Low Carbon: The easy way to make your own compost

Composting expert Carl Nichols from Recycle Now says: "Composting is so easy. All you need is a good mixture of ingredients. By that I mean green nitrogen products like vegetable peelings and fruit skins and tea bags, and then drier materials like toilet roll tubes, cereal boxes and shredded paper.

"Then you sit back, and six months later you have compost. But the secret is really in the mixture."

Get the bug

People in England throw away a staggering four million tonnes of waste each year that could have been composted, research for Recycle Now has found.

By chucking eggshells and vegetable peelings, and even the contents of the vacuum bag, into a bin separate from the rubbish, we could save an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions every year.

Nichols and Recycle Now want to see more people aware of what they can do with their food waste.

The good news is that there are plenty of us already composting away at home, with as many as one in 10 people starting their own compost piles in the last year.

"There has been a dramatic increase in home composting over the past year as people have got the grow-your-own vegetables bug to help beat the recession," says Nichols.

"However, even regular home composters still send on average nearly 70kg of compostable food waste to landfill each year - that's the weight of a medium-sized adult!"

For those who want to find out more or are struggling with their compost, an online Q&A and phone helpline is available at www.recyclenow.com/compost.

Find some space

Eco-chef Arthur Potts Dawson aims to run the most recyclable restaurant in London.

The green cook recycles as much as 80% of his waste, composts and grows herbs, runner beans and tomatoes on the restaurant's rooftop terrace, where there's also a wormery.

"Composting is one of the easiest and most fulfilling things you can do to help the environment, but many people are unaware of the impact it can have or think it is too complicated to do," says Potts Dawson.

"At Acorn House we compost 100% of our suitable waste on site and use the compost we make to grow herbs and other vegetables to serve in the restaurant."

While the chef might have a whole roof terrace on which to cultivate his compost, even a small space can accommodate a compost bin, says Nichols.

"If you've got even a small terrace you can compost using a wormery or a small compost bin," he explains.

"And you won't have mountains of compost to deal with either. What you put in is not what you get out in volume terms, as it will reduce to about a third and you can then use that in potting plants or hanging baskets."

Common compost pitfalls

Follow Recycle Now's top tips to get the most from your compost:

1. My compost is too wet.

"People normally think that compost is stuff you take out of the garden and put into a compost bin. But it's actually a mix of stuff from the house, like loo roll tubes, vacuum contents and fruit and veg peelings, plus any stuff you have from the garden," says Nichols.

"If it's too wet, that means that you're not putting enough dry stuff like cardboard or shredded paper or dry leaves in it."

2. My compost is too dry.

"This is much rarer, but can happen if you're only putting in straw and cardboard and paper and vacuum contents," says Nichols. "Add some fruit skins and veg peelings or grass."

3. My compost smells bad.

"This is an urban myth, I think," says Nichols. "If it smells, you're not doing something right, and that usually has to do with the mixture. Too much grass will make an icky sludge. Cooked foods can also smell and shouldn't be added."

4. I've got rats!

"Rats are everywhere, and compost bins can sometimes be shelter bins for rats," says Nichols. "Usually, they're very shy and don't want to be disturbed, so keep your bin in an accessible place and visit it every couple of days to make sure you're the only visitor."

5. My compost is taking forever.

"If you're a lazy gardener, you can wait six to eight months to see compost, and it'll happen by magic. Otherwise, you can mix it with a garden fork to aerate it a bit, or add natural accelerators like grass, nettles or comfrey," says Nichols.