[BAOBAB]

Compost materials from council's hanging baskets containing artificial fertilizers, pesticides, water retention gels, peat, etc. Past Soil Association rules stated that materials had to be composting for a year before incorporating to beds or for cultivation use. What are current regulations and opinions?

[richyrich7]

No Idea,  but welcome to the forums anyway. you might want to try the HDRA website http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/

[BAOBAB]

thanks for welcome richyrich. I was hoping to get an answer for free. HDRA and Soil Association require membership fees before providing information.

[richyrich7]

the fee's bit of a pain, if you want my personal view on it then, I would have thought it would take longer than a year to break down all the chemicals especially things like water retaining crystals if the do decompose at all ?

According to this article they do break down by action of uv light and bacteria they break down into water Carbon dioxide and Nitrogen but takes 3-5 yrs.

Hope this helps a little  

[BAOBAB]

http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/hydrogels.html

http://www.greenbeam.com/features/tour080502.stm

http://72.30.186.56/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=water+retention+gels+for+compost&y=Search&rd=r1&fr=slv1-bt&u=www.puyallup.wsu.edu/%7ELinda%2520Chalker-Scott/Horticultural%2520Myths_files/Myths/Hydrogels%25202007.pdf&w=water+retention+gels+compost+composting+%22com+post%22&d=U9z5pkfiSCvQ&icp=1&.intl=uk
hydrogelsLINKLINK

here are some links to hydrogels and there are health questions about the products they break down into.

[Yorkie]

:shock:  :shock:

Don't think I'll plough through all that, but thanks for the work you've put in anyway