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New In-vessel Composting Plant
30th November 2006
Biffa targets household kitchen waste with new in-vessel composting plant.
Work has begun on a new £3million composting facility that will allow Local Authorities to recover up to 20 per cent more household municipal waste.
The in-vessel composting facility at Etwall in Derbyshire is being constructed by Biffa Waste Services and has been supported by a grant of £560,000 from WRAP. The facility will have the capacity to process up to 24,000 tonnes of green waste and kitchen waste every year and is expected to be operational from March 2007.
In-vessel composting is a fully enclosed system where waste material is processed within large, sealed concrete tunnels and where air flow and moisture content can be monitored and controlled to create the optimal conditions for naturally occurring micro organisms to break the waste down into compost.
It will present East Staffordshire Borough Council, South Derbyshire District Council and Lichfield District Council with the means to recover kitchen waste, which amounts to around 20 per cent of the average household dustbin.
Many Local Authorities currently landfill this waste as traditional windrow composting is unable to meet the demands of the Animal by-Products Regulations, which require food waste to be composted in an enclosed system that meets specified time and temperature requirements in order to destroy organisms that may be harmful to animal and public health.
WRAP's Louise Hollingworth, Supply Programme Manager - Organics, said: "This project marks a crucial step in taking us further towards meeting our challenging target of increasing the UK's processing capacity for municipal waste by 450,000 tonnes per annum by March 2008."
In vessel composting was pioneered in the UK by Biffa, which built Britains first facility on the Isle of Wight in 1998 as a means to recover kitchen waste. This facility is still in operation and is contributing towards the Island's landfill diversion rate of 54%.
"Biffa is delighted to be working with WRAP to provide a recycling facility that will help three Local Authorities meet their statutory recycling targets and will divert even more material from landfill. This facility will allow us to accept kerbside collected kitchen waste for recycling at Etwall and convert it into a reusable soil conditioning compost for use within the landscaping sector," said Biffa composting manager, David Morgan.
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