656 and counting

We now have 656 on the ban contaminated green waste petition. There is also a forum you can pop along and have a chat - and maybe help us.

www.countrysidewatch.co.uk

Thanks for your help.

600 and beyond....................................

Great News is that we are now on 610 signatories on the petition, but still need lots more. Please don't rely on somebody else.

Around 6 MP's are involved now, and we have had communication back from DEFRA and WRAP.

There is also a forum, for anybody to discuss the issue. If you are interested, you are also more than welcome to join The Team.

www.countrysidewatch.co.uk

Get the under 18's to sign please!

I've been making enquiries regarding younger people signing the petition, and here's the reply


Thank you for your message regarding e-petitions.

There is no bar to under-18s signing e-petitions.  The only stipulation as to who can sign an e-petition, other than the citizenship/residency requirements is that we do ask that individuals who sign e-petitions use their own e-mail address when doing so.

Yours sincerely

Ben Sneddon
Assistant Private Secretary (Parliamentary Reform) to the Leader of the House of Commons


So please get your children to sign.


Still awaiting a reply from Countryfile.....................will keep you informed

We've just hit 500 signatures

I'm pleased to say that the campaign has just hit 500 signatures. This is a magnificent effort in only five days, but we need so many more.

And the bad reports keep coming in - these quotes were made by Metal Detectorists who are seeing this on a regular basis -

'It seems to be an increasing problem, i too have had a farm of 200 acres ruined due to green waste being ploughed in. Yes it annoyed me as i have scratched this permission off the list but clearly the bigger picture is the potential ecological impact; the fields are now just strewn with shards of metal, plastic, glass and gloop'.

'The stuff is horrible, they do it around here too and preferably plow it in deep straight away... for me such a field is soon out of bounds, digging up alu packaging at 30+ cm

'I had permission on some land my way and i will not be going back! Rubbish all over the fields, whole rip off tin lids and so many lemon squeezy bottles, the ones shaped like a lemon! This has to stop'!

'Last year the farmer spread tons of the stuff over the productive fields. He was told it was certified clean and Lancashire has lost what was a very productive site....its now full of foil, batteries, shredded aluminium...you name it its there. Prior to this the site had a lot of shredded cable on it but we were used to that and sort of put up with that.....its now ruined'.

"farmers should be made more aware of what is going on there land, its a disgrace what is going into the ground, there is 4 massive fields here stuff full of history, and a roman settlement on one part of it, its now completely undectable thanks to composted waiste,,which is mostly home base mdf bording shredded and mix with muck,,all them lovely finds are now lost in a mountain of,,screws,,pins,,copper wire, I tried to find out why this was alloyed ,but got nowhere"

A Statement from UK Detectornet

The Administration Team, Staff, and members of UKDN wholeheartedly support the campaign started on this forum to highlight the contamination issues surrounding some of the green waste currently being spread onto agricultural land in the UK.

Although the principle of recycling green waste is a sound one, organic material being good for the soil, it is the contamination of some of this material with non-organic waste, such as metal, and plastic, that is extremely concerning.

A UKDN Team member, Steve Wright, has produced a video of this contaminated material having been spread on a field. This is typical of the material being spread, and being widely reported by detectorists across the country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDq9Ai_p7TI

Contamination of any description on agricultural land is severely detrimental for a myriad of reasons, including our own hobby of metal detecting, archaeological surveying methods, but of greatest concern must be the effect of this contamination on the wider environment, including flora and fauna on the farmland involved.

It appears that many processors are not following the government guidelines in preparing this material for composting the land on which it is to be spread. UKDN fully supports the call for tighter control, legislation, and enforcement, to bring this issue into line for the benefit of all concerned.

Please show your support, and concern, by signing the e-petition set up by another UKDN member and Moderator, Steve Rice, then follow the progress of this campaign on his blog.

http://bangreenwaste.blogspot.com/

A Statement from the NCMD

Received today a statement from the General Secretary of the National Council for Metal Detecting

The NCMD is concerned at the growing number of reports from members of metal particles present in Green Waste.

The metallic objects are not only a cause for concern among detector users, but could in theory interfere with any future archaeological geophysical examination of sites contaminated with this type of waste.

Trevor Austin

General Secretary NCMD

An interesting article in The Daily Telegraph

Still awaiting responses from a number of organisations. But whist surfing the web came across this excellent article by Louise Gray at The Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/8840986/Recycled-material-to-replace-peat-poses-problems-for-gardeners.html

I've sent her an email:  louise.gray@telegraph.co.uk  Maybe others can too, to re-iterate just how bad this situation is. Also as Steve Wright has said - please send those photos. Comment on your experiences. We are upto 414 signatures, but there is a long way to go.

We have been promised a statement from detectorist.co.uk. As yet we have had excellent regional responses from the NCMD but no reply from The General Secretary. Is our email address correct? trevor.austin@ncmd.co.uk  Also no response from FID. Members can you lobby them. We need as much help as we can get.

I would just like to thank all those who are helping with the cause especially Ste,  the creator of this blog without Ste this campaign wouldn't of even got off the ground, i think its going to be a long road but we need as many people to write their experiences as possible and send pictures of the contaminated waste in their area, Thanking you, Steve.

Thanks for the support!

Whilst we are awaiting a number of replies from different individuals, and organisations, I thought I would update you with developments.

Steve Wright, who was the guy who set up the video, is working tirelessly behind the scenes, and contacting MP's and organisations, and hopefully we'll have more feedback soon. He will be helping me update this blog.

As of this morning we have 345 signatures on the petition.

Our thanks go out to JC Maloney for updating the NCMD forum with the petition information.
Also John Wells - Chairman of NCMD - Midlands Region - for his blanket email
Also to StuE - Stuart Elton - for alerting a number of MP's and detectorist.co.uk
Thanks to Ukdetectornet.co.uk for all their support during the setting up of the petition.

Our concerns are even worse than we feared. Hearing stories such as

'was spread with green waste coverd in tin foil, shredded computer boards..land is runied now'

'the farmer had this compost??/.put on and then grassed the field ,a cow then pulled up a hinge and swallowed it ,then died, at the post m.. the vet found it had a lacerated second stomach, that field is now permantly in crop because he cannot graze animals on it'.

'fields that were so contaminated it was impossible to take a step without getting a signal which was metal rubbish'

'I know of one particular farm in Hertfordshire that has lorries rolling up day and night'

It has also been pointed out that some green waste is good for the environment. Strictly speaking that is true. But this is Biodegradable waste, typically originating from plant or animal sources, which may be broken down by other living organisms. Waste that cannot be broken down by other living organisms may be called non-biodegradable, and certainly the metal, glass and plastics we are referring too are NON-BIODEGRADABLE.

An update

Just an update to show how this campaign is going

Signatures now over 250 in just over 24 hours

Emails sent to Panorama and Countryside

Emails also sent to NCMD and FID to request a quote

Email sent to RSPCA who replied

The RSPCA are so concerned about the effect litter has on wildlife they launched a Clean up Britain campaign in 2011.


They advise that 'annually, the RSPCA receives over 7,000 phone calls about litter-related incidents and our officers regularly rescue pets, farm and wild animals trapped or hurt by discarded litter.With many pet and farm owners going direct to vets, and many injured wild animals never being found, it is estimated that this figure is just the tip of the iceberg'.

Ban Green Waste Being Dumped on the Countryside

Ban Green Waste Being Dumped on the Countryside

Yesterday I started a petition against, so called 'green' waste being dumped on our Countryside. Little did I know how quickly it was to hit the news, and already a couple of hundred signatures in 24 hours.

Concern is being raised by many different groups of individuals. These include those who care for wildlife and the countryside, archaeologists/metal detectorists and also those who believe it will not be too long before the food chain is affected.

Many farmers are only made aware too late, after they have had hundreds of tonnes of this compost dumped on their land. If it continues their crops will effectively be getting grown on Brown Field sites.

This blog is non political, and is aimed at bringing all those groups who care, together. Between us hopefully we can stop this.

More to follow...................................................

I will leave comments open so please feel free to post away.