On Saturday I started a garden job I love – plundering my multifarious (5!) compost facilities for brown gold. Normally I would do this in the spring, but a planned extension to our house means they’ve got to move. Unfortunately we will lose compost capacity in the new set up, but I don’t think my boys would be happy if I told them they had to keep sharing a tiny bedroom because I needed a two garden compost bays, a food bin, a leaf mould bag and a wormery…

I love composting as it is the only true recycling that all of us with a modicum of outdoor space can do. And there’s something fascinating about the processes involved – setting the right conditions for all those mini beasts, microbes and fungi working together to turn waste into, literally, a nutrient which is returned to soil from whence it came.

The downside, physically and emotionally, is the amount of plastic I have to sieve out of what should be in theory 100% biodegraded material. Small bits of polystyrene, baby wipes, envelope windows, errant bits of Lego, fruit labels – it’s amazing what works its way into the compost.

For those of us who encourage organisations to go zero waste, there’s nothing like a few hours of hands-on waste processing to remind ourselves of the practicalities. It’s very satisfying to boot.