Click here to access SSB Project management documents

Click here to access relevant SSB Policy documents

For more info contact: marsh@ssb.org.uk

THE UPGRADED MARSH COMMUNITY COMPOSTING SITE IS NOW FULLY OPEN ON SUNDAYS BOTH FOR GREEN WASTE AND COLLECTING COMPOST

The Marsh Composting Site is adjacent the South West Water site on Exeter Road (otherwise just known as ‘The Marsh’) and is open on Sundays from 10am-1pm to receive garden waste and produce compost for local collection and use.

  • We ask that no more than three cars are on the Marsh site at any one time.
  • Visitors may be guided by the volunteers to a place to wait before entering the site
  • No parking on the main road will be permitted while waiting for entry into the Marsh site
  • Limited help will be available from the volunteers to unload your garden waste or carry bags of compost to your car.
  • Compost may be purchased if it is available at £1 per 10kg bag.
  • We will remain open for receiving garden waste at times when we are unable to supply compost.
  • When you collect your compost, please place your donation in the box.

WE ACCEPT:

  • Soft Green waste material you can cut with mower or clippers
  • Twiggy brushwood material that can be cut with loppers, saw or power tools

WE DO NOT ACCEPT:

  • Stumps, Vines, Bamboo, Japanese Knotweed; Himalayan Balsam; Giant Hogweed; Curled Dock; Broad-leafed Dock; Spear Thistle; Creeping Thistle; Common Ragwort.
  • Other organic matter such as food waste, e.g. unwanted fruit and vegetables

OPENING TIMES

Sunday mornings from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 

The South Hams D.C. free brown bin collection service finished in 2022 and the new chargeable service for South Hams residents wanting to have garden waste is now operational. For details see: – https://waste.southhams.gov.uk/gardenwaste.

If you are not opting to pay for the service, we are informed that you may keep the bin, which can have good use as a wormery, water butt, or to take your garden waste along to the Marsh, which will continue to welcome your garden waste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Composting Masterclass held at The Marsh on 15 March 2025, with Nicky Scott and Mel Harvey in full swing:

Map:

 

Marsh Composting – A history


Martin Duckworth, our previous Marsh Composting Co-ordinator has written a short history of its development.

‘It all started in September 2010 when the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) gave South Brent Parish Council permission for a disused Devon County Council storage depot, on the Exeter Road, to become a “composting and re-use site”. By February 2011 SSB was granted a 10-year lease by DNPA, including three years rent-free use. This has been extended and, at the time of writing, the concession is still in place.

The site has been modified to make it more secure and suitable for producing compost. It is equipped for sieving and bagging the finished product, and for storing equipment and sheltering the volunteers – should it ever chance to rain on a Sunday!

By the end of March 2011 the site was ready to receive garden waste and had 21 volunteers on the rota. Today the project has 35 volunteers, and one Steward and two or more other Assistants open the site from 10am to 1pm each Sunday.

By September 2011 the first usable compost was produced. 10kg bags are available for a £1 donation. Volunteers are also given one bag for each hour worked on the site and bulk collections of un-sieved compost by trailer are encouraged. On average over 2000kg of compost (equivalent to about 160 bags) is collected each month.

The operation and maintenance of the site is funded by recycling credits claimed from SHDC and from the donations made buy those collecting the compost.

The Marsh site also hosts the Hedges and Woodland Group which is developing the ‘re-use’ role of the site through the storage and processing of wood gathered by the wood group.’

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