West Cornwall Mentors: interviews

The West Cornwall mentors have been very busy mentoring over the winter. Volunteers Deb and Sarah tell us about their experience as Compost Mentors:
Deb: “I decided to become a compost mentor on a ‘Circles of influence’ basis: I promote to my neighbours the benefits of composting and they pass that knowledge onto their neighbours. The workshop showed me that awareness about the importance of composting is beginning to emerge, and needs building on so that it becomes the norm.

So far I have probably converted half a dozen people, and had no problem finding homes for the two free bins. On joining the local school’s eco-group I was asked about the benefits to the school of having compost bins; they now have them and 200 people could potentially be converted.

The more enthused and animated you are the more interested people become. A mentoring tip I could give is to find out why people don’t already compost, and then give them all the reasons why they should, the benefits to them, their gardens and the planet…. one if not all of those must make sense to them.”
Sarah: “I decided to be a Compost Mentor because at the time I was running the gardening club at a Children’s Centre, and thought this would be a good opportunity to pass on any information that I learnt about composting to the wonderful families that I was working with. So far I have spoken to about 15-20 people about composting.

I began composting several years ago, and have taught my children the importance of composting along the way. I wouldn’t say I’m a radical composter, and I have had lapses. However the compost mentoring training has given me new vigor and taught me some new things too – for example that food waste that goes to landfill doesn’t rot down to benefit the land, but produces gases which affect the ozone layer. Everything from small off cuts of fabric, the contents of the hoover and even hair from the hairbrush go in to the composter now. Fruit and vegetable peelings, cardboard and crumpled and shredded paper also go in along with many other bits and bobs.”

Events and Media:

This winter CWA promoted composting through attending events such as a Transition Truro meeting and Truro farmers market, where we had a stall as part of the Compost Awareness Week. People were given seeds to plant in peat free compost, and could sign a “compost pledge” and enter a draw. We had 2 lucky winners who won a compost bin and the new compost book by Nicky Scott.

The scheme adverts in 5 major local newspapers, as well as articles in Signpost and the Cornishman.