Composting kids take top prize in eco-friendly contest

Prize-winning brother and sister Lucien and Lara Knowles, of East Dene.

The Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) Waste Partnership and Renewi, which runs the area’s waste treatment facility at Manvers, invited children to produce something creative to promote or explain composting — and they rose to the challenge with drawings, models, and evening short videos.

The best entries scooped prize bundles worth £100, including a compost bin, gardening tools, a “grow your own pizza” kit, seeds and books about composting and gardening, with a book and a certificate for runners-up.

A social media competition for adults attracted almost 600 entries bidding to win three £200 Hotbin hot composting systems.

Winners in the children’s category were Jessica Fleetwood (5), Lara and Lucien Knowles (5 and 7), Matiee Ullaha (8) and Rosa Bartlett (10).

Louise Fleetwood, parent of a winner and a runner-up, said: “Because of the competition, we spent a lot of our ‘home schooling’ time learning about compost and bringing our compost bin back to life — it had been ignored for a few years, to say the least!

“The children harvested what had been left in there and have used it to plant out their sunflowers.

“They now take pride in ‘feeding him’ every evening.”

Winners in the adult competition, who were selected at random, were Lindsey Mangham from Barnsley, David Thomson from Doncaster and Georgina Yates from Rotherham.

BDR community education liaison officer Abi Cox, welcomed the enthusiasm for the project and the imaginative entries from children who wanted to do their bit to help save the planet.

“The entries were very impressive and a lot of thought had gone into them.

“Although the waste treatment facility at Manvers diverts 97 per cent of household waste from Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham from landfill, composting at home gets more use out of garden waste and saves space in bins and money on fertilisers.”

BDR says composting at home for just one year can save greenhouse gases equivalent to all the carbon dioxide produced by a kettle for one year or a washing machine for three months.