Posts by Rubbish Please

Trashmageddon – a Distant Possibility or Today’s Reality?

Posted on December 14, 2015

What is Trashmageddon?

Our planet is slowly dying. You don’t have to be a genius to notice the world has serious waste management problems. Nor do you have to be a rubbish removal expert in order to find the evidence for it. There’s plenty of waste statistics making a case so convincing, even the biggest of sceptics have to agree that there is something terribly wrong taking place right now. Movies are also forecasting it (and some of the ideas seem to be quite possible). But statistics and Hollywood predictions alone are not enough to convince people to stop accumulating so much household waste, to recycle more, and to be more responsible with their rubbish footprint. If we don’t take any measures right now, Trashmageddon is not only going to be a plausible scenario, it’s going to be a probable one. Continue reading →

The Perfect Secret Santa Present for Your Office Mates

Posted on December 8, 2015
Secret Santa bearing gifts

www.wallcoo.net

Organizational culture is quite trendy nowadays. HRs continuously bombard us with team activities. Whether it is about a simple team building, meeting or training they keep on coming up with new ideas. With Christmas approaching fast, the topic of presents gains more and more popularity. And how could HRs miss that opportunity. For years now they’ve implemented in most companies the tradition of Secret Santa present exchanging. Continue reading →

7 Movie-Inspired Halloween Costumes Made out of Garbage Cans

Posted on October 16, 2015

Wait, what? You read that right! Since, we at Rubbish Please love Halloween and rubbish, combining them makes perfect sense. These clever Halloween costumes were made using plastic and aluminium garbage cans. The final result really deserves your attention, Continue reading →

The Villains Behind Cigarette Butts Litter

Posted on September 30, 2015

A pile of cigarette butts.

What association do cigarette butts invoke in your mind? Is it a steaming pile nesting in an ashtray or an endless curbside litter mat? In any case, you have surely noticed those pesky filters here, there and everywhere. Beaches, city parks and children playgrounds – all intended for recreation and quality time, yet hardly immune to the cigarette litter plague. Are the butts bio-degradable? Can they be recycled and/or reused in some way? Who is to take the blame for the littering problem and who out there is trying to provide a solution? These are some of the questions we, at Rubbish Please will attempt addressing in this post.

Environmental impact of cigarette filters

There is a rather widespread misconception that cigarette butts are bio-degradable. It may have spurred out of wishful thinking, a petty attempt to rationalize around the problem, thus concluding no action needs to be taken. Recyclebank confirms the filters are non bio-degradable plastic, a fact sited by many other reputable organizations. So we definitely have a problem here. But wait, there is more. PSMag informs its readers of cigarette butts imminent hazards. Not only filters do not decompose on their own but they also release nicotine, arsenic, cadmium, vinyl chloride, acetone, mercury and lead that contaminate filters’ immediate surroundings. Now suddenly, it’s not just a problem related to littering but also poses health & safety risks as well.

Who is to be blamed?

Now this one question may be rather tricky to answer. Generally speaking, there are two groups we could point fingers towards. One the one hand we have smokers and their poor manners and bad habits and big tobacco on the other with their complete lack of interest resolving the issue. A third group, the council, could also be blamed, though we’ll only make a brief mention of them due to their ‘second hand’ nature of guilt. Let’s start out with them actually.

The council, or the local government if you would, has certain obligations – keeping public spaces clean and in good order to begin with. Inability to effectively employ an efficient cleaning schedule and techniques and install disposal containers are counts we can definitely pin on the government. Also, poor resource management in the sense of failing to provide incentive to both people (not to litter) and businesses (to develop recycling programmes.

People themselves are the most obvious candidates to be taken by surprise by a vocal assault and a witch hunt that ends with imprisonment. En mass, smokers lack initiative and proper manners to take proactive stance and collect all their butts for future disposal (assuming an ashtray or disposal unit of another kind is unavailable in close proximity). The reasons for that were already mentioned briefly. First reason goes out to the myth that butts are decomposing on their own when tossed. A myth, we should acknowledge, that was probably rationalized by a lazy smoker if you allow us the speculative wild guess here. Another reason relates to the amount of hassle one is prompt to endure in the name of sparing the environment another cigarette butt. The council simply hasn’t done enough to make it easy enough so most people decide to dispose properly rather than pollute.

The last jolly band of super wealthy but just as careless contributors to cigarette litter problems are… wait for it… big tobacco companies. Have you ever heard any of them even mentioning the possibility of reclaiming their own cigarette butts? Not a word, right?

How about manufacturing the filters from materials that are easier to recycle, hence contributing to solving the problem? No, that’s probably not happening very soon either. For many years have the tobacco industry turned a blind eye to littering problems caused by filters. Hopefully, this will change soon enough as the general public and local governments alike are getting increasingly more interested in relieving society from this problem once and for all. Enough guilt and pointing fingers for the time being. Isn’t there someone willing and able to make the difference and take steps towards problem resolution?

Who out there is trying to solve the problem?

Curtis Baffico and his website Ripplelife.org have already lunched a number of campaigns attempting to collect cigarette butts by providing an incentive for people – $3 per pound of butts. While this sum may not encourage many to spend hours collecting a single pound (roughly 1,500 butts), its a start, isn’t it? There are also projects aiming to find further use for the filters, incorporating them into the manufacture of bricks or into cement, replacing other materials. Another interesting social experiment (of sorts) took place by placing butts dispensers that allowed people to vote their favourite footballer and see results of the poll.

Pretty cool.

I bet some people will pick up smoking just to check the polls.

There could be many to blame but to what end really? Essentially, it comes down to every single individual to adopt appropriate mindset and make the slightest of effort not to contribute polluting the environment we all happen to call home. While the problem of recycling cigarette butts is still largely unsolved, landfills are somehow preferable to having arsenic, nicotine and mercury leach out to contaminate soil and water. But while we, the people are at it, it certainly would not hurt if big tobacco and the local council pitch in and demonstrate a modicum of interest after all.

Adidas Will Make Sneakers From Ocean Waste

Posted on September 11, 2015

Ocean waste is becoming a growing concern as each passing year brings about tonnes of new waste, killing hundreds of thousands sea birds and mammals. Marine ecology is heavily under siege from careless end consumers and heavy-weight manufacturing facilities alike. With the ever-so-struggling marine life, we can expect major shifts sea plant saturation and also mainland ecology effects. Not all are causing harm though. Some are even trying to help out by taking measures to reverse those negative tendencies and remove waste from the oceans or at the very least, to make first steps towards that goal and maybe inspire others to follow. Adidas recently announced their first sneaker made from reclaimed ocean plastic.

That’s right, it is no joke.

The German manufacturing giant is going to partner up with Parley for the oceans in an attempt to begin producing sportswear from, basically, ocean trash. This idea is also aiming to raise awareness to the general public regarding the threats of ocean pollution and that there are ways to fight it while at the same time creating something useful and cool. Cnet.com cited Gutsch, the founder of Parley for the oceans when he explained the purpose of his company – to put oceans at the very core of climate change debate. Adidas themselves seem to dig the idea hard.

In part, the new sneaker line will be made from recycled plastic and fisherman nets and there is an interesting story behind that as well. A partner organization to the Parley for the oceans, Sea Shepherd has managed to track down an illegal poacher vessel for the whole of 110 day expedition until finally the poachers were caught up with near the coast of West Africa. This merely demonstrates the dedication and lengths these organizations are willing to go to in the name of cleaner, sustainable oceans.

Dezeen.com had an interview with British designer Alexander Taylor and the latter pointed out repurposing of ocean waste is to be nurtured and encouraged, hence the steps undertaken by Adidas.
“This way there is no reason why materials with similar characteristics to those that we use every day with conventional production processes cannot be simply replaced by ocean plastic materials,” Taylor told Dezeen.

One can clearly see the direction Adidas is trying to take. Basically, to lead the way towards more sustainable living and sportswear production. Other big brands should take not of Adidas’ actions and try to catch up because going green is the way to go in the 21st century if a company wants to remain profitable on the market.

Adidas is clearly leading by example here showing other major corporations how businesses can actively contribute to improve the degrading marine situation. Removing nets and plastic waste from the oceans and using them to manufacture sportswear is a great example how to turn trash into treasure. Moreover, environmentally conscious people will be more than willing to purchase and wear those products simply because of the match of ideas. This way, we have a win-win-win situation with Adidas scoring higher profits due to no need of purchasing fabrics and additional profits from selling the new line. People on the other hand receive a quality product at competitive (we hope) prices. Nature receives less waste.

Great idea. Hope you found it useful and inspiring just as much as we did.

Image source: www.flickr.com 

 

Recycled Plastic Roads Are The Future

Posted on August 27, 2015
Plastic roads made from recycled plastic will ultimately improve waste collection.

source: KWS

The vast majority of paved roads in the Western world, well over 80% as a matter of fact are made out of asphalt. The choice to select this particular road construction material was made long ago, certainly long before we started getting concerned about the footprint of our large-scale manufacturing. Therefore, it could not have been the best one for the environment by vastly reducing the amounts of generated rubbish.

Asphalt takes a while to manufacture although processes have improved dramatically in recent decades. In addition, the carbon output as a direct result of manufacturing asphalt is something worth considering especially when we account for global production. New road networks are being done every year, older roads and highways reconstructed and upgraded and potholes continuously filled up with thousands of billions of tons per year.

A pilot project started out by Dutch company VolkerWessels is aiming to bring about a whole new method of creating roads using recycled plastic as the primary ingredient. In the current state of affairs, VolkerWessels is on the look-out for partners with the help of whom to create the first prototype and begin intensive testing. It is known that the city or Rotterdam has expressed interest in participating in the project.

The benefits of having plastic roads as opposed to the traditional asphalt ones are numerous. One the one hand, we can point out the aforementioned cut in manufacturing time. However, that is merely scratching off the surface of plastic roads advantages. Another already mentioned benefit is the reduction in overall carbon footprint. This is an essential and slightly tricky one at the same time.

Here’s why.

Manufacturing of plastic itself involves fossil fuels and leaves a considerable carbon footprint. It is easy to speculate that going down this road for too long would render the Earth a mere barren wasteland. Reusing old (and already made) plastic and incorporating it into the creation of roads and greatly decrease annual carbon footprint simply because making roads would not require making new plastic. It is as simple as that.

Installation time will be reduced significantly as well. The roads, instead of made on spot, will be delivered into large panels and installed directly onto the surface. The company claims this will reduce road-making from months to mere weeks. That in itself brings additional perks such as reducing road anger and frustration from having to wait for road maintenance or having to take a detour. We can further speculate that in the long run, we can observe a decrease in road accidents due to smaller number of frustrating moments while driving.

The list of benefits goes on and on.

The road structure will be multi-layered allowing for space in between the panels of plastic. This means that infrastructure can benefit in variety of ways without major roadworks needed every time a new set of cables need to be installed. Phone lines, optic Internet cables, water and heating pipes, you name it. It can all be fitted inside the hollow space between the panels of glass. There is even an idea of having internal heating installed just to negate the effect of snow and ice during the cold months. That in turn, will annihilate the need for road clearance which is traditionally provided by vehicles that need to spread sand and chemicals to speed up dissolving snow.

All in all, the idea for having recycled plastic roads is thoroughly exciting we certainly hope to see it come true. Concerns over endurance are also easily dismissed over claims of the company that plastic roads will be much more durable, will resist temperature changes better and will take up to three times more to require replacement. Not a bad set of features all things considered.

9 Surprising Materials That Can Be Recycled

Posted on August 14, 2015

Recyclable Materials

Materials that can be recycled include many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, tires, textiles and electronics. You pretty much know what recyclable materials are and how the recycling process goes thanks to our waste management glossary.

Now, the purpose at this post isn’t showing you the most weird or unusual recyclable products list, but to make more people participate in the developing of recycling streams for materials and items which people didn’t recognize as items that can be recycled, until now.

Here’s a list of the most surprising items you can recycle and some creative and useful recycled materials projects. You can find most of the recyclable materials at home.

Keep in mind that before going for the process of converting waste materials into reusable objects you need to be very familiar with materials that can be recycled and waste that cannot be recycled!

9 Surprising Materials That Can Be Recycled

Materials That Can Be Recycled Pet Fur

Fur from your pet: You love pets, but you hate fur. Don’t worry, a San-Francisco-based company converts clean pet fur into oil-absorbing hair mats and hair-stuffed containment booms made from recycled pantyhose. The extremely high absorbing level of these booms allows them to effectively soak up oil, preserving new resources.

Materials That Can Be Recycled Baby Diapers

Baby diapers: Knowaste, a UK based recycling company recycles diapers and other absorbing hygiene products. Plastic and fiber can be recycled into new useful products like benches or flood defences and even roofing shingles.

Materials That Can Be Recycled Running Shoes

Running shoes or trainers: Shoes recycling is becoming more popular in the recent years. You can search for organisations near your location. Before giving up on this, know that even extremely worn out shoes can be recycled. Here is an interesting fact – a month ago, Adidas made shoes from illegal fishing nets.

Materials That Can Be Recycled Chewed Gum

Chewed gum: The Southampton Airport in the UK became the first airport to install gum recycling bins to collect chewed gums. These gums are used in making toys, car tires, mobile phone covers and other stuff.

Materials That Can Be Recycled CD's

Compact discs: If you have an old CD with music you don’t really appreciate no more, why toss it into the garbage, when you can send it to CD recycling center? They shred the CDs into a powder and then melt it down. The recovered materials are used in building materials and in automotive industry.

Materials That Can Be Recycled Pantyhose

Pantyhose: Your pantyhose is primary made from nylon, which disposed of in landfill will take 40 years to decompose. There are companies that can recycle your old pantyhose by grinding it. They use the materials to make carpets and playground equipment.

Materials That Can Be Recycled Corks

Corks: There are plenty of recycling companies that will take your corks. And since cork is a quite durable material, it can be converted into a variety of things from floor tiles to shoes. With some creative approach, cork can easily be used to make DIY lamp shades, bath mats and the list can go on forever.

Materials That Can Be Recycled Used Bras

Used bras: You can dispose of your unwanted bras by donating them to the Bra Appeal initiative. It is their responsibility to send them to an organisation which sells them to traders in developing countries. For each kg of used bras collected, 1£ goes to Breast Cancer Campaign.

Materials That Can Be Recycled Trophies

Trophies and awards: If you were a winner while growing up, you must have won at least a dozen trophies. But there comes time to get rid of old stuff and those trophies can be recycled, but with the pride from past wins remaining untouched.

We hope we’ve changed your attitude regarding these materials and items that can be recycled even a little bit and gave you some recycling ideas with this post. Sustainability is everybody’s responsibility and we will continue to try even harder to get there, it’s in our favour after all.

How to Organize Your Recycling Storage at Home

Posted on July 28, 2015

A Plan, Free Space and Recycle Containers For Home Use

How To Organize Your Recycling Storage At Home

Around Rubbish Please, we take recycling very seriously and being eco-friendly is not just part of our job. All these years of experience in the rubbish removal business has thought us that speaking about recycling is one thing, but doing it is a whole new planet you have to discover!

We agree that organizing your recycling storage at home full with reusable waste materials is not the easiest endeavour to take, but if you have always wanted to live in a more environmentally-friendly way and you don’t find it easy to limit the amount of packed food that you consume, or you still keep forgetting your eco fabric shopping bag and come home from the grocery store with a bunch of plastic ones, then you need to start recycling.

Recycling is one of the easiest alternatives that the local government offers you in order to encourage you to live a green life. Living green now, will provide better living conditions for our children later, so you should definitely get more involved in the cause!

Must-Known Recycling Storage Solutions

Must_known_recycling_storage_solutions

Before learning how to organize your recycling center at home there are three very important factors  that will influence on the way you will organize your home recycling storage.

  • Check with your local authorities for any recycling restrictions and requirements. Some regions do not recycle materials which will be collected in other, and vice versa.
  • Be aware of how much space do you have! Of course this depends on the way your home looks like. As an advice we can say that using bins to separate recycling and keeping them in a spot that’s close to where you recycle is one of the best recycling storage solutions.
  • Make recycling easy and accessible for each family member. Don’t give your family a hard time in order to recycle. Keep it simple by putting notable labels at your recycling containers and develop an easy routine for emptying trash and recycling.

How to Organize Your Recycling at Home

Recycling_Schedule

In order to make it more simple for you, we have prepared a plan for how to organize your recycling storage at home.

  • Dedicate a spot for your recycling center. It can be everywhere inside the house.  Another idea is to create an outside recycling storage in the backyard.
  • Create your own recycle containers for home use. You can create your own custom home recycling station by choosing a combination of recycling bins selected to fit perfectly into your available space. Ergonomic designs and stylish, durable finishes mean it’s easier to reduce waste and be kinder to the environment.
  • Look for stylish containers made out of sea grass or bamboo. If you can’t think of any creative DIY recycling bin ideas, get some of these, you will no longer have to hide them under your kitchen sink. Remember the recycle bin need to be notably different than the regular trash bin.
  • Find good spots for the recycle bins. The access to these containers need to be easy for the entire family, so you may try to fit them near your kitchen door where most of the household rubbish is produced. There won’t be an eyesore for neither your guests nor your family. On the other hand the shed or the garage are good suggestions for outdoor recycling storage solutions.
  • Consider smaller containers in general. They look better and save plenty of space for more important items. The recyclables that are too big like electronics and old sports, equipment, for example, can be stored in bigger containers, placed in your garage, along with your old donation clothes and toys.
  • Buy taller bins instead of wide ones. There are some really stylish models you can buy in local stores, Most of them even have handles to help you carry the heavy load inside. This is very practical, especially for bins containing glass or metal recyclables.
  • Line your bins to optimize the space you have. Scattering rubbish containers around your home, especially if it is a small townhouse, will create the false sense of having too many of them. Instead, put 2-4 of them next to each other and label them accordingly, so everyone knows how to sort the rubbish even if they are empty.
  • Don’t over decorate your bins. Make sure that all of the containers are in the same colour. If they are decorated in plain natural tones, they will be barely visible and will definitely not create an optical illusion for being too large. Colourful containers, on the other hand, no matter how small they are seem larger to the eye.
  • Set a schedule for your recycle routine. Taking out your recycling every week is preferable.
  • Be proactive and creative. Not everything might be accepted where you live, think ahead and set another schedule for taking the other recyclables to a city-run recycling center.

Giant Sculptures from Scrap Wood

Posted on July 13, 2015

What is a pile of scrap wood for you? Rubbish? Well, for the Danish artist, Thomas Dambo, it’s a great resource for a sculpture, or furniture, or at least some kind of an art project. Thomas, is one of those guys, who sees art in everything, including in rubbish. He even gives speeches about upcycling teaching people to build stuff from waste. But now, let’s see these giant sculptures from scrap wood he made.

Olav the wolf

Olav the wolf: sculpture made of scrap wood

Olav was a mean-looking sculpture made entirely from scrap wood and some smashed concrete used for the foundation. It’s ferocious looks only lasted for as long as the Copenhell rock festival because, as tradition dictates, the main sculpture is to be set on fire to bring another form of sceptical for the festival’s closure.

Nowadays, only photographs remind of Olav’s former glory as the world decided this recycled masterpiece should burn in the name of rock & roll.

Ben Chiller

Ben Chiller: scrap wood sculture by Thomas Dambo

The 2015 music festival in Aarhus gave birth to yet another recycled wood giant – Ben Chiller. Ben is chilling on the ground allowing enough space for a few dozen people to chill on his 11 meter long legs too. Chiller is cool like that!

Now, it is to be noted all camp fire should be kept at bay as Ben has rather stiff joints and won’t be able move away from danger as fast as he might wants to.

Troels the troll

Troel the Troll: scrap wood sculture by Thomas Dambo

Toy around with this massive 5 meter wooden troll and you might just… well, have some fun. Troels has been “brought to life” purely from scrapped wood with the exception of a rafter installed in the architecture to better support the swing.

Now, trolls may not be native creatures to the city of Horsens but they surely contribute to the artistic atmosphere the city officials are campaigning to encourage in recent years.

Hector Protector

Hector Protector: scrap wood sculture by Thomas Dambo

Hector El Protector is preparing to hurl a stone at any ill-willed visitor of Puerto Rico. Hector hurls from a seated position mainly because his massive belly does not allow for excessive standing exercises. That and the fact he’s all made of recycled wooden pallets which further contributes to his rather limited capacity for movement.

As a matter of fact, El Protector hasn’t moved since his installation which only stands in testimony how durable Thomas Dambo’s sculptures really are.

Jack Lumber

Jack Lumber: scrap wood sculture by Thomas Dambo

Jack is a tree eating troll and giving the fact he’s wooden too, essentially turns him into a cannibal. Unlike the fresh wood Mr. Lumber takes hefty bites from, he himself has been made entirely from scrap wood which adds yet another wordplay twist (think lumberjack).

All puns aside, Jack remains an original sculpture reminding us of the possibilities that await when art meets recycling.

Limbo entrance

Mr and mrs Scrapwood: scrap wood sculture by Thomas Dambo

This scrapwood-made dual troll sculpture holds secret features. By simply pressing a button, music will begin and the trolls will lower one hand to force people into limbo dancing through the entrance.

Another feature is the shelter the trolls can instantly turn into in an event of rain.

Those were Thomas’ majestic scrap wood giants, and here at thomasdambo.com you can see more of his art.

UK Food Waste: Collection and Disposal Options

Posted on June 29, 2015

Food waste

The best thing to do with waste is not to produce it. Unfortunately many organisations generate unavoidable wastes, including food waste. This note looks at the options for the collection of food wastes in order to reduce environmental impact and to derive some benefit from those wastes.

Legislation and Regulations

The Landfill Directive and the Animal By-Products Regulation have a direct impact on the treatment and disposal of food waste in the UK and in the EU as a whole.

The EU Landfill Directive places limits on the amount of Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) that can be sent to landfill. BMW is waste that will breakdown through the action of bacteria, fungi and other living organisms. It is usually composed of waste from materials that have originated from plants or animals. Examples include food, paper and cardboard.

In the UK the amount of BMW being disposed of to landfill must be reduced to 35% of that disposed of in 1995 by 2020. BMW is a part of waste from municipal collections, and therefore does not apply directly to organic wastes collected as part of purely commercial waste collections.

Commercial waste collection has been affected by another aspect The Landfill Directive that came into place on October 2007. This requirement applies to organic wastes as well as other non-inert wastes. Businesses are advised to discuss how they should pre-treat their waste with their waste collection contractor. In some cases, pretreatment can be addressed simply by segregating waste before collection.

The Animal By-Products Regulation (ABPR) lays out the requirements for the collection, treatment and disposal of waste that includes animal by-products. This regulation therefore applies only to food wastes that contain animal materials, but not to pure vegetable wastes. The ABPR defines three types of animal by-products (Categories 1, 2 and 3). Category 3 animal by-products are the potentially least harmful, and include catering wastes generated within the UK. Catering waste is the animal by-product material most likely to be produced by public sector organisations in the UK and includes all waste food originating in restaurants, catering facilities and kitchens.

Category 3 animal by-products can be treated and/or disposed of by:

  • Composting
  • Anaerobic Digestion
  • Incineration
  • Rendering followed by incineration or landfill
  • Landfill

Treatment and Disposal Options

The treatment/disposal options which derive benefit from catering wastes or other food wastes are composting or anaerobic digestion. Benefit can also be derived from incineration if the energy created from the combustion of food waste (which in most cases has a net positive energy value) is recovered and used beneficially for electricity generation, steam or hot water production or space heating. These treatment options are described in outline below.

Composting

compost bins full of green and food wasteComposting is a process that speeds the natural break down by microorganisms of complex organic matter into simple, nutritious top soil. Composting requires water, air and waste organic material with a good nitrogen to carbon ratio.

Under properly controlled conditions the compost will generate heat during decomposition, and the temperatures reached in the compost kill harmful bacteria that might be present in the original waste material. (The ABPR sets out the temperature/time requirements for treating waste containing animal by-products).

There are a number of commercial types of composting facility, including:

  • Aerated Static Pile (ASP) is a system that uses a pump to force air through the pile of waste to aid the composting process. ASP composting systems require less land area than needed to compost equivalent quantities of material by open windrow, but requires capital investment in pipework and air supply.
  • In-vessel composting takes place in specially designed vessels that control moisture, temperature and aeration of the composting process. They can maintain a rapid decomposition process year-round regardless of the external ambient conditions.
  • Worm Composting/ Vermicomposting is the process of using earthworms to break down kitchen and garden waste, to create faster than normal composting. Vermiculture is the rearing of worms for the purpose of making compost, to improve the condition of soil.

Anaerobic Digestion

Anaerobic digestion is a natural process that can be used to create energy from food and other organic wastes. In the AD process, organic matter is broken down in the absence of oxygen to generate biogas, which can be used to generate electricity and heat (CHP). If upgraded by cleaning the biogas may also be used as a vehicle fuel. The biogas produced is mainly methane and carbon dioxide, and the former is a renewable energy source.

During the process the waste material is reduced to a compost-like soil conditioner and a liquid fertilizer. The process kills dangerous bacteria, making the compost safer than the active waste from which it is derived. The liquid fertilizer can be used to improve soil fertility and displace inorganic fertilizers which use fossil fuels in their production.

The AD process has proven to be successful in a number of European countries but is relatively scarce in England and the rest of the UK.

Anaerobic Digestion Process Diagram

Anaerobic Digestion Process Diagram

The cost of anaerobic digestion drops with increasing scale of operation, and therefore AD is not seen as an on-site option for the treatment of food wastes, except at larger manufacturing facilities which produce many tonnes of food waste each day.

Incineration

Incineration of waste in the UK has traditionally been viewed as a disposal option, with the main purpose being the destruction of waste. The recovery of energy generated from the waste has in the past not been seen as important in the UK and much of the energy generated was vented to the atmosphere and not recovered and used. The picture is now changing and modern waste incineration usually generates electrical power from the heat generated.

In some cases, incineration facilities also operate as CHP facilities, with the waste heat also being used, for example, for hot water or space heating. The benefit of operating as a CHP facility is that any electricity generated from the organic fraction of the waste qualifies for Renewable Obligation certificates if the facility is classified as good quality CHP. These certificates have a financial value and essentially allow the electricity generated to be sold at a significantly higher price.

Waste incineration has traditionally been a centralised process with waste being collected and transported to a large facility. However, it is possible to install and operate on-site economically viable incineration and energy recovery facilities at larger waste producing facilities. Such sites need to generate at least several tonnes of waste per day and have a significant sink for excess heat.

An often quoted, potential drawback of incineration facilities is that incineration plant can accept mixed wastes, without the need for sorting or segregation. This can mean that energy is recovered from materials that might have been treated by methods higher up the waste hierarchy (e.g., reuse or recycling).

Advanced Thermal Technologies

Advanced thermal technologies such as gasification and pyrolysis can also be used to treat and recover energy from food waste. As for conventional incineration plant, such technologies are subject to the requirements of the Waste Incineration Directive, which sets emission and operational controls on individual installations. Installations that incorporate advanced thermal technologies are also classified as incineration plant under the ABPR.

Food Waste Treatment and Disposal in England

Landfill compactorLandfill has been the main means of disposal of food wastes in England and there have traditionally been relatively few other treatment or disposal options. However, there are now commercially operating, ABPR compliant composting and vermi-composting facilities in England. These facilities require food waste to be free of packaging and other contamination before the waste is collected and transported to the facility.

Mixed waste can be composted, with packaging being separated either pre- or post- composting. The disadvantage of composting mixed wastes is that the resulting compost does not meet the PAS 100 composting standard, reducing the market price and limiting potential markets for the resulting compost.

As for composting, the food waste to be treated at anaerobic digestion facilities needs to be free of packaging and other contamination to maximize the markets and value of the resulting compost.

Food Waste Collection

Both composting and anaerobic digestion are likely to require the collection of segregated food wastes. A number of local authorities are establishing food waste collection rounds, and it is possible that commercial or public sector organizations could be included in these rounds. The operators of composting facilities are also looking to establish commercial food waste collection rounds, to increase the available waste feed into the composting sites.

Successful food waste collection requires the effective separation and hygienic storage of food wastes prior to collection. The operational requirements of implementing such a system are being investigated by a number of catering companies in England.