Glass in compost

[mrshopeful]

I bought a cheap bag of multi purpose compost from B & Q and ended up finding quite a few bits of broken glass in it (found at least 20 bits so far) so decided to never buy the cheap compost again but last night found a large chunk of glass in some westland mutipurpose compost!

Is it common to get broken glass in compost? I always wear my gloves when I've been working on my soil as that too is full of glass (why on earth would people get rid of their broken glass in the garden , if I had the previous owners address I'd be asking them!) but thought I would be ok handling compost without gloves but I guess not now

[HeyWayne]

Bizarre. I've never had that before.

[TonyF]

No it isn't and I would take the bags back immediately.

I had a client down here bought several bags of cheap compost (terreau universale) and when we opened it up, it was all a sort of uncompsted roofing felt, absolutley awful and totally unusable.

[SlugLobber]

Never had glass in compost, but do sympathise about the garden. I DO have the previous owner's address, but there are so many things he lied about, I have to be very restrained as it is. He lives in the same village. Have you taken the compost back? If you don't tell them, they won't know. I'd have thought the Westland stuff would be graded, as it has extra stuff added, doesn't it?

[zazen999]

We get lots of glass in our soil - mainly because our gardens were a greenhouse many years ago, and it was bombed during the war....so lots of glass and smashed pots in our soil.

I never handle soil or compost without gloves, mainly because I worked with it for years in an engineering capacity and I know what can be in it.

I would however put a complaint into both Westland and B&Q.

[mrshopeful]

Guess I'm just unlucky then (being new to all this didn't know if it was normal). I'll have a google to look for somewhere to send a complaint to then.

Cheers

[FionaH]

I recently found glass in compost Bowers I think

[Eyren]

I found a huge (2-3 inch) nail in a bag of Miracle Gro organic compost at the weekend

Seems like Q&A has been abandoned in the rush to meet demand...

[Two_Sheds]

I got loads and loads of undigested twigs in a bag last year - I posted them off to B&Q HQ and they sent me a voucher for a new bag.

[Peter]

I suspect that a prime source of "peat replacement" will be municipal composting schemes.

So all those idiots who shove their normal waste in the composting / recycling bin will be the source of this.

[janeyo]

I've had all sorts of strange thigns in bags of compost, found a plastic label stick tonight!
Had glass, big stones, bits of black plastic.

In the garden I am currently finding glass (only in my son's bit of garden - typical) and bits of old wardrobe and about 50 nails so far in the soon to be brassica bed. And builders rubble - they used that end of the garden as a dumping ground for 25 years! The chap who lived here burnt all his wardrobes there when we didn't want them!

[Naga]

I find B&Q compost has lots of bark (not that fussed about bark) and lots of white shredded plastic. Where does this stuff some from I wonder. But £10 for 3 75l bags, I'm not moaning.... unless I find glass coz the missus' little one sticks her hands in there sometimes when she helps me.

[Alice]

I've never found glass or other stuff in bought compost but I do find some odd stuff in the garden.

[Two_Sheds]

I suspect that a prime source of "peat replacement" will be municipal composting schemes

I'm glad though, that we are composting home waste. It would explain how I found a whole potato peeler in my garden compost last year

[TimH]

I've found strips of plastic in my B&Q Compost before, they were white so stood out from the compost.