Biogas from Anaerobic Digestion Can Help Save Our Planet So Help Us Spread the Word

Our Angry Dragon cartoon below is intended to be funny and provokes thought about why biogas from anaerobic digestion can help save our planet. Please, as most of you are knowledgeable subscribers to this blog, help us to spread the word by sharing this cartoon with social media web sites, and also if possible placing this cartoon on any web sites you control.

click for Anaerobic Digestion information

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO www. anaerobic-digestion.com AND SHARE THIS MESSAGE.

Why are we keen right now WITH YOUR HELP to use the power of sharing on the web to publicise Anaerobic Digestion?

The reason is that worldwide the idea of Anaerobic Digestion needs to be spread quickly, and this need for a public appreciation of AD is accelerating as separate food waste collection with AD and biogas production is becoming much more common.

This is a particularly vital time for understanding leading to informed public support for AD in the UK.

We are a United Kingdom based blog at The Anaerobic Digestion Community Blogspot Blog, and for us there is a great opportunity to increase the uptake of separate food waste collection, plus treatment of this waste by AD and Biogas production. It comes in the form of a planned £250 million government subsidy for improved waste collection up for grabs by those local authorities whose residents that have been experiencing difficulties due to the introduction of mixed (black bag) waste collections. These are often inner city boroughs with many multi-storey flats with rubbish chutes and ground floor waste storage ill-equipped to store putrescible wastes for a fortnight.

At the same time the UK coalition government has announced its strongest ever political support for AD as an important contributor to the UK’s mix of renewable energy sources. These sources must be developed fast if there is to be compliance with EU and climate change carbon emissions reduction commitments already made by the UK, and many other nations. (Source: DEFRA Anaerobic Digestion Action Plan, 2012)

So, this is a great opportunity for increasing separate food waste collections which generate a type of organic waste which is highly productive in biogas output, when anaerobically digested.

To quote Michael Chesshire - Director, Greenfinch Biocycle

"If you give householders the wherewithal to recycle they do it diligently. For example, kitchen waste can be recycled very effectively if householders are given a combination of a kitchen caddy, a roll of corn-starch bags and a small kerbside container for weekly collection. Then alternate weekly collections of other materials become reasonable. We can then process it to produce biogas and biofertiliser, generating renewable electricity and heat and returning valuable nutrients and organic matter to the soil for the next round of crops."

(Source: CIWM, New Technologies Matter Conference, 2007)

So - PLEASE CLICK HERE TO GO www. anaerobic-digestion.com AND SHARE THIS MESSAGE.

Somersets Best Practice for Collecting Food Waste

We make no apology for providing posts on food waste collection. We believe that many AD Projects will rely heavily on food waste for performance and profitabiity, and therefore that the AD Community will be interested in articles like this one which inform about the development of the relatively new art of food waste collection.

Somerset shares best practice for collecting food waste
29-09-2008

The Somerset Waste Partnership has recommended two ways in which councils can help successfully capture food waste which were "not fully covered" in recent WRAP research.

There are two aspects, not fully covered by the trials, involving food waste caddy liners and collection vehicles, which have been important features of our successful collections in Somerset

Published earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story), the WRAP research was conducted by 19 local authorities serving over 94,000 households.

However, the SWP, which manages waste and recycling on behalf of Mendip, South Somerset, Sedgmoor and West Somerset district councils, Taunton Deane borough council and Somerset county council - has also provided food waste collections since October 2004 and serves over 165,000 households.

While welcoming the WRAP study, which highlighted public support for food waste collections, the SWP pointed out that it itself had increased yields through methods which were not discussed in detail.

In particular, it claimed it was not always necessary to provide free liners at a great cost to councils as had happened during the trials or to provide dedicated food waste collection vehicles - advocating selling liners locally and combined collection vehicles instead.

These methods have already helped the SWP to capture an average yield of 1.71 kg a household a week across Somerset, rising to 1.93kg in Taunton Deane. The SWP claimed that only two of the WRAP trials achieved more than this and overall averaged 1.7kg a household a week in areas where there were fortnightly refuse collections and 1.4kg a week for trials with weekly refuse collections.

David Mansell, strategy and communications team leader at the Somerset Waste Partnership, said: "The WRAP trials have increased knowledge on food waste collections, especially for multiple-occupancy housing and the performance that can be achieved over a range of local authorities, including those with weekly and fortnightly refuse collections. However, there are two aspects, not fully covered by the trials, involving food waste caddy liners and collection vehicles, which have been important features of our successful collections in Somerset."

Liners

While the WRAP study did acknowledge that the creation of an independent network for the distribution of liners could have the "added benefit of providing a new business opportunity for local retail outlets", WRAP said that the use of caddy liners was imperative in councils achieving high participation rates and issued them free of charge during the course of the study. Aware that there were certain resource implications, the study did state that the "associated avoided disposal costs could justify the provision of free liners".

However, the SWP said that when it first introduced food waste collections in 2004, the council stated that it could not afford to provide an on-going supply of caddy liners and instead promoted the use of newspaper to wrap food waste or line kitchen caddies and also made arrangements for liners to be sold in local shops.

Mr Mansell said: "Both options have worked well and retail liner sales have developed into a thriving local market, which we estimate could be worth over £450,000 a year in Somerset, with supermarkets and some local retailers now sourcing their own supplies."

Vehicles

The WRAP study also advocated the use of dedicated food collection vehicles, which the SWP contested.

The SWP currently operates combined collection vehicles which it says suits the rural layout of the authority.

Mr Mansell said: "The other feature of the Somerset collections which varies from the WRAP trials is the use of combined collection vehicles for greater operational efficiency, especially on collections in rural areas. The WRAP pilots used separate dedicated collection vehicles for food waste. In Somerset, our contractor, May Gurney, uses stillage vehicles which combine recycling and food waste collections."

Related links

The Partnership is currently undertaking trials of a three-way split compaction vehicle, which would have a section for food waste behind the driver's cab and split compaction chambers at the rear for plastics bottles and cardboard. The SWP pointed to the capabilities of this collection type and how it is currently used on the Isle of Wight to collect both food waste and refuse.

A 19-page information pack on Somerset's food waste collections is available from the Somerset Waste Partnership by emailing: enquiries@somerset.gov.uk

Scottish Councils to Trial Food Waste Collection Schemes

We thought that all AD and Biogas fans would be interested in this item as successful food waste collection would be likely to lead to enhanced implemetation of biogas schemes. The following is from Let's Recycle! News:-

The first of Remade Scotland's food waste trials will begin collections on 25 February, after being delayed last year by the change in Scottish government.

Remade Scotland are managing seven food waste collection trials, lasting one year, following in the footsteps of the Waste & Resources Action Programme's food waste trials in England and Wales (see letsrecycle.com story).

The aim of the trials is to promote better understanding of the effectiveness and economics of different food waste collection systems.

Four of the Scottish trials will focus on collecting food waste only (in Aberdeenshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde) and three of the trials (in Falkirk, North Lanarkshire and Perth and Kinross) will add to existing infrastructure, collecting food waste with the garden waste.

Aberdeenshire: While the majority of the participating councils are due to start trials in March and April, Aberdeenshire will begin its trials in February with 5,000 households in Aberchirder, Banff, Macduff, Whitehills involved in the weekly collections.

All residents will receive a 20 litre bin in addition to a five litre kitchen caddy. Residents will also be provided with a free supply of compostable liners, manufactured by Biobag which come in rolls of six.

The waste will be collected in 7.5 tonne capacity trucks manufactured by Farid and taken to Gray's in-vessel composting facility where it will be composted and used as agricultural fertiliser in the local area.

In preparation for the trials in Aberdeenshire, surveyed 450 households to get an insight into the attitude towards to the forthcoming trials.

David Gunn, assistant campaign manager at Scottish Waste Awareness Group said: "For each of the participating councils, we will do pre-trial and post trial surveys and when all the trials are rolled out we will be collate and analyse the information and submit it to the Scottish Government. We hope to have the report from the pre-trial surveys collaged by the Summer."

All data from the Scottish trials will feed into the data for the UK-wide trials.

Two of the participating local authorities will send their waste to TEG Environmental Plc and four will send their waste to Scottish water's Deerdykes Composting and Organics Recycling Facility - pending award of Pollution Prevention Control Permit being issued by SEPA.