News / water butts

Unfortunately all the retail prices of the water butts and composters have gone up quite a bit last week. This is because the UK manufacturer has had a massive increase in energy costs over the last year, as making them is energy intensive. Melting all the recycled plastic, and then the moulding machines. On top of that delivery costs, which make up a chunk of the total prices on the site has increased.

The timber products, such as the sheds, are all a lot more expensive than they used to be. This is mostly due to the large rise in price of timber. Russia is the world's largest producer of timber, and with sanctions, it means, the global supply is limited, so what is available from everywhere else, such as Sweden, is more expensive. This comes on top of past increases due to demand, and supply issues during the pandemic.(I have not heard a single media publication or news report eve mention the increase in timber, and that affects housebuilding etc. They just talk about the price of gas, and sunflower oil

Everything seems expensive now. The once humble Heinz soup that was always about 90p for a can, was £1.70 the last time I looked in two supermarkets. Even the own brands that were 60p in November, are now 90p. That's a 33% increase in just 2 months. At this rate people might need wheelbarrows to carry money to the shops, as inflation increases, so perhaps I should start selling those?!

After a very busy late summer due to the drought conditions, the water butts are available again. The 200 litre double kit (400 litres in total) is the bestseller, and had to be put off sale for a while, to clear a backlog of outstanding orders. Everything is almost back to normal, so it is back on sale now, along with the 227 litre size, which had been out of stock.

If you are thinking of getting a water butt sometime in the coming year, please, if you can afford to, buy it over the autumn and winter. This is a quieter period, so deliveries are generally faster, and you can get it all set up for spring. Every year, everyone waits until it is summer, then orders, and this creates longer delivery times, as too many people order all at once. As you can imagine, a drought being declared in August, with hosepipe bans, made this a much bigger problem than normal.

Water butts can be ordered here;

https://www.gardenis.co.uk/collections/grow-your-own

Raw sewage is pouring into our rivers and coastal waters regularly, all across the country. The government got a lot of backlash this week when it voted down an amendment to the Environment Bill, that would have demanded water companies stop releasing sewage into our waters on a regular basis.

I've learnt quite a bit this week about the issue, and one thing stands out is that a major reason for the sewage releases is that the pipes can't cope after heavy rain, so the sewage is released into rivers, otherwise it would start flooding out onto residential streets from manholes. This is because the rainwater shares the same pipes as the sewage. I have made another post a month or so ago about how water butts can help prevent flash floods, and clearly they are a solution in reducing the chance of sewage spills. This is because, using my original example, of a 10,000 homes, if each are fitted with a 200 litre double water butt kit (the bestseller), then that would hold 2 Olympic swimming pools worth of water, after heavy rain. This means that all that rainwater is not going straight into the sewers, so it reduces the chance they will fill so quick, resulting in a raw sewage release into the rivers and coastal seas. 

I have not heard anyone mention this as a quick and easy solution to help the problem. Considering raw sewage is not just poop and wee, but anything that goes down the drains, including bleach, household cleaners, hair dye, medicines etc, it's a massive issue. Only 14% of English rivers are classed as being in a good ecological standard, according to the Ennvironment Agency in 2020. Yet another good reason to buy a water butt!

Unfortunately the price of water butts and composters will be going up in price this weekend. For the last few years the price has remained the same, but now the manufacturer has increased prices due to the cost of plastic rising, and also the delivery companies that deliver these products have recently increased their prices.

So, if you are looking at the water butts now, and think you will wait a few days, please consider ordering now so you can buy at the current price.