for 2 months each Autumn using vehicles with vacuums and shredders, Clear streets, parks schools,and community areas of leaves -shred them -compost them on Blaise Nursery land and market the resulting compost as eco friendly mineral rich compost

(the best there is)  Sell it to all DIY stores and Garden centres --maybe go ito partnership with the Sewage works at Avonmouth who already produce compost on a small scale from sewage and waste water.

This could be a major business venture with Bristol leaf mould compost becoming a star brand!

Why the contribution is important

This would solve the problem of leaves causing problems on the streets

It would provide work for Community payback teams

It would reduce our carbon footprint by reducing the demand for peat based compost

It would enhance our Green city status

The business could possibly be a major money maker or at least self funding

Bristol could raise its profile even more nationwide

by user416121 on November 22, 2013 at 11:08AM

Current Rating

Average rating: 4.3
Based on: 21 votes

Comments

  • Posted by user536903 November 22, 2013 at 11:12

    good idea.. quite practical and will be organic :)

  • Posted by user734334 November 22, 2013 at 18:37

    Brilliant idea!

  • Posted by user197097 November 22, 2013 at 22:21

    I really like this idea. It is sad to see this fantastic resource going to waste. I think some are collected and composted at Blaise though. There is a great source of leaves in Greville Smyth Park and this time of the year I collect bags full on the way to the allotments and use for making leaf mould. I do get odd funny look though!

  • Posted by user610808 November 27, 2013 at 16:16

    Brilliant idea! I know one of the central government bodies commissioned a study into this and decided it unviable, but I can't see any reason why problems can't be overcome. I appreciate that leaves collected by mechanical sweepers may be a problem due to the contamination, but leaves collected by street sweepers could easily have the litter picked out of them by Community Payback or other entity in need of training/work. We could also recycle some of the litter found in the leaves!

  • Posted by user130394 December 09, 2013 at 19:18

    It is a great idea but its already being done by BCC

  • Posted by user946047 December 20, 2013 at 19:23

    A great way to make use of 100's tons of leaves every year and to add, have vehicles drop off many tons of leaves to every allotment site. Local leaves for local growers..
    Excellent idea. Practical and easy to implement.

  • Posted by user479921 January 05, 2014 at 19:22

    If all households were asked to bag up their own leaves and those immediately in front of their home, then much of the collection work would be done locally. Then the leaf bags could be collected up at the same time as the recycling / black bin runs, possibly even by the same contractors and vehicles, minimising impact on the road network.

  • Posted by user479921 January 05, 2014 at 19:26

    Alternatively, if there was insufficent 'carrot' (incentive) for collecting up the leaves on your property or in front of it, or not enough 'stick' (penalty) for not collecting up one's own leaves, then a small payment could be made per bag collected by a household (possibly offset by a charge levied on each household, so it becomes a refundable bond rather than a payment).

    If people wanted they could go round and get other people's leaves in order to get even more reward (could be paid in Bristol Pounds too).

    A similar model ('Eco-bond') is already used at Boomtown Festival to encourage festival-goers to pick up litter before leaving.

  • Posted by user412750 January 06, 2014 at 00:48

    A good idea to re-use fallen leaves. However, leaves do not generate compost. Leaf litter, when decomposed into leaf mould, is extremely low in nutrition.

    Leaf mould can be used to alter the texture of soil (eg providing a temporary lightening to heavy clay soils), but not to enrich soil in the sense of replacing soil nutrients that have been used in the process of growing veg/fruit). You are confusing leaf litter with compost that derives from kitchen and garden waste. This is highly nutritious, and, along with horse or cow manure, is what is used to put nutrients back into soil, along the lines of traditional (pre-agrochemical era) agriculture.

    Some leaf litter is already delivered to allotments in some parts of the city, and this mutually beneficial arrangement should be made standard across the city, if not already being done.

  • Posted by user761526 January 09, 2014 at 09:15

    Leaf litter, if delivered to allotments, is not available to other gardeners so a central collection point or points for collection of composted leaf litter would be beneficial. Leaf litter can be used as a mulch or a soil conditioner. The problem for most gardeners is storage of leaf litter whilst it composts.

  • Posted by user932309 January 09, 2014 at 13:54

    Great! Let's set up a Community Compost scheme to run it through! People have been talking about the need for one for quite some time.
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