[Redgoat]

My local council kindly drops a load of free green compost at the alllotment. It is the produce of people's green bins. Anyone had any problems from using this waste?

[mumofstig]

How has it been composted I wonder?
Perhaps you need to ask them what has happened to the weedkiller that people have used on their lawns? whether their treatment has deactivated it?

[Bernard]

Green? Does this mean not rotted down? I put all the stuff in my council compost bin that I don't want on my heap. Weed seeds, for example, and difficult roots. They say they will take all this so I assume that they know what they are doing but I certainly would not trust it if it is truly green.

[oakridge]

Sharp intake of breath, it could be very good or, more likely, very bad.  As Bernard and mumofstig said a lot depends on what they have done to it.   Even if they have composted it with plenty of heat there still will be very likely nasties like potatoes, Himalayan Balsam etc which could lead to all sorts of problems.

Mind you I was collecting solid residue from a sewage works on the East side of Sheffield years ago and that included all sorts of interesting items.

Malcolm

[madcat]

We used it a few years back when our allotment was just ploughed field.  It was fine - maybe it brought seeds with it, but maybe they were already there or blew in from around about.  We dealt with them as they came up.  We certainly benefited from all the organic matter lightening up the soil.  There was a lot of junk plastic in it - one neighbour who used it, found the bits of Barbie dolls quite macabre ....