A third of food is thrown away.. Don't Worry Anaerobically Digest it!

The following News is that we are wasting an ever increasing amount of food, as in the following news item:-

British households are throwing away around a third of all the food they buy, amounting to 6.7m tonnes every year.

A third of food bought in the UK goes to waste

This staggering statistic has been released by Government waste body WRAP, which plans to publish a detailed report of its findings at the end of the month.

According to the edited highlights, only half of this food waste would be edible, while the rest comprises of things like bones, vegetable peelings and tea bags.

Nevertheless, this means that for every pound being spent on food around 16p is being wasted.

Your Web Master says: Food waste is an excellent feedstock for anaerobic digestion. OK. Do all you can to minimise food waste, but encourage government to help fund anaerobic digestion plants and this waste food will be used for energy production.

Engineers Must Lead by Example and Reduce Their Carbon Emissions

CIVIL ENGINEERS must take personal responsibility for tackling climate change, ICE president Quentin Lieper said last week.

Speaking to 400 members at the annual ICE West Midlands dinner in Birmingham, Lieper challenged them to reduce energy consumption in their own offices as well as on projects and to cut travel.

Lieper urged every one of the Institution's members to perform a single action every day to improve the performance of the built environment in general and their own immediate environment in particular.

"Climate change is the biggest global issue we are facing," Lieper said. "The government wants to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. But they can't do it by themselves. "As engineers we have a part to play not only in design, but also in our own business operations."

He called on engineers to make the effort to understand why it is important to promote sustainability, to enthuse their teams, provide simple guidance, show leadership, and demonstrate and celebrate successes in achieving sustainability.
Leiper added that there were clear business benefits to cutting energy consumption.

BlogMaster: And: He could have said "promote sustainable technologies like Anaerobic Digestion"!?

Septic Tanks and Anaerobic Digestion

We have been asked on a few occasions recently whether Septic Tanks are anaerobic digestors.

I would say, yes they are, but they are not usually thought of as anaerobic digestors.

Septic tanks have a primary role, which is to treat the sewage discharged into them, and any methane produced has normally been ignored in the past in the developed nations.

This is not the case in admittedly warmer developing countries where real success has been achieved in the use of anaerobic digestion of domestic and village sewage, where the aim IS to create the methane as a valuable cooking fuel for use within the dwellings served, and to use the product for its fertilising capabilities.

Should we in the west be ignoring the methane outputs from septic tanks? Do they actually contribute to global warming and by how much?

Feedback on this would be even more welcome than usual. Visit the article Septic Tanks: Are they Anaerobic Digestors?