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Weekly Food Collection Welcomed By AD Industry

 

The UK’s anaerobic digestion (AD) industry has welcomed an announcement by the government that it will introduce weekly food waste collections for all households in England.

In a new consultation, the government said that it had committed to funding local authorities to enable them to provide this service from 2023, if they don’t already do so.

Chief executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) Charlotte Morton described the decision as “fantastic news”.

In a statement on the proposals, she commented: “We estimate that universal food waste collections for households alone could achieve a carbon saving of up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year.”

She added that it means England can now “emulate the great example set by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”, where weekly food waste collections are already in place for all households.

An article for CityMetric recently explained why diverting food waste from landfill is so important in the fight against climate change.

The publication noted that the main issue with biodegradable waste being sent to landfill is that as it breaks down it produces methane, a greenhouse gas that’s known to be considerably more damaging than carbon dioxide.

By instead sending this waste to AD plants, the gas can be captured and reused for fuel, to generate heat, or even for electricity if it has been scrubbed. And it isn’t only the gas that can be useful. The process also creates what’s known as digestate, a solid and liquid residue that can be used on farms as a soil conditioner.

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