Northern Ireland’s leading organics firm Natural World Products (NWP) has joined with the Ballywalter Community Action Group to provide compost to assist with the maintenance of its over 50s gardening club.

The firm which converts household food and garden waste into organic, peat-free multipurpose compost has donated 60 bags of its New Leaf Compost product to the Ballywalter gardening community.

NWP provides around half of Northern Ireland’s recycling of household waste, including organic waste from councils across the province including Ards and North Down Borough Council.

Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the compost has enabled Ballywalter’s fortnightly gardening club to continue with the usual indoor activities having been suspended for several months.

The compost will enable the creation of an outdoor gardening space for the whole community to enjoy and the continuation of many gardening activities such as the planting of flower containers throughout the village.

NWP General Manager, Patrick Kelly commented:

“We are pleased to have donated our New Leaf Compost product to the Ballywalter Community Action Group for use within their gardening club.

“We are proud of our community roots and so it’s especially rewarding when we donate our compost to groups that share the same values as we do.

“It’s satisfying to know that our donation will provide a vast number of benefits for the  physical and mental health of those within the gardening club, which is particularly important during these times of isolation, when many may experience the impact of loneliness.”

Sandra Henderson, Ballywalter Community Action Group added:

“NWP’s donation will help not just the maintenance of our community garden, but our gardening club.

“Our slogan is ‘flowers make you smile’ and at this difficult time keeping our members active and using NWP’s New Leaf Compost to rejuvenate our planters is so important in helping us live up to that.

“We’re aware of the many health benefits horticultural therapy can bring such as helping reduce depression, anxiety, and stress as well as improving self-esteem, self-confidence, and communication skills. We can truly say that we’ve witnessed this first hand.”

“We would like to say a huge thank you to NWP for its generous compost donation and we cannot wait until spring when our community garden will be in full bloom once more.”

NWP is headquartered in Dunmurry with additional recycling facilities in Antrim, Keady, Co Armagh, and Drumanakelly, Co Down.

The firm processes 200 thousand tonnes of food and garden waste annually, which is then converted into high quality organic compost to be used by councils, agri-growers, and the horticultural sector across Northern Ireland and further afield.