SUSTAINABLE CATERING
IMC’s system, and its endorsement by Sue Grimes, Professor of Waste Management in the Engineering Faculty, site visits were undertaken by the Facilities Management team to view a variety of systems in action including an alternative In Vessel Composter and a waste vacuum system. As Graham Watson, Head of Soft Services at Imperial College, comments: “The only benefit we perceived of the vacuum system was that of convenience to the waste producer by removing the waste as soon as it is produced; it does not remove the problem of the waste’s environmentally friendly disposal and would, for us, have not met the required criteria. With the other IVC, the requirement to mix green waste with an equal quantity of food waste was of no real value to us. However, our experiences at The O2 and the Army’s new School of Catering at Worthy Down, where IMC’s system has been adopted and where we were able to discuss the practicalities of the system with catering and facilities management staff, demonstrated to us unequivocally that this was the route we should go down.” The College was also aware that the students’ positive engagement in the scheme was important and that the chosen solution’s green credentials should meet with their ethical approval.
THE SOLUTION IMC’s pioneering system uses an IMC
Food Waste Disposer to first macerate the food waste before extracting the solid fraction from the macerated waste by
D IMPERIAL COLLEGE
means of an IMC “WastePro” Dewaterer. The resultant dewatered waste is then mixed with a small quantity of compressed wood pellets and loaded into an In Vessel Composter (IVC) from which it emerges 6 to 8 weeks later as high quality compost that conforms with the Standards for Composted Materials BSI PAS100. At Imperial College, food waste is produced from two main areas, the main refectory kitchen, that serves 3 dining halls, and two kitchens serving prestigious restaurants. There are also several cafes sited around the Campus. Around 1.1 tonnes of food waste are produced each week during term time. Working closely with IMC, the College has opted to address the disposal of food waste produced by the main refectory kitchen
and dining halls at source, by equipping the kitchen with a Food Waste Disposer and Dewaterer which have been integrated into stainless steel tabling that also houses a spray hose reel. All food waste generated by the kitchen in the preparation and serving of the food, and by the dining halls from leftovers, is processed immediately and the dewatered waste kept in small, lidded 23 litre bins in readiness for composting. Food waste generated at the other restaurants on- campus is collected in marked bins for processing at a central location on site where the bins are emptied on to a sorting table, in order that any non-food items can be removed, prior to macerating and dewatering. The dewatered waste from both the main kitchen and restaurants is
The CompPod is delivered and craned into
position requiring connection only to external mains services before being fully operational.
SUSTAINABLE FM | NOVEMBER 2010 |41
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