What to do with your Apple Glut?
A staggering 1.3 million apples are thrown away in the UK each year. So if you've got more apples than you know what to do with, you can make them last longer by storing them in a cold, dark and well-ventilated place and making sure they aren't touching each other and are clean and dry. Wrapping them in newspaper helps keep them apart too.

Use them up in one of these delicious apple recipes!:

• Apple and ginger chutney - perfect for spicing up your packed lunch and make a great Christmas gift
• If you were impressed by the Bake-Off’s chelsea buns, try your very own appley version!
• Or these spookily tasty toffee apple crumbles for the perfect Halloween treat?

Love your Ipswich Street!
Ipswich Borough Council has launched a new anti-littering campaign that encourages us all to look after our Ipswich streets and keep them litter free.  Love Your Street, uses DiGBY the blue octopus as the carrier of the campaign message. You'll probably recognise DiGBY as the well known local landmark painted on the wall at the entrance to Ipswich Waterfront.
Littering spoils our towns and streets and is never acceptable. Mark Murphy from BBC Radio Suffolk is supporting this new campaign and DiGBY and his important message will be appearing on council vehicles to help promote the anti-littering message soon. Keep an eye out for him and visit  www.ipswichloveyourstreet.co.uk 

From autumn leaves comes great compost!

Rather than collecting up all your autumn leaves and filling up your compost bins to the brim (this can slow down the regular composting process) – keeping them separate to make a leaf mulch might be the way to go. It’s a simple and effective way of creating a rich, nutritious mulch or potting mix.

Some leaves take longer to compost than others. Oak, alder and hornbeam will soon break down, while leaves from conifers and waxy evergreen plants can take two to three years to compost, so add only small amounts, and if possible shred them first to help speed up the process. You can keep it basic and use a black bin liner – just gather your leaves, pop them in the bag (punch a few air holes in the side and bottom), sprinkle with water, shake the bag and tie. Store the bag in a shady spot and forget about it until next autumn! If you’ve got lots of leaves to collect, you can make a simple leaf cage from stakes and chicken wire.

By next autumn your leaves will have rotted down into a rich, crumbly mixture that can be used as a mulch for plants – wait another year you will be left with a finer material to use as fantastic soil conditioner!
If you want to get started composting or need an extra bin take advantage of our fantastic compost bin offers.