The Importance of Source


Segregation to Recycling Charlotte Morton, Chief Executive, ADBA


The Government’s Waste Review recognised anaerobic digestion (AD) as the treatment which realises the greatest environmental benefit from food waste. This recognition is welcome for an industry with unrealised – and still unrecognised - potential in the UK. It comes at a time when interest in the industry has already been growing strongly, and new plants are opening all the time.


However, despite the Government’s recognition that “where food waste is collected separately, this can act as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion”, they also suggested that “some consumers do not like separating out their food waste”. It refused to direct Local Authorities to follow the best practice identified, namely to source segregate organic waste and prioritise it for anaerobic digestion.


Source segregation is vital to create quality products from AD. To date, much of the focus around the technology has been on the benefits biogas can bring as a renewable energy. There is now increasing recognition of the value of digestate as a fertiliser replacement, owing to its high Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium content. Phosphorus, in particular, is important to recycle into fertilisers, as it is a finite resource with no alternative which is already in limited supply around the world – and vital to life on earth. For digestate to be spread to farmland, though, the regulations (PAS110) require source segregation of food waste as a feedstock for AD.


Even under PAS110, there are currently market barriers to recycling digestate to land. Principal among these is their acceptance by food producers. Some supermarkets and farm assurance schemes want to see more evidence about digestate before allowing it to be spread to land.


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This is despite the Government’s Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) describing it as “safe” and saying that it can “substantially reduce bagged fertiliser use - providing financial benefits for growers”.


WRAP’s work – and that of other groups – is helping to break down these barriers and spread acceptance of digestate. The Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland have been working with Quality Meat Scotland on this, and WRAP and ADBA have been working with the major supermarkets. Defra recently approved digestate for use on organic-certified land, a move which the Soil Association had already taken, where the waste has been source segregated. Langage Farm, a luxury dairy in Devon, opened an AD facility designed to produce quality digestate for their land last month, to address poor grass quality.


Colin Rank of Kemble Farms, who has been operating an Anaerobic Digestion plant since 2008, wrote last year that they are “seeing the benefit of being able to use digestate in place of bought in artificial fertiliser which is made from fossil fuel. The organic content of the digestate dramatically improves soil condition, holding in moisture and encouraging worm activity. We are improving the crop quality and durability, reducing costs and, because we supplement the diet of our cows with trace elements and minerals, these vital ingredients are being returned to the land. It’s a win/win situation on a massive scale.”


Government at all levels should, therefore, be preparing for a world where digestate is a valued and important part of food production, and source segregating waste as part of this. Taking a longer term view, there is also a strong financial reason for them to do so. Artificial


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