North Wingfield community project chosen for national sustainability trial
A community project in North Wingfield has been selected to take part in a national trial, which looks to help consumers reduce their impact on the environment.
North Wingfield Community Garden scheme has been chosen to take part in a national composting trial run through a partnership between Natracare, creator of compostable disposable period products, and Social Farms & Gardens, a UK-wide charity, of which the North Wingfield group is a member.
The partnership sees Natracare providing insulated compost bins to Social Farms & Gardens’ specially selected community garden projects as a pilot scheme. The community gardens will compost garden and food waste, as well as Natracare products. The hot composting should take around six to eight weeks to turn green and brown waste into compost that is ready to use on the garden.
North Wingfield Community Garden scheme near Chesterfield is one of four women-led community garden schemes across the UK to receive a Natracare composting bin. Throughout the ongoing partnership, they will manage and maintain the hot composting process, monitoring and sharing the progress of the composting on their social channels. Additionally, using the Natracare Composting Guide, they will share the value of community composting and the benefits that composting period products has for the environment.
The Social Farms & Gardens partnership is the latest initiative in Natracare’s recently launched Project #BeKind campaign created to draw attention to the need to design health and well-being products for bio-loop systems and to consider the impact of consumer choices on our well-being and the environment.
North Wingfield Community Garden was set up at the start of 2021 as a space where people could safely gather to socialise in a post-lockdown world. Funded by the People’s Health Trust using money raised by Health Lottery East Midlands, the one-acre site is located on allotments at Alice’s View, North Wingfield, and produces a range of fruits and vegetables, all grown using organic and no-dig principles where possible.
It runs social gardening sessions and nature-connection crafting sessions every week. Over the last 12 months alone, more than 50 locals have participated in at least one of these sessions, and there is a core group of 15 regular volunteers who help out with garden maintenance.
Key volunteer and committee secretary Abi Grant said: “Having a hot composter available to us here at North Wingfield Community Garden opens up new opportunities for us to expand our knowledge and become even more sustainable, which is such an exciting thought—we can’t wait to get stuck in!”
